We’re noticing that congestion patterns are starting to happen outside of the previous peaks, which were typically Monday to Friday, in the morning and in the evening. Very busy periods are now stretching into afternoons and weekends.
It’s surprising to find out that there are more vehicles trying to move around our city at midday on weekends than at the busiest hour during the morning rush hour.
During weekdays, heat maps of our roads and monitoring traffic volumes show us that people are heading home earlier, perhaps embracing flexible working hours. We are seeing the volume of traffic building up around 3pm across most of Auckland’s arterial roads increasing, even in areas without school traffic, which is earlier than it has ever been.
And our main roads aren’t just busy in one direction heading in or out of the city, they can be just as busy on both sides in the afternoon and evening. While this is not a new phenomenon, there are more vehicles on the road at this time than in previous years, meaning a bigger problem to solve.
The problem is, we have businesses that still need to use our roads and deliveries that need to happen. Our buses still need to be reliable. And when roads that should be clearways have vehicles parked along them, everything grinds to a halt.
You may have started wondering why you’re stuck in traffic on a Saturday or Sunday heading to the supermarket, or to a sports match, or to visit family and friends. That’s because most of Auckland has the same idea as you. Weekends are when we get stuff done.
Along Dominion Rd, our heat maps are showing congestion at the weekend, while Manukau Rd and Remuera Rd are very busy too. Over on the North Shore, Onewa Rd, Whangaparāoa Rd and Takapuna’s Lake Rd all heave with weekend traffic.
These roads used to be busiest on the weekend around lunchtime, but they’re now becoming busy across most of the day.
Over at the Auckland Transport Operation Centre (ATOC) near Takapuna, we have a team of people watching our roads and intersections in real time to address pinch points for traffic when and where they happen. The team manually intervenes to clear congestion.
The biggest problem they’re currently working through is queues at motorway offramps next to shopping centres, including Westfield Newmarket, Sylvia Park and Westgate. This is a major safety concern as it blocks live lanes on the state highway.
The other major challenge is managing the roads outside these centres in the morning when most people are trying to get in, and then the afternoon when people are trying to leave.
The team works closely with managers of these shopping malls to update shoppers over their PA system, encouraging their customers to delay their departure from the malls.
If the team thinks permanent changes are necessary at any intersection, they will share this with our traffic engineers, who will then investigate a permanent solution.
Finding a solution is a little tricky as most of the roads we are already looking at (not full length, but in parts) could be improved. But the solution might be different. While a bus lane might help with weekday journeys, we need to assess whether the same bus lane is practical to help people move around on weekends when we know this is the time for family or group outings.
And then there’s the problem of parking – outside people’s homes, outside businesses, outside churches and outside schools and sports fields. To ease congestion, we often need to limit where and when people can park, especially at busy times. It’s a delicate balance to get right, and not everyone can be satisfied, but we are ready to start asking the hard questions.
We know we’re going to get productivity gains by starting most of our bus and transit lanes an hour or two earlier, so we’re getting ready to make changes across our network focusing on the routes that are busy between the 3-4pm hour.
There will be some parking impacts, but the collective benefits of getting people through as efficiently as possible are needed to get the city and the economy cranking.
That’s what our parking strategy “Room to Move” supports.
