North Shore Times (New Zealand)
March Madness begins
Aucklanders faced a crawling commute on Tuesday morning, with heavy traffic plaguing the city on the day before the official start of March Madness, Auckland’s infamously busy month on the roads.
The return of tertiary students and other factors has typically driven a spike of 1.5 million trips in March, requiring Auckland Transport to pull in extra buses to help cope with the surge which has left people at waiting at stops.
The first March Madness peak since years of Covid-19 disruption has collided with a shortage of about 380 bus drivers.
On Tuesday, a car rolled on Titirangi Rd at 6.22am, detouring multiple bus routes. Several bus stops were out of action and school bus services were also detoured.
Police confirmed they responded to ‘‘reports of a single-vehicle crash’’.
‘‘Initial indications suggest one person has received serious injuries, and they have since been transported to hospital,’’ a spokesperson said.
Auckland Transport said Titirangi Rd was cleared and buses were back to their normal routes but at 9.30am, a breakdown on the southern motorway blocked the right northbound lane, near the Panama Rd overbridge.
The 7.05am, 8.25am and 9.05am Hobsonville-to-Auckland ferries were also replaced by taxis, due to mechanical issues.
Motorways across Auckland were moving slowly on Tuesday, with both northbound and southbound routes heading into the central city taking upwards of an hour.
Two sections of the rail network are also closed or constrained by track work.
The annual traffic chaos, which notoriously spikes in New Zealand’s biggest city in March, likely wouldn’t end until Easter, Greater Auckland’s Matt Lowrie said.
It comes after Auckland Transport asked commuters to avoid travelling during potential peak hour traffic times, to reduce the amount of congestion on the roads.
On Sunday, the organisation tweaked its message, tweeting it ‘‘appreciate many Aucklanders cannot travel offpeak and so putting on extra services for those who need to travel at peak time is our priority’’.
‘‘March is set to be the busiest month since 2019 as Aucklanders return to study and work.
‘‘We’re putting a whole range of measures in place to help manage the extra pressure but please plan ahead and check AT’s journey planner.’’