The NZ Transport Agency is switching on its next series of electronic journey time signs around the Auckland Motorway network to give drivers more accurate information about motorway travel to selected destinations.
The next series will operate at interchanges around the central motorway junction [Spaghetti Junction] for southbound drivers at Hobson Street, Symonds Street and Grafton Gully, and for those people driving north and west at Gillies Avenue and Newton Road.
When they are commissioned, a total of 47 signs will be operating on arterial roads approaching the Southern, Northern and Northwestern Motorways. These are part of a total of some 150 signs being commissioned over the next three months.
The system provides an estimate that, for a typical 25 minute trip is accurate within four minutes of the actual journey time. Times update automatically as traffic conditions change. The information is gathered from detectors on motorways and arterial roads measuring traffic volumes, traffic density and speeds.
The signs are part of a series of traveller information initiatives to allow drivers to plan journeys with more certainty, says the NZTA’s State Highways Manager for Auckland, Tommy Parker.
“The feedback we’ve had shows that the system is being used and is appreciated by people who now have the advantage of knowing how long journeys might take,” adds Mr Parker. “In terms of using the motorways to move freight efficiently, truck drivers can schedule pick-up and delivery times more accurately.”
Travel journey times are among an extended range of services being provided by the NZTA’s new Traffic Operations Centre, which opened at Smales Farm in North Shore City in April. Other initiatives on the Auckland motorway network include managed priority lanes, lane control signals and ramp signals.
