The holidays are just around the corner, but we know that many of our friends in the newsgathering business will be at work while the rest of us are at the bach or the beach, so the NZ Transport Agency’s media team will be on call to help during the 2019/20 Christmas/New Year break.
During the holidays your primary Transport Agency media contacts will be:
25–30 December 2019
Frances Adank
frances.adank@nzta.govt.nz
021 705 613
31 December 2019 – January 5 2020
Darryl Walker
darryl.walker@nzta.govt.nz
021 374 334
Throughout the holiday period, the Ministry of Transport will update holiday road toll data on a daily basis. This information will be made available on the landing page of the Ministry website. Further background and historical crash data for the holiday period will be available:
Christmas/New Year holiday period road deaths(external link)
The Transport Agency has also crunched the numbers from previous holiday periods to produce our popular interactive holiday journeys map at:
Summer holidays 2019(external link)
The map uses data on travel patterns from previous years to show predicted traffic flows across popular journeys over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.
We’ve also have other useful information to help people plan their journeys. The Transport Agency’s Journey Planner website is a great tool to help people plan their trips with real time travel information, traffic cameras, and updates on delays, roadworks and road closures:
Journey Planner(external link)
If the boss does give you a few days off during the break, or if you’re hitting the road while on the job, please also keep yourself safe and follow our ‘top tips’ below for a safe holiday journey.
Wishing you a safe and joyous holiday on behalf of the Transport Agency.
Check your car is in good “health” before you head off. Check your tyre pressure and tread, windscreen wipers, indicators and lights.
Take extra care when travelling in holiday periods because of increased traffic volumes, congestion, tiredness and people driving in unfamiliar environments.
Drive to the conditions whether it’s the weather, the road you’re on, the time of day or amount of traffic.
Avoid fatigue. Take regular breaks to stay alert.
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.
Allow plenty of time. Remember you are on holiday, so there’s no need to rush.
