Slow traffic keeps lawman on edge

By WARREN GAMBLE

Inspector Alex Robinson clocks up 110km and up to two hours and 45 minutes getting to and from the Auckland Central police station each day.

The tally in frustration battling Southern Motorway queues can go off the scale.

"If you are working in a stressful situation you don't need the extra stress before and afterwards," he said.

"Some days I arrive almost on edge. I have to work through that while trying to tackle the day's work."

To beat the worst of the traffic, Mr Robinson and his wife, Ivy, leave their Pukekohe home for the 55km crawl to the city well before 7 am each day to reach his office by the 8 am start time.

Leaving five minutes later can add an extra 20 minutes to the journey, and in one recent unfortunate trip to a 9.30 am appointment in Otahuhu, he left at 7.45 am and only just made it.

Often he is not home until well after 5 pm.

In the morning rush-hour the queue is often banked up past the Drury on-ramp to the motorway, and hits other bottlenecks at Papakura, Takanini, the relatively new merger at Mt Wellington with the southeastern highway from Pakuranga, and at Spaghetti Junction. Mr Robinson said the congestion had become noticeably worse in the past two years.

"We listen to the radio, talk about current issues and say what we have probably said two or three hundred times: 'Why the hell doesn't somebody do something about this'?"

As a public transport fan during his time in Wellington, Mr Robinson said he would use it here if it was convenient. But from Pukekohe he was faced with catching a bus to Papakura, a train to downtown and a walk to the central station on Vincent St. If he got out of the office too much after 4 pm he faced the tyranny of the Hobson St traffic light gauntlet snarled by thousands of vehicles.

Mr Robinson drives an unmarked car and steers clear of enforcing traffic misdemeanours because he would be endlessly employed.

"A lot of it is to do with people being very impatient, chopping and changing lanes and tailgating instead of sitting in one lane and accepting the speed of the rest of the traffic.

"It is not only the time and frustration, sometimes it can be quite scary out there."

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