A solution to ease the congestion and sometimes chaos on Christchurch roads has been unveiled.
The Christchurch Transport Operations Centre was launched yesterday.
It will be similar to the system already in operation in Auckland and Wellington where roads will be watched in real-time and traffic lights phased to meet demands.
The city council, NZ Transport Agency and Environment Canterbury will be pooling their resources and working together under one roof managing highways and local roads as one network and better coordinating road works and closures.
Blue Star Taxis general manager Bob Wilkinson applauded the solution saying taxis will be less expensive for passengers.
"The traffic has been getting steadily worse and the trip times have taken longer," he said.
Bascik Transport managing director Tony Bascik said his drivers have been getting fatigued and have had to work longer hours than before the earthquakes.
"It would be fair to say it's very frustrating on them at peak parts of the day."
"I think it will be an excellent idea with the increase in traffic in the west part of Christchurch. There needs to be management at different times of the day and different flows and it should help with traffic congestion around road works. I think that with a city of our size it is long overdue.
Opzeeland Transport has also experienced frustration because of lower productivity, said managing director John van Opzeeland.
"Any traffic management that improves traffic flow and relieves congestion has to be good for anyone, for the commercial and private road users, especially now since Christchurch drivers have experienced a considerable number of delays because of road works of the last couple of years as a result of roadwork and population spread changes."
City council acting chief executive Jane Parfitt said it would ease some of the congestion faced following the earthquakes, but is just the first step.
There are plans to develop a system where road users will get emails and text alerts about the roads they often travel on.
"People of Christchurch know only too well about the rebuild. It's not just the roads that are being rebuilt but it's the underground infrastructure and the buildings as well so all of that adds up to a lot of chaos on the roads and a lot of driver frustration.
"This is about people moving around Christchurch and working together to make it happen."
Trials are being undertaken to improve traffic around work road sites. The first of these trials are scheduled to be completed in the next two months. There will be improvements in the number of road signs, road cones and overlapping work sites.
- By Jessica Schaap of The Star
