The daily battle of getting about town

Herald readers have their say about Auckland's traffic problems.

As a small businessman who lives in Albany but works in East Tamaki, I am constantly fighting the motorway traffic. As I frequently make service calls and deliveries beyond normal business hours, I must use my own commercial vehicle at all times.

At off-peak times I can travel to or from work in 25 to 30 minutes. This year, with the new, extended Northern Motorway, it takes 75 to 100 minutes in the morning, in spite of being on the motorway by 7 am. Spaghetti Junction needs to be at least doubled to cope with existing peak flows.

My personal reaction to the extreme traffic problems is to leave early and return late but this doesn't help one's day. My petrol usage is higher, on top of the fact it's now more expensive.

Any improvement in public transport would be great, though it is doubtful it will ever be economical. Auckland has too few people and too many diverse destinations compared with most cities.

- T. Prentice

I have been travelling from Henderson to my work on the North Shore daily for the past six years. The journey frequently takes over an hour. During this time I have seen people shaving in their cars, changing clothing, combing hair, applying cosmetics and deodorant and even having breakfast.

If I leave a two-second gap between myself and the car in front, someone invariably cuts in, causing me to slam on the brakes. I arrive at work tired and exhausted after battling the morning traffic ...

We need to encourage business growth in the various cities of the region to cut down on the number of people needing to travel outside the area in which they live.

- Jenine Clift

We live in Papakura. I travel to Penrose to start work at 8 am. I leave there at 4 pm, after taking only a half-hour lunch, to beat the traffic. A normal trip is 45 minutes.

We have a 2-year-old son who is in daycare three days a week and goes to his grandparents in Northcote the other two days ... Traffic has been so bad lately we have been taking him over on Wednesday night. We now spend one less night a week with our beloved son. It's the price we pay for living and working in Auckland.

My pet peeve is the Mt Wellington overbridge heading north in the morning. It runs from three lanes into two and many inconsiderate people run up the left lane (which is the Mt Wellington offramp) to merge in at the bridge, holding the traffic up in the middle and outside lanes sometimes for kilometres back. It really, really bugs me.

- Jo Bradley

Several years ago I tried taking public transport from Papakura to Onehunga. Catch the train to Penrose and try and get a bus to Onehunga - what a joke! The train stations had no cover or suitable lighting, were covered in graffiti and were an obvious place to get robbed - no place for women.

Waiting for a bus at Penrose and Southdown stations, you would stand in the rain as there was no shelter, no timetables.

- Rex Nightingale

I live near the top of Onewa Rd and work at the bottom of town - a distance of 7km. The 1km stretch from the top of Onewa Rd to the traffic lights at the bottom is by far the worst part of the journey. Although I leave home most days by 6.50 am, that 1km regularly takes 30 minutes to travel.

- Sheila John

The two grumbling people featured in Monday and Tuesday's editions cannot be serious! The woman who works in Penrose and lives on the Shore because "the beaches are worth it" and the cop who commutes from Pukekohe to the city do not have my sympathy. They are not what I consider genuine traffic.

People like that, for whom public transport simply is not an option, deserve to get caught up in traffic every day. It's people like them who contribute to the situation with their own selfishness.

The rest of Auckland should not have to bend over backwards to accommodate those who choose to live in one place and work in another such a ridiculous distance away.

- Melanie Boyd

In the 20 years I have worked in Auckland, public transport has only been viable for the four years that I lived close to a bus route and worked downtown. At all other times it has proved absurdly inconvenient and expensive.

- Matthew Roscoe

Recently, when driving to work on the clear, still mornings, I have been dismayed by the grey haze that sits on the horizon.

The amount of pollution being pumped out into our precious clear air by cars must be reduced. Too many cars are on the road because there is no convenient alternative.

Laws regarding car emissions need to be in place and enforced. Driving to work behind a smelly diesel truck puffing black smoke is not a pleasant start to the day.

I live in Mt Albert and work in Mairangi Bay. However, driving to the Shore is circuitous. I either need to join the traffic heading into the city to make the connection from the North-west to the Northern motorway, or wind my way through the back streets of Herne Bay.

My personal solution is to work two days a week at home. I'm lucky enough to have a sympathetic employer who allows me this option.

If going to town or Newmarket, I take the train down the corridor of graffiti. Could someone please clean up this mess! What about having smaller trains every 15 minutes?

- Monique Curran

When I first started travelling on the Southern Motorway between Takanini and Auckland last October, I found that if I was on the motorway by 6.55 am I could comfortably be at my office in Parnell between 7.15 and 7.20 am.

To achieve the trip in the same time now, I find that I have to be on the motorway by 6.30 am. This has happened in the space of five months.

- Brian Bangs

We need a decent train system, one that departs at five-minute intervals at peak times and runs half- hourly outside that - from north, east, south and west.

If we upgrade, increase, widen, strengthen and so on with our roads, we will only put more cars on them.

- Gay

We moved office three times, trying to position ourselves to reach our clients efficiently.

We began in Papatoetoe, later shifting to Ellice Rd, Glenfield, in an attempt to balance a client base stretched from East Tamaki to the fast-growing Albany.

We found our projects in Sydney were less stressful in terms of road travel, although the distances in Auckland were far shorter.

I have taken the final step of selling out my one-third share of this company, and I am moving into a salaried position where there is no reliance on the roads being passable to fulfil a commercial function.

- Tim Walsh

I run the pharmacy in Maungaturoto in Northland. Some months ago our wholesaler in Auckland asked us to put our orders in earlier because of Auckland's traffic congestion.

It is not now possible to order stock for delivery to the public before the weekend after 10.30 am on a Friday. So if it is an item not in stock, and many specialised drugs are not routinely stocked, a person presenting a prescription after that time must wait until Monday.

What some people might not realise is that their local economy may depend on connections through Auckland. Auckland may be a commercial hub, but it is also a thoroughfare.

- George W. Gray

In my work I need to visit customers. I would gladly use public transport if I could be sure when I got to the bus stop that within the next 10 minutes I would get a bus to where I wanted to go.

If public transport were convenient, then I think more people would use it and there would not need to be as much parking required in the central business district.

- Robert Fong

My husband and I have recently moved to Auckland from Wellington. While we were warned about the Auckland traffic, we have been totally astounded and become totally frustrated.

I travel from Torbay to Takanini, a distance of 50km, which can take anything between one and two hours. My husband and I car-share as he works in the city.

To beat the traffic, we are now leaving home at 6:30 am, an exercise which seems to become almost fruitless as you slow to 30 km/h at the Greville Rd interchange, only seven minutes from home.

The journey on Monday took 72 minutes - Torbay to Queen St leg, 50 minutes; Queen St to Takanini, 22 minutes.

Having travelled between Johannesburg and Pretoria - two major cities in South Africa 50km apart - on a daily basis, I find the Auckland infrastructure and flow of traffic appalling. The South African trip, covering the same distance, at 7.30 am would take only 30 to 40 minutes and certainly wasn't a soul-destroying daily event.

A better public transport facility would certainly not ease my daily traffic burden as a vehicle is a requirement of my employment contract.

The Northern Motorway has enough leeway on the shoulder for an additional lane to be added, thus facilitating the flow of traffic.

- Cathy Mellett

As a result of losing my licence for speeding, I decided to move from New Lynn to Mt Eden in a bid to reduce my dependence on motorised transport. I now have considerably less stress on my life, about 10 hours more a week, and at least $100 a week more in the bank.

I'm very thankful for that ticket. It has saved me a fortune and improved my life no end. I now have my licence back but still ride or walk to work. I love Auckland City. I enjoy the lifestyle and the people. But I will never again move out into the suburbs.

- David

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The Herald welcomes your commuter experiences. Tell us about the inconvenience of congestion, the lengths you go to beat it, the cost to business and any positive experiences.

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