Auckland Traffic: Time to just suck it up?

The annual Auckland March Madness on our roads has come and gone. Did you notice it or has Auckland traffic been insane since the New Year? Well regardless of the time of year things are looking set to be a lot worse traffic wise. Sure we have more residential capacity (or are at least trying to have more capacity), but that means more people on our already chocka roads.

Andrew Dickens thinks you may just have to suck it up and get used to it. Being the intelligent long term home-owner he is, Dickens has lived close to where he works for the last 25 years. He doesn’t really know what it is like for thousands of Aucklander’s who spend an hour in traffic each way. Lucky him.

But he does have a point, it’s time we changed our expectations. It’s been known for a long time that there is a significant amount of peak hour traffic. It’s part of the big city living package. All over the world rush hour traffic is a thing for a reason. As bad as it is now? Maybe not. Are things going to get any better? Not for a long time. Progress on roads, bus lanes and motorway interchanges is very slow. No point in complaining about things you can’t change.

Thankfully someone’s thinking ahead and has come up with a revolutionary (for Auckland at least) and mature approach to moving around this beautiful narrow stretch of land we call Auckland. Formally the Transport Blog, Greater Auckland is a lobby and research group. They have developed a plan for the transport future of Auckland, adeptly named the Congestion Free Network 2.

Consisting of lots of light rail, a second harbour crossing and plenty of central stops it could be every Aucklander’s dream. Seriously utilising the opportunities the CRL will give us; the CFN 2 is well thought out, logical and even has future contingency plans (bus lanes eventually becoming light rail).

And future thinking, much like Andrew Dickens decision to settle down in Freeman’s Bay all those years ago, is something our city desperately needs and needed 25 years ago. Let’s hope it’s not too little too late. Either way we may need to just suck it up.

By Bella Jackman