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Leave it to the Kiwis to find a creative solution to manage peak hour – but would the Auckland traffic trick work in Australia?
Typically, peak hour disrupts traffic flow – but what if traffic flow could disrupt peak hour? That's the thinking behind a unique lane management tool being used to circumvent congestion on the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
The machine, which is employed by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) – the peak body maintaining roads and transport in NZ – is able to change lane barriers to ensure steady traffic flow in busy periods on the bridge.
"This machine moves barriers on the Auckland Harbour Bridge to help keep you moving efficiently," the transport agency posted on its official Instagram page, alongside a video of the machine in action.
"It has two engines, moves like a crab, and picks up 16 of these 750-kilogram concrete blocks at a time. We change the lanes to cater for traffic flows."
The video has gone viral on Instagram, amassing a whopping 3.5 million views, with many users calling for the transport authorities in their own cities to implement the clever tool.
"We need this for the Sydney Harbour Bridge," several users wrote, with some even tagging Transport NSW's account to get their attention.
New Zealand first began using the moveable barrier system on the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1990 and it's been in place ever since, with a small handful of upgrades to improve speed.
While the barriers are manufactured locally in New Zealand, the innovative trucks – officially known as 'barrier transfer machines', unofficially called 'zipper trucks' – are sourced from the United States-based company Barrier Systems, which manufactures in California.
"Moveable lane barriers improve traffic flow by increasing the number of available lanes in the peak direction twice a day and maximising capacity on the bridge during peak times through the ‘tidal flow’ configuration," the NZTA website explains.
"In morning peaks the barrier is moved from a central position into a 5/3 (five lanes south and three lanes north) configuration. In evening peaks, the configuration switches to five lanes north and three lanes south. Outside of peak periods, the barrier is moved to the centre of the bridge to create four lanes in each direction."
While New Zealand pioneered the permanent use of this system on a bridge, it's not the only country in the world to deploy moveable traffic barriers.
Similar machines are also used in the US – including in San Diego, Washington DC and on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge – as well as in Canada.
The Golden Gate Bridge's Moveable Median Barrier was installed in 2015 at a total cost of $US30 million and has since contributed to a reduction in significant head-on collisions.
While Auckland's unusual traffic technology garnered plenty of fans on Instagram, not everyone thought it was a seamless solution.
"In Australia we use overhead lane lights…" one commenter pointed out, while another agreed "Or you could just use an overhead lighting system...".
Often known as Dynamic Junction Control or 'flex lanes', the aforementioned overhead lighting systems are used in Australia, as well as parts of Europe and the US, and essentially swap physical barriers for coloured overhead symbols to control access to lanes based on traffic volumes.
Susannah Guthrie has been a journalist for over a decade, covering everything from world news to fashion, entertainment, health and now cars. Having previously worked across titles like The New Daily, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, People Magazine and Cosmopolitan, Susannah now relishes testing family cars with the help of her husband and three-year-old son.
