NZ Traffic: Auckland worsens, Wellington mornings dire, Christchurch improves

Annual TomTom Traffic Index Reports NZ cities congestion
Aucklanders are wasting an extra 20 working days in peak time traffic

Auckland, New Zealand, 22 March 2016 - TomTom (TOM2) today released the results of the TomTom Traffic Index 2016, the annual report detailing the cities around the world with the most traffic congestion.

For Kiwi drivers, results from this year’s TomTom Traffic Index are varied across all cities. Auckland retains its title as New Zealand’s most congested city, but Wellington is not far behind. Overall congestion worsened in both Auckland and Wellington, improved slightly in Hamilton and Christchurch, and was unchanged in Dunedin.

Auckland sits at 40th in the global traffic congestion ranking from a list of 295 cities around the world, and has the second highest traffic congestion in Australasia after Sydney. The most congested city in the world is Mexico City with an overall level of 59%.

Drivers in Auckland can expect to add 33% extra time to their travel at any time of the day, and almost 80% in the evening peak periods versus a free flow, or uncongested, situation – adding-up to 158 hours of extra travel time per year. That’s almost 20 working days added to a year when purely travelling in peak times.

Phil Allen, General Manager, TomTom Licensing, SE Asia and Oceania, says while overall Auckland’s congestion is getting worse from 32% in 2014 to 33% in 2015, congestion in morning peak hour has eased by 3% in 2015, and congestion in evening peak has remained the same. This is due in part to a spread of the morning peak over a longer period, and more people using public transport.

Overall congestion in Wellington has also increased from 29% to 30% in 2015. Specifically, their morning peak hour congestion is one of the worst in the world at 75%, exceeding other big cities like Istanbul, Los Angeles, London and Sydney.

In Christchurch, the effect of the earthquakes on road infrastructure is a lasting one, impacting greatly on traffic congestion. There are early signs that congestion is improving, with both morning and evening peaks congestion easing this year by a 4% (48% to 44%) and 1% (53% to 52%) respectively. While overall congestion is improving, it still has a long way to go to reach pre-earthquake levels.

In Hamilton, overall congestion eased slightly from 22% to 21%. The morning peak congestion improved slightly from 36% to 35%, while the congestion in afternoon peak worsened from 38% to 40%.

In Dunedin, its good news for overall congestion, with the morning peak congestion remaining steady, and the afternoon peak congestion improving slightly.

Eight year trends
TomTom data shows traffic congestion is up by 13% globally since 2008. Similar trends are reflected in major cities across New Zealand. Traffic congestion in Auckland has also worsened by 7%, followed by Wellington at 5% and Hamilton at 4%.

Phil Allen says: “The TomTom Traffic Index is released every year to help drivers, cities and transport planners to understand traffic congestion trends but, most importantly, how to improve congestion globally. We really want everybody to think about how they can lower the amount of time they waste in traffic every day – and to realise that we all need to play a part. If even just five per cent of us changed our travel plans, we’d improve travel times on our major highways by up to thirty per cent. Collectively, we can all work together to beat traffic congestion.”

Where are the bottlenecks?
Auckland:
• SH1 northbound from Highbrook Drive to the junction with SH16
• Hobson Street
• SH1 southbound from Albany Expressway to (and including) the Auckland Harbour Bridge

Wellington:
• Cable Street/Wakefield Street and Quays through to Aotea Quay/SH1
• Vivian Street – SH1 through Hawkestone Street
• Centennial Highway-SH1 between Newlands Road and point near Onslow Road/Hutt Road Junction next to SH1

Christchurch
• SH 76 – Brougham Street between Barrington Street and Ensors Road
• Blenheim Road – Moorhouse Avenue between Main South Road and Waltham Road
• Main North Road – Papanui Road between Momorangi Crescent and Perry Street

People can find out more about the TomTom Traffic Index, and discover where their home city ranks at www.tomtom.com/trafficindex. There’s also helpful advice on beating traffic congestion, as well as independent analysis. And, for the first time, a selection of ‘Profile Cities’ provide insight into what they are doing to improve mobility.

Overall ranking of most congested cities in New Zealand and Australia in 2015 (Overall daily congestion level – extra travel time):

Ranking of the most congested cities globally in 2015 (Overall daily congestion level – extra travel time – population over 800,000):

ENDS

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