2 DOES A LEAKY ‘BYPASS’ REALLY HELP?
The ‘bypass’ is a ‘leaky’ roading structure - meaning it still criss-crosses with other arterial routes and is accessible at every junction. You may be able to move across town in a somewhat straighter line but you can forget about avoiding all those traffic lights and all those traffic jams.

3 LOSS OF HERITAGE AREAS
The ‘bypass’ will destroy two significant heritage areas: the Abel Smith/Willis Street junction and the intersection of Arthur Street, CubaStreet and Tonks Avenue – one of the oldest, undisturbed inner-city junctions in New Zealand. Tonks Avenue presents a rare array of family homes and workers’ cottages which have deteriorated badly under Transit NZ ownership. These historic precincts should be preserved for present and future generations. It makes good economic and environmental sense.

4 WALLS AND BARRIERS
The planned structures include noise barriers up to six metres high, and retaining walls near the Terrace Tunnel, which Transit NZ says will be “placed to facilitate Stage 3 development”, i.e. a full motorway². Is this the future look you want for the heart of your city?

6 TWO YEARS OF ROAD WORKS
The ‘bypass’ will take two years to construct. That’s two years of road works, construction clutter, noise and dust. Imagine what else the city could achieve in that time by way of real transport solutions.

7 CHILDREN AND ROADS
Everyone knows kids and roads don’t mix well, and this proposed ‘bypass’ brings more traffic into the vicinity of three schools. A study of child pedestrian injury in Auckland in the early 1990s showed an average urban traffic speed of over 40 kph was associated with a 150% increase in the risk of injury. The reduction of turning movements required and the ‘generous’ design curve of the new ‘bypass’ leg will encourage greater speeds. The proposed limit is 50 kph, but even Transit NZ has acknowledged that it will be difficult to constrain traffic speed along a two-lane one way road.

8 'INDUCED TRAFFIC' PAIN FOR NO GAIN
If people think that a new road will save them time and stress, they flock to use it, effectively compounding the congestion that the new road sought to relieve. This is the phenomenon called ‘induced traffic’. The Independent Peer Review commissioned by Transfund NZ predicted queues at the Terrace tunnel 2-3 years after completion of the 'bypass' and that the road would induce traffic in the 'bypass' corridor of Vivian and Buckle Streets. Various international studies and organisations conclude that building new roads induces traffic. In 1998 the European Conference of Transport Ministers stated conclusively that congestion could not be solved through building additional roads and that other solutions had to be found.

9 THE $24 MILLION DOLLAR MINUTE
The Independent Peer Review commissioned by Transfund found that the time savings would be "small"¹. The predictions for peak hour time savings on the ’bypass’ between the motorway’s Aotea Quay off ramp and the Basin Reserve range between 1.7 and 0.8 minutes. On some routes at some time you might save a little more – on other cross-town routes the trip is predicted to get longer. And this is before the effects of induced traffic are taken into account.