Roads empty as lockdown nears halfway mark

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

Road traffic has dropped dramatically in major urban centres, new NZ Transport Agency figures have confirmed, as New Zealand passes the halfway mark of the lockdown.

Data of weekly traffic flows in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton and Dunedin shows that, compared to the previous year, traffic is down between 74 and 82 per cent.

Auckland traffic is down 75.9 per cent compared to last year and, when compared to last week, there is a 66.2 per cent drop in light traffic. Heavy traffic (vehicles over 11m long) has dropped by exactly half.

Traffic across the country has dropped drastically as New Zealand passes the halfway mark of the lockdown.

Wellington traffic is down 81.7 per cent compared to last year, while last week there was 65.9 per cent more light traffic and 74.6 per cent more heavy traffic. According to the NZTA release, heavy traffic figures will be affected by an accident on Saturday 28 March that left the Aotea Quay offramp closed, so some heavy traffic will be going via the Hutt Road instead.

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Further south, Christchurch traffic is down 77.2 per cent compared to last year and, when compared to last week, there is a 60.6 per cent drop in light traffic and a 61.2 per cent drop for heavy traffic.

Hamilton traffic dropped 74.3 per cent compared to last year and, when compared to last week, there is a 62.5 per cent drop in light traffic and a 47.8 per cent drop for heavy traffic.

Finally, Dunedin traffic is down 80.6 per cent compared to last year. When compared to last week there is 63.9 per cent less light traffic and 54.5 per cent less heavy traffic.

What this confirms is that, on the whole, New Zealanders are taking the lockdown seriously.

The numbers were never going to drop to zero, as essential workers still need to use the roads and people are still allowed to travel for necessary reasons like supermarket shopping.

Anonymised location data from Google revealed in a March 29 report corroborates the NZTA report, gathered through GPS and WiFi tracking.

According to the software giant, trips to restaurants, cafes, shopping centres, museums, libraries and the like have dropped 91 per cent since the lockdown began.

A 78 per cent drop in trips to the beach, gardens and gardens was logged while public transport hubs have seen 84 per cent less visits.

It won't surprise many to see a rise of nearly 40 per cent in trips to supermarkets and pharmacies in the week before the lockdown as panic-buyers raced to stock their shelves.

Meanwhile, Google says we're up 22 per cent on the residential graph. The number could be lower than expected due to the amount of people already working from home.

Google says that it is only using data collected from those who have the Location History setting turned on - it's off by default.

The report also showed which urban centres are following the lockdown rules the best.

Aucklanders are travelling to workplaces less than most, with a 64 per cent dip. Gisbourne and Southland recorded drops of 47 and 48 per cent each. Malborough only dropped 25 per cent. However, Gisbourne also showed a 100 per cent drop to retail and recreation visits.

Nelson and the West Coast both recorded a total 100 per cent drop in visits to non-essential businesses and 81 per cent to parks. Canterbury registered a 90 per cent reduction to both retail/recreational business visits and transit stations.

Aucklanders and Wellingtonians can't seem to leave the parks alone as much as the rest of the country, with Google's data showing drops of 70 and 63 per cent respectively. The Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Northland, Otago, Southland, Taranaki, Waikato and Marlborough all showed drops of over 80 per cent. Tasman was the best here, with an 89 per cent drop.

With regard to actually staying at home, Otago led the way, with a 39 per cent increase. The worst of the centres offering consistent data was a tie between the Bay of Plenty and Canterbury, notching 22 per cent increases apiece.

Southland and Taranaki didn't have consistent data but both showed 17 per cent increases, while Nelson showed an increase of just four per cent.