In which we solve all traffic problems forever

In purely coincidental timing just before an election, the National Party is handing out new roads in an Oprah-like fashion. You get a road, and you get a road and YOU get a road. How we’re going to get a couple of billion dollars of new roads out of a budget full of holes for […]

Bypass surgery complete. Has the patient survived?

At last, the final stage of the bypass has been opened, and the decades-long drama is drawing to an end. The DomPost reports…

At 6am yesterday, southbound traffic was directed from The Terrace Tunnel onto a one-way Vivian St via a new off-ramp.

At the same time, Buller and Ghuznee streets reverted to two-way streets.

Transit New Zealand project manager Jonnette Adams said some motorists had teething problems with the new layout, but were mostly courteous to each other. Some “tweaking” of intersection lights helped alleviate congestion on other routes linking with the bypass.

A team of engineers would be on hand today to make sure things ran smoothly, Ms Adams said.

Transit opened the northbound section of the bypass in December.

Meanwhile, frustrated Wellingtonians are turning to the Web to vent their anger at delays caused by the region’s transport infrastructure.

Aha! Haven’t they just.

So, how was it for you?

Crazy Intersections of our time: #31

the madnessThis week, the stretch of Adelaide Road where it intersects with Britomart Street/Herald Street, and then, a little further up the road, with Luxford Street.

As you can see on our hastily assembled little map on the right there, North-flowing traffic splits into two lanes once it gets past the Britomart/Herald intersection, so right-turning traffic gets its own turning lane into Luxford.

Now, this would work fine if there weren’t a couple of 5 minute parking spots (outside a dairy) in the straight-ahead lane (photo 2). Cars parked in that 5 minute spot (indicated by blue in the graphic) act as a roadblock, so once the turning lane hits a red light, traffic quickly backs up to the point where no-one can actually get into the straight-ahead lane (photo 3).