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Traffic lights for Auckland's motorway on-ramps - a multi-million dollar project designed to help ease the city's chronic congestion problems - may result in longer journey times, Transit New Zealand has admitted.
Yet the scheme's project director Peter McCombs told the Herald on Sunday that since the controversial signals were installed at initial sites, traffic control data showed a marked increase in the volume, flow and speed of Auckland's motorway traffic.
"It's entirely possible some motorists have experienced longer journey times," he said. "But, overall, the signals are helping to stabilise the entire network and will create more consistent travel times for Aucklanders, who have for so long been used to looking down the motorway each day, not knowing what to expect."
The ramp signals - which switch themselves on during peak times and spit vehicles out two by two for a gradual merge with motorway traffic - currently operate at 12 sites. They include four northbound ramps from the central city, as well as at the busy Greenlane connection. By the end of next year, every on-ramp in Auckland's motorway network - apart from southbound Onewa Rd and Fanshawe St - would have the signals, McCombs said.
About 350 large neon signs would let motorists know estimated travel times to major destinations, as is commonly done overseas - something that would be impossible to accurately calculate without ramp signals.
The southern motorway was now carrying 600 more vehicles per hour, and the wait time for drivers averaged 35 to 50 seconds.
But unimpressed motorists spoken to by the Herald on Sunday said the new lights had doubled journey times in some cases. Drivers were left tapping their steering wheels in frustration in 15-minute queues to get on to the motorway. On occasion, frustration turned to bewilderment when they got on to the motorway to find it relatively clear, while the ramp queue backed up and clogged feeder roads.
North Shore man Boyd Whittaker said the ramp signals had doubled his home journey time from Mt Albert along the Northwestern Motorway and over the Harbour Bridge to Northcote.
"It has improved the flow - if you are already on the motorway.
"But the lights certainly haven't helped things in terms of getting out of the city. I now have to plan to leave at 2.30pm."
John Worth battles Auckland's notorious Southern Motorway daily to get to work in Eden Tce, and home again to Remuera. He uses the Khyber Pass on-ramp and said since the ramp signalling was installed weeks ago, his journey time had increased by more than 50 per cent.
It was now taking him up to 45 minutes to make the 8km journey home on a bad day, compared with the previous time of about 20 minutes.
"If the traffic on the motorway was much improved it would be worth it, but it's not. It hasn't improved the motorway one bit," he said.
"The queue [from the on-ramp] now backs to Normanby Rd [about 500m]. The traffic just sits, and, even when there is a green arrow, it can't move because the traffic is backed up on the ramp.
"I say to people I can count the number of bricks in the jail [Mt Eden Prison] there.
"All the lights are doing is blocking the feeder roads."
The Newmarket Business Association fears that once signals "go live" at nearby Gillies Ave next March, traffic around the area will be gridlocked.
Association head Cameron Brewer said the business community and residents were aghast at the idea. The Khyber Pass signals and those at St Marks Rd had caused heavy congestion on arterial roads, which leaked on to suburban streets during the seven hours of morning and evening peak traffic, he said.
"Gillies Ave is a major motorway entrance, and, if we choke it, it will not only have a negative impact for traffic, but we fear it will also negatively affect business in Newmarket."
He believed Transit was effectively shifting the traffic problem from motorways on to suburban streets.
McCombs said the concerns were real. "Gillies Ave southbound will be a real challenge."
However he remained confident in the system's ability to improve, not worsen traffic woes.
"There have been challenges, there is still a lot of work to be done and it's not perfect... It's a pretty big undertaking, trying to fix Auckland's traffic."
The ramp signal project was a collaborative effort by the Auckland Traffic Management Unit, involving Transit and city councils, so there was no issue of Transit attempting to "shift" the problem.
Local councils were working on their own roading projects around on-ramps to further avoid snarl-ups.
Meanwhile, funding granted in February had allowed Transit to fast-track both the widening of the Newmarket Viaduct and the construction of the new Victoria Park Tunnel, projects that, in combination with ramp signals, would add to the traffic relief Transit expected, he said.
