Average speed (nmc)

Archives of Posts to the NZ MX5 List back in 2006
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Eric West

Average speed (nmc)

Post by Eric West » Wed May 10, 2006 2:37 pm

Following on from the recent gripe about Auckland's traffic, I do a
mixed bag of driving, Auckland Motorways, suburban, city and just
occassionally a good run in the country. My car computer has an "Average
Speed" reading, which around Auckland over a week is almost always
43km/h.

It would be interesting to see how this compares with drivers in say
Wellington or Christchurch doing similarly mixed driving.

Any takers?

Eric

Tim

Average speed (nmc)

Post by Tim » Wed May 10, 2006 8:36 pm

Hi all, the hype about Christchurch's relatively uncluttered roads does
become a little tiresome. OK all of you in Auckland have a right to be
spewing at your outrageous congestion - but I have driven around up there
(usually outside peak times) - the roads are great and you do have motorways
going everywhere - it's a breeze to get around. The roads here are rubbish.
The only bit of joke 'motorway' (about 10km total !!!) that we have was
built back in the early 1970's and it doesn't actually run through any of
the city - just from a few k's north to a traffic light choked 'main road'
(read 'back road' anywhere else in the world) that plods, lurches and bumps
its way another 10 or 15 km through traffic clogged suburbs finally into
town. The only other viable northern access to Chch down Marshlands Rd (a
rough 2 lane goat track)is a daily exercise in total frustration as queues
form for crawling km's (43kph would be luxury Eric!). The so called by-pass
of Chch around by the airport is a total embarrassment - visitors from
overseas gape in open mouthed astonishment when they realise that it is a
'main road'. So yes Auckland your traffic woes need fixing pronto - but
please just remember that your population is only 3x ours but you already
have much more per head of population than your southern cousins. (God it's
hard to not get political on this one and start putting the boot into the
leeches in Wellington!) Tim.

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Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 20:56:26 +1200
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On 10/05/06, Tim <tim.maggie@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
... (God it's hard to not get political on this one and start putting
the boot into the leeches in Wellington!)
Oi!! We ain't all leeches in Wellington!!

Eric West

Average speed (nmc)

Post by Eric West » Thu May 11, 2006 9:39 am

Hi Tim,

Yes, having travelled round NZ extensively I know that other places also
have it bad. However, given the mixed bag of driving that I do, no two
weeks are ever the same, I am fascinated by the fact that my average
speed over a week is nearly always 43 km/h. It was in the BMW, which I
have now replaced with a VW Golf, and guess what, it is still 43 KM/h in
the Golf. One might suspect that that is the overall average speed of
much traffic in Auckland because my driving is fairly typical, although
I do a bit more of it than most.

I am interested in how my speed compares with elsewhere, because if it
is significantly better or worse in say Wellington, then it probably
gives an indication of how bad or good Auckland traffic really is

Eric

________________________________

From: e-admin@mx5club.org.nz [mailto:e-admin@mx5club.org.nz] On Behalf
Of Tim
Sent: Wednesday, 10 May 2006 8:37 p.m.
To: 'MX5List'
Subject: RE: Average speed (nmc)


Hi all, the hype about Christchurch's relatively uncluttered roads does
become a little tiresome. OK all of you in Auckland have a right to be
spewing at your outrageous congestion - but I have driven around up
there (usually outside peak times) - the roads are great and you do have
motorways going everywhere - it's a breeze to get around. The roads here
are rubbish. The only bit of joke 'motorway' (about 10km total !!!)
that we have was built back in the early 1970's and it doesn't actually
run through any of the city - just from a few k's north to a traffic
light choked 'main road' (read 'back road' anywhere else in the world)
that plods, lurches and bumps its way another 10 or 15 km through
traffic clogged suburbs finally into town. The only other viable
northern access to Chch down Marshlands Rd (a rough 2 lane goat track)is
a daily exercise in total frustration as queues form for crawling km's
(43kph would be luxury Eric!). The so called by-pass of Chch around by
the airport is a total embarrassment - visitors from overseas gape in
open mouthed astonishment when they realise that it is a 'main road'.
So yes Auckland your traffic woes need fixing pronto - but please just
remember that your population is only 3x ours but you already have much
more per head of population than your southern cousins. (God it's hard
to not get political on this one and start putting the boot into the
leeches in Wellington!) Tim.

simple
Why yes, actually I do run this site.
Why yes, actually I do run this site.
Posts: 129
Joined: Mon May 01, 2006 5:19 pm

Average speed (nmc)

Post by simple » Thu May 11, 2006 5:13 pm

Eric West wrote:
I am fascinated by the fact that my average speed over a week is
nearly always 43 km/h.
I do very little peak-time travel, but my faintly relevant input to this
interesting meander is that whenever I am trying to figure travel time
around Auckland, assuming 60kph is often a good guess. I find that the
combination of 100kph motorway travel, plus 50kph suburban travel, plus
random traffic effects, means that covering a kilometre per minute is a
good first-estimate of travel time for me. This seems to work out
regardless of where I am going.

(Note: 100kph & 50kph are 'estimates' of my travel velocities. There
may or may not be a typically-5kph upward variation on those speeds)

(Note2: I have 80,000km of GPS logs of my driving, from which I could
extract specific figures, but I'm afraid that solid data would probably
disprove my fluffy theories :-)

If I were unlucky enough to be travelling at peak times, my estimates
would be wildly different, and my sanity would be drastically
compromised.

Karl.

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