Why Auckland’s traffic woes demand urgent solutions - Editorial

Traffic is now just as bad during the weekends as in weekday rush hour.

Editorial

• Auckland’s weekend traffic now exceeds weekday morning rush-hour levels, costing $2.6 billion annually by 2026.
• Auckland Transport proposes opening T3 lanes and a bus lane an hour earlier to improve productivity.
• Mayor Wayne Brown supports ‘time-of-use’ charging to manage motorway demand, amid calls for public transport improvements.

We’ve all noticed it and some of us may have even tried to ignore it.

But the reality is the traditional Sunday drive is no longer a leisurely activity. It hasn’t been for some time.

Auckland’s traffic is getting worse.

As reported in yesterday’s Weekend Herald, the data now shows midday weekend traffic in the city now exceeds morning rush-hour levels on weekdays.

You may have found yourself stuck in those queues at motorway offramps next to shopping centres in Newmarket or Sylvia Park. Or inching your way out of a sprawling sports field carpark after watching your children play.

The cost of us sitting there doing bugger all is already huge. And it’s growing.

Auckland’s congestion will cost $2.6 billion a year by 2026, and modelling suggests that we sit in congestion for 29 million hours a year.

So, what can we do?

Well, AT is proposing to open both T3 lanes along Manukau Rd and Pah Rd in Epsom and a bus lane on Great South Rd in Greenlane an hour earlier at 3pm, instead of 4pm.

Auckland Transport road network optimisation manager Chris Martin, who also penned a column in yesterday’s paper, said there would be “productivity gains” by doing this.

Okay, a start. But this is early tinkering when a bigger solution must be found.

Mayor Wayne Brown says one of his key policies is to get Auckland moving and is a fan of “time-of-use charge”.

This, he argues, would help manage demand on the city’s motorways at peak times.

Congestion charging has been floated before, but if the city’s congestion is seven days a week, should we really be stung in our back pockets every time we start the car?

Ultimately, there are too many vehicles using the current infrastructure.

Last year, just over 90,000 new cars and vans were added to Auckland’s fleet of more than 1.2 million light vehicles, and so far in 2025, another 27,000 light vehicles have been added to our roads.

We can’t exactly build skyways for these cars to drive on. However, we could build tollroads.

The elephant in this debate is of course Auckland’s public transport network. The butt of many jokes from Swanson to St Heliers.

We all know it needs significant improvements. The City Rail Link will help the problem. How much and for how long, we shall see.

Auckland’s geography also limits what we can do, but our traffic problems have shown the limitations of a network built around the traditional rush-hour peaks.

A solution probably lies in all of the above.

Habits are hard to break but now is time for us change how we look at getting around the city.