Labour Weekend tips: travel outside the peaks if you can

For people packing up the car this Labour Weekend and heading away, Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has a handy way to make your travel safer and more enjoyable.

Use the Waka Kotahi holiday journey planner to check congestion predictions so you are better informed and maybe can pick a non-peak patch.

Labour Weekend Holiday Journey Planner(external link)

“The holiday journey planner shows predicted traffic conditions for popular routes over the Labour Weekend period, based on travel patterns from previous years,” says Waka Kotahi Journey Manager Tresca Forrester.

• Visit journeys.nzta.govt.nz for the latest information on road works, road closures and delays.
• Predicted peak times for travel may change based on traffic incidents, weather, driver behaviour.
• Travel prepared and refreshed – see tips below.

As well as the peak busy patches on key highways in Queenstown Lakes District and Canterbury, there are also a few places where the state highway or local roads may have traffic management in place, causing short delays, says Ms Forrester.

“We expect heavy traffic out of our urban centres this Friday and back home on Monday, particularly given the generally sunny weather in most places Saturday and Sunday,” she says. “Please take extra care on the roads and check the weather forecasts before you leave and the Waka Kotahi traffic and travel page for any updates.

“We have done the best to minimise works in most places over the long weekend, but we ask all drivers to take extra care wherever you spot road cones and areas with traffic management where work is ongoing.”

Waka Kotahi crews will shut down most active work sites around by midday on Friday, 21 October.

Tips

• Drive to the conditions, whether it’s the weather, the time of day or amount of traffic.
• Take regular breaks to stay alert. Share the driving if you can.
• Keep a safe following distance from vehicles in front so you can stop safely.
• Be patient - overtaking is unlikely to make a significant difference to your journey time due to the amount of traffic expected over the weekend.
• Check your car is safe, warranted, windwipers/lights are working and you have a spare tyre inflated before you head off.
• Wellington and Top of the South Labour Weekend advice

Drivers can get real time information from

• 0800 4 HIGHWAYS (0800 44 44 49)
• Journey Planner: http://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/traffic(external link)
• Met Service Facebook www.facebook.com/MetService(external link)
• MetService extended forecast: https://www.metservice.com/national#extended-forecast(external link)