If traffic was light with no hold-ups we could get get there in a little more than an hour and a quarter.
That was then, now is a different and much more frustrating story.
I drove down to the city and back last week, the week before and the week before that, one trip down took an hour and three quarters, the other two trips took two hours. The trips back home were similarly slow.
The extra time the trips took was caused by road works and slow traffic when it wasn’t safe to pass.
In two places there was no one working where the signs said the road works were, just signs dropping the speed limit to 30 kph and interminable lines of orange cones.
Coming home from the last trip, I was the first at the stop sign and waited 20 minutes before it was turned to go.
There had been no traffic going south while I was waiting and the queue of vehicles driving the other way from me once we were permitted to move was more than a kilometre long.
I didn’t have an urgent appointment so the slow trips were frustrating but didn’t cause me serious problems.
That wouldn’t be the case for everyone and made me wonder: what is the cost of the slow roads we now travel?
How much is more time spent driving adding to the cost of goods and services and what is the cost of the loss of productivity because of that?
How much will it cost to fix and how long will that take?
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
The extra time the trips took was caused by road works and slow traffic when it wasn’t safe to pass.
In two places there was no one working where the signs said the road works were, just signs dropping the speed limit to 30 kph and interminable lines of orange cones.
Coming home from the last trip, I was the first at the stop sign and waited 20 minutes before it was turned to go.
There had been no traffic going south while I was waiting and the queue of vehicles driving the other way from me once we were permitted to move was more than a kilometre long.
I didn’t have an urgent appointment so the slow trips were frustrating but didn’t cause me serious problems.
That wouldn’t be the case for everyone and made me wonder: what is the cost of the slow roads we now travel?
How much is more time spent driving adding to the cost of goods and services and what is the cost of the loss of productivity because of that?
How much will it cost to fix and how long will that take?
Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
Similarly, I have often wondered what research AT have carried out with regard to the effects of the speed restrictions and "traffic calming" measures on the bus timetables. I suspect the answer is zero to very little. If there is a journalist out there hasn't completely bought into AT's crap maybe an OIA request would be in order.
I do understand that sometimes, when roadworks are incomplete, it is justifiable to keep speed restrictions overnight, but does anyone else get the idea that often the restriction signs are left out because it's just too much like hard work to collect them in. What really annoys me is that restrictions are left in force because the contractor leaves the road in a hazard condition because they seemingly cannot be bothered to clean up after them.
Except on very long trips, the time gains due higher speeds 95-110kph are very low compared with the loss due slow stretches. 50, 30 kph and very slow and stops (deliberately obstructive roundabouts, traffic lights. etc.) For many modern roadworks it must take months or a year for the general time gains to exceed the accumulated loss during works. Most motorists who drive fast do so not to save time but to allay boredom. Trouble is after high speed medium seems intolerable. I am opposed to the 110 kph motorways for this reason but vastly more opposed to modern roadwork techniques. I recall a trip Auck to Wanganui some years ago About 20 roadworks, many controlled by unattended lights. Sunday travel is often far less obstructed.
My understanding is that for recently resealed road it helps the new seal to be bedded in properly if traffic runs across it for a time at lower speeds. It's not just about reducing the risk to road workers while they're on the road or of loose pebbles being thrown up.
It would be good to have comments from a road engineer or similar with expertise in this subject.
LFC
Allan - the signs are presumably left out in order to avoid cost in wages - per minute, per metre, per cone, per degree in temperature and of course there needs to be a spotter, a person picking up per three cones, another spotter and the final checker for missed cones. Not to save money because of course savings are always spent elsewhere.
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