‘Waste of time’ - car pool lanes are not policed

Monday, 12 May 2025

Christchurch is such a car-centric city, dominated by single occupancy vehicles. So what drives us to drive?

Four Empty Seats is a new transport project from The Press looking at why Christchurch is such a car-centric city, dominated by single occupancy vehicles.

They were designed to encourage more North Canterbury commuters into Christchurch to car pool or use public transport.

However, new lanes created on the Christchurch Northern Corridor for use only by buses and cars carrying more than one person - called T2 lanes - have not been policed since they opened in 2021.

One - from the Tram Rd on-ramp - operates round-the-clock, seven days a week, while the other is on the southern side of the Waimakariri Bridge, and operates only between 6am and 9am.

The Christchurch Northern Corridor’s T2 transit lane is “operating”, but has never been enforced by the NZ Transport Agency.

Signage for the lanes explains they are in operation, but NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has never issued an infringement notice for solo drivers using them.

Christchurch has the country’s worst peak time congestion with limited public money spent on alternatives to driving such as public transport and cycleways.

M Grace-Stent, chairperson of Greater Ōtautahi, said the lack of enforcement led to confusing and dangerous situations on the T2 road.

Meanwhile, the lack of a bus priority lane led to bunching and slowed buses down, creating a cycle where unreliable buses pushed more people into cars.

Better results would come from dedicated public transport lanes in parallel with better public transport, Grace-Stent said.

“At a minimum… the T2 lanes should be reviewed to see if they are working for everyone; and if not converted to T3 or bus priority lanes.”

After four years of construction - and 50 years since the idea was considered - the new Christchurch Northern Corridor motorway opened to drivers, cyclists and walkers on December 17, 2020.

Elizabeth Samuel travels from Kaiapoi to Christchurch at least twice a week with a disabled passenger.

He sits in the back and, due to Samuel’s tinted windows, she was worried she would get pinged for using the T2 lane when they were first introduced, but was told the cameras would not be used for enforcement until drivers got used to the lanes.

Four years on and there was no sign that was changing.

“[I] always see at least three or four single-occupant vehicles using the T2 lane, many times driving straight past the camera,” Samuel said.

“Personally, I think the T2 lane is a waste of time and money - especially if there are no funds from fines contributing to its upkeep.”

NZTA has never issued an infringement on the Christchurch Northern Corridor’s transit lane.

About 15% of Northern Corridor drivers had more than two people per vehicle during peak hour traffic, according to NZTA, and last year almost 27,000 vehicles used the highway daily.

Solo drivers caught using transit lanes could be fined $150 for incorrectly using a T2 lane. If just 1% of those using the Northern Corridor were caught illegally using the T2 lanes, NZTA could earn more than $14 million annually.

Cameras set up along the corridor peek into cars to count passengers, but they are used only for monitoring the lane and helping with travel time estimates. Number plate data is encoded within the cameras so individual vehicle number plates cannot be retrieved.

Multiple drivers use the T2 lane illegally on the Northern Motorway heading into Christchurch at 8.15am on a recent weekday.

“To move to enforcement, we need more advanced cameras,” NZTA’s website said.

Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey said the T2 lane was confusing for commuters.

“With no infringement notices issued it’s time for the T2 lane to be looked at to see if it’s needed at all,” he said.

A T2 lane sign on the Christchurch Northern Corridor motorway.

“Many residents tell me that the T2 lane over the Waimakariri Bridge actually results in congestion at the Tram Rd on-ramp and can cause safety concerns.”

There had been 29 crashes between the Tram Rd on-ramp and the Cranford St roundabout since 2020, NZTA said. Three were serious, and one was fatal.

The T2 lanes were put in to future-proof the corridor against congestion, an NZTA spokeperson said, but some drivers who used the highway - like daily commuter Hamish Purcell - believed they caused more traffic.

“If it wasn’t a T2 lane then traffic coming off Tram Rd would have their one lane to go into and not have to squeeze into the stream of traffic already bumper to bumper,” he said.

“That lane is the cause of some crashes on the bridge and before the bridge. Waste of time being a T2 lane.”

The Northern Corridor eventually flows down to Cranford St, in the suburb of St Albans where residents feel split in half.

Harrison McEvoy, chairperson of the St Albans Residents Association, said his group opposed more T2 lanes when the local community board considered replacing a priority bus lane with one last year.

He said, without enforcement, the promised benefits of fewer vehicles on the road would never be realised.

“One leads to the other, through enforcement and people getting stung [with tickets],” he said.

“If traffic gets worse, the incentive of carpooling just gets better and better.”

A review of the benefits of the T2 lanes and potential enforcement solutions was under way, the NZTA spokesperson said.