The weekend crawl: Locals trapped in their suburbs by Auckland weekend gridlock

Weekend gridlock on some of Auckland's busiest roads is now as bad as, if not worse, than the traffic plaguing Aucklanders at peak hour on weekdays.

And residents in Devonport, on Auckland's North Shore, are blaming sports games and the call of a barista-made latte for a new rush hour worse than their weekday commute.

Congestion data collected by the Automobile Association shows a weekend drive down the notorious Lake Rd stretch can take more than twice as long as it would on a clear run.

Weekday traffic towards Devonport is typically at its worst around 7.30am - when it takes an average 12 minutes to make it down Lake Rd. On Saturday afternoons, that edges out to 13 minutes between 12pm and 3pm.

A clear run on the route takes six minutes.

Figures collected from traffic headed south, towards Esmonde Rd, showed travel times at weekends were almost, but not quite as long as they were during the peak period on a weekday.

Average weekday travel times peaked around 3.30pm - as schools get out - when the trip took an average 17 minutes. On Saturdays at 11.10am the average run took 16 minutes, and hovered around this length for around an hour.

The AA's senior infrastructure advisor Sarah Geard said a Saturday rush hour was something they were seeing more and more across the Auckland network.

"Sports and retail are sort of the Saturday activities," Geard said.

"It's also important to remember that the population is growing. So underpinning that, we've got more people who are getting out and about on the roads."

An increase in the number of people working on Saturdays was combining with sporting travel for the increased congestion.

Cheltenham local Chris Werry said the ever-growing traffic had changed his family's weekend routine, making it more attractive to stay home rather than battle the queues.

"We just don't drive on the weekends if we can help it," he said. "You sort of just rearrange your life."

However with a footy-mad son, 12-year-old Vincent, Werry had no choice but to join the gridlock of parents headed to stand on the sidelines each Saturday morning.

Cheltenham local Chris Werry with his daughter Connie, 10, prefers not to drive on weekends if he can help it. Photo / Jason Oxenham

A normal 20-minute drive from Cheltenham to Albany became an hour-long trip, and coming home from sports games he said they often ran into the same "miserable" situation.

"I have heard parents discouraging their children from playing sport for just that reason - they don't want the bother," he said.

Things were even worse when the sun came out.

"If it's a really sunny day you get a lot of people heading here for the beach. Not so much in the winter, but in the summer you definitely notice it with traffic and parking."

The issue had driven some locals to complain about events.

The Weetbix Tryathlon had been moved from Narrow Neck to the Hibiscus Coast, he said, after residents "kicked up a fuss".

Werry wanted sports clubs to put on buses to ship the local kids to and from games, to reduce congestion and save parents from driving every week.

The plight of traffic was something North Shore United football club chairman Darryl Petherick was well aware of.

Petherick said the traffic was bad enough to affect the number of people who wanted to play.

"If you hit Lake Rd or Esmonde Rd traffic heading back from a game around 2pm ... Oh my God.

"It's just a disaster, we're talking hours."

Lake Rd, looking towards Devonport, Auckland. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Plans were in place to ease congestion on the busy route, with $47 million dedicated to improving Lake Rd in Auckland Transport's Regional Land Transport Plan; including the targeted use of transit lanes, upgraded cycle facilities and improved integration between buses and ferries.

A spokesperson from Auckland Transport said they monitored weekend congestion performance with a view to improve network operations.

From an analysis of weekend traffic at the start of the year, the spokesperson said congestion during the weekend typically occurred at similar locations to that during the weekday commuting peak period, but to a lesser degree.

Geard said Devonport residents were not the only Aucklanders trapped by traffic.

Lincoln Rd, in West Auckland, and Balmoral Rd, turning into St Lukes Rd in central Auckland, were two routes plagued with weekend congestion.

"Both of those are examples where in the middle of the day on a Saturday traffic is heavier, or can be heavier than the peak time on a weekday," she said.

Weekday traffic headed towards the motorway on Lincoln Rd around 7am would spend an average nine minutes' driving, compared with around eight minutes when behind the wheel at midday on a Saturday.

The trend was similar headed the opposite way.

On St Lukes Rd, travel times for weekday traffic headed towards the Southern Motorway peaked at 21 minutes around 8.30am and again at 4pm - compared with a 20-minute journey at 1pm on Saturday.

In comparison, a clear run took 11 minutes.