Northern Gateway - motorbikes to pay $2 like a car

[Devil]

Benefit equally - yeah right. A 'car' can take 5 to 7 people for $2 through there.... with a trailer...
I will continue to use the old route either way.

[Rogue Rider]

My notes and observations: well I undertook a test today, i measured the distance of the old route which is the scenic route, and the apparent shorter convenient route through the tunnels.

Yes, tunnel route is shorter, but only by a mere 3.43km. It is also boring and straight with the only interesting things the tunnel, the sausage over bridge and getting to bird the camera's of the revenue hogs.
The old route is just under 10km, the new shorter route is just over 6km. The time difference to travel is only a mere 3-6 minutes depending how you ride...... The old route has awesome corners, tight and wide, and a nice hill treat with astonishing views. It too is also convenient as it has a fuel stop and cheap food...... oh and not much traffic these days.

Here's the cliche: the LTNZ say its going to be $2 as the apparent "Fairness" is based on the convenience factor...... It's only 3km you muppets..... $4 of toll equals up 60km riding time on my bike, 30 if I am gunning it, but that is still 10 times more than the toll route.
secondly, it takes 2 minutes, plus wait time of 4 minutes, and dismount and parking and walk to machine time of 1.5 minutes to manually pay for the toll.
It takes 4 minutes and 22 seconds to pay toll over the phone, all depending on the operator..... sometimes they do sound quite sexy, but in reality they are 400lb gypsies who can't get a public job.....
It takes 7 minutes to pay at BP, if machine is functioning correctly,
And lastly on the internet, it takes 2 minutes 40 seconds if you have broadband, on dialup........ wel 6 minutes and wait wait wait..... screw that lol.
So convenience, what a joke, to save 3 mins of travel, you still end up burning more time using the toll road to flippin pay for the stupid thing.... and if you don't do it and wait for it to come in the mail, add $2 servicing fee....... wooohoooop

Now for the conclusion: Value for money, and convenience, if it ain't free, guessin you would have to be a mug to use the toll route....... I know I won't be.

Stay upright, not up tight. Cagers can pay, leave the scenic route for bikes. Maybe the toll would be worth it if the road was like Autobahn and had no speed limit, I'd pay $10 for that lol.

[Phreak]

Motorway = BORING!!!

Back roads = WAY MORE FUN!!! (and cheaper too!)

Fuck 'em, just like the wankers behind ACC!

[Qkchk]

Yes, tunnel route is shorter, but only by a mere 3.43km. It is also boring and straight with the only interesting things the tunnel, the sausage over bridge and getting to bird the camera's of the revenue hogs.
The old route is just under 10km, the new shorter route is just over 6km. The time difference to travel is only a mere 3-6 minutes depending how you ride...... The old route has awesome corners, tight and wide, and a nice hill treat with astonishing views. It too is also convenient as it has a fuel stop and cheap food...... oh and not much traffic these days.



And with the $2 you save by NOT using the toll road, you can recover the cost of the extra 3.43kms worth of fuel and maintenance.
Cost about the same either way, just takes a couple mins more on the old road + added bonus - corners!
It ain't rocket science is it?

[nosebleed]

Motorway = BORING!!!

Back roads = WAY MORE FUN!!! (and cheaper too!)

Fuck 'em, just like the wankers behind ACC!

In all fairness tho, as far as NZ motorways are concerned this 5k stretch between Orewa and the tunnels has got be one of the nicest.

Its still got an untortured surface with sweeping bends and changes in elevation. It also has 'natural' surroundings and a great view from the viaduct on a clear sunny day.

[Mom]

I have been thinking about this. Apparently we gain the same benefits as cars do when we use this little bit of road, so we pay the same as cars. This makes us equal to cars? If one government department have decreed we are the same as cars then that decision should be extended to ACC levies too :yes: Same levy for bikes as for cars :D

As has been pointed out above, you would have to be a mug to take the toll road on a bike if you have to pay, the other route is not that much further and more interesting anyway, albeit at 80kph (watch for plod) but if you do ride the road, then I encourage you to pay by phone, costs the maximum to collect that way.

[Swoop]

it takes 2 minutes, plus wait time of 4 minutes, and dismount and parking and walk to machine time of 1.5 minutes to manually pay for the toll.
It takes 4 minutes and 22 seconds to pay toll over the phone,
It takes 7 minutes to pay at BP, if machine is functioning correctly,
And lastly on the internet, it takes 2 minutes 40 seconds if you have broadband, on dialup........ wel 6 minutes and wait wait wait..... screw that lol.
It only takes a second to put a boot across the plate though...:blip:

[wynw]

I have been thinking about this. Apparently we gain the same benefits as cars do when we use this little bit of road, so we pay the same as cars. This makes us equal to cars? If one government department have decreed we are the same as cars then that decision should be extended to ACC levies too :yes: Same levy for bikes as for cars :D


don't talk too loud Mom or they will want to put car rego up again too...but yeah fully agree with you.

[RiderInBlack]

Fuck them, I'm not pay that toll as long as they continue putting WRB it. Will cover my bike reg for the length of the extention or take SH16. They don't care about Bike Riders so why should I care for them.

[BigB]

Watch out for them.....I got a Toll payment notice today....even though they officially don't start charging till June. Apparently my bike was miss identified as a car (I know it's a big Honda, but a car!) Rung them and it's going to be wiped (till I get the next notice) Having worked on the project for 4 years and given them a bloodly good result this is how NZTA repay us.

[Laava]

If you had a t shirt on [big one] over your bike gear and it had loads of plate font numbers on it, would the machine be fooled into confusion or is the plate reading software really fuckin good?

[Swoop]

...or is the plate reading software really fuckin good?
Going by normal standards of doing anything in NZ, the cheapest option will have won out in the building process. Hopefully the same happened with the cameras & software.:rofl:

[Laava]

So some clever shirt designs maybe the go then? A whole lot of random 5 character groups[have to check they are not legitimate plate no's!] spaced out on your back?

[Rogue Rider]

It's poohs I tell you. Got another response from a nob called wayne carrol email... Wayne.Carroll@nzta.govt.nz. They all feed the same line of B.S.... The point that we all get the same bennifit and privelage of saving the whopping 3 minutes from the huge distance saving of 3.4km.
I bet, we all feel so honoured that we are considered equal to cars, especially with the coupled cop outs with acc, registration and the descrimination by the popo...... (owh a bike, lets pull it over, must be something we can ping em for.....) Owh bikes have lots of accidents.... lets ping em heaps.... doesn't matter that 2/3's of bike accidents are caused by cars, and the majorrity of the rest is really made up by motorcross riders- who pay nothing, and farmers who ride quads........ Yes some of us make errors, but not to justify the ballance.
Bikers are unfairly targeted, and now with the toll on the motorway its the last straw of stupidity. Cubical filled seat warming bureaucratic nob bobbers, (I made that up) should be forced to ride bikes instead of there collegues. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I just want to line em all up and wheelie over them until they are a part of the road themselves.

[disenfranchised]

Yep got my letter today...I never use the stupid toll road. So how much did the dumbarses spend sending out letters to what appears to be all registered bikes in the Auckland Region? They are already behind in their revenue gathering just by doing that.

So they've wasted money sending out letters?
And now they're going to have to update all the signs which right now say that bikes are free.
Plus being a government department, they probably had to pay several people for their time in some kind of consultation group to dream up this genius idea.
Plus whatever other advertising or media releases they've done.

Which as everyone seems to agree will result in no extra revenue, as all bikers will use the old route.

If this was a private company, and not the governemt, someone would probably get fired over this

[Ferkletastic]

fact is a biker does get the same benefit as a car or truck or whatever using the road. They're not charging for wear and tear they're charging to cover the construction costs.

Seriously, bikers have absolutely no reason to claim special treatment in this case, if you use the road pay the toll and stop ya whining.

Man us kiwis are a whinging lot at times.

[Tank]

It's poohs I tell you. Got another response from a nob called wayne carrol email... Wayne.Carroll@nzta.govt.nz. They all feed the same line of B.S....

Meh - I dont really care that much - and I used the 'nice' ride over the hill anyways.

BUT - if you really are that upset - I suggest putting Waynes email address on as many man-boy love websites as you can google. Its bound to pop up at some time.

[swbarnett]

fact is a biker does get the same benefit as a car or truck or whatever using the road. They're not charging for wear and tear they're charging to cover the construction costs.
In this case why does a truck get charged more than a car? I don't object to paying, it's just a bit rich to charge a bike at the car rate when the car rate is lower than the truck rate.

[BoristheBiter]

it might have been covered but where does the camera aim?
is it in the middle so if we ride on the line it can't read the plate?
Just asking this as there are lines and hatches in the middle of the lanes i guess to pick up cars.

[Ferkletastic]

It's pretty standard to charge commercial users a higher rate for most things. But realistically I just don't see how we're entitled to a free ride on this one. Also like has been said already over and over, just take the nicer back way or man up and pay your two dollars.

[Maha]

it might have been covered but where does the camera aim?
is it in the middle so if we ride on the line it can't read the plate?
Just asking this as there are lines and hatches in the middle of the lanes i guess to pick up cars.

I think the system is a little more sophisticated than that.
I needed to use it one day in the work van. I asked Anne to call the 0800 number and pay, when she rang they said to her ''yes that vehicle has just gone through''
Dodging the camera wont be an option I wouldn't have thought.

[bogan]

If you had a t shirt on [big one] over your bike gear and it had loads of plate font numbers on it, would the machine be fooled into confusion or is the plate reading software really fuckin good?

cud work, though any programmer with common sense would shunt images that cannot be identified to a human operator, in which case you're fucked.


fact is a biker does get the same benefit as a car or truck or whatever using the road. They're not charging for wear and tear they're charging to cover the construction costs.

So how much would the construction cost have been if the road was built only to withstand 300kg (bikes) vehicles instead of 2000kg (cars), or 40,000kg (trucks)?

[swbarnett]

It's pretty standard to charge commercial users a higher rate for most things.
Good point. I hadn't considered that.

But realistically I just don't see how we're entitled to a free ride on this one.
I don't really care either way. Not just because I seldom use it but I never did understand why we should use it for free in the first place.

[davereid]

I never did understand why we should use it for free in the first place.

We don't contribute to congestion, in fact we are part of the solution.

If we didn't cause the problem, why should we pay for the solution ?

[MarkH]

It's pretty standard to charge commercial users a higher rate for most things. But realistically I just don't see how we're entitled to a free ride on this one. Also like has been said already over and over, just take the nicer back way or man up and pay your two dollars.

Except that they charge nothing for being a commercial user - any taxi or courier car or van will just pay $2 and a private user in a truck (like a horse float for example) will pay $4.
I agree that we are not entitled to a free ride and I wouldn't be complaining if we were being asked to pay $1 to use the road (not that I wouldn't generally go the more fun route most of the time anyway). There is nothing unfair about $4 for trucks, $2 for cars and $1 for motorcycles.

To be honest I had thought that right from the start it had been decided that $1 was fair for bikes, but admin costs made it not really worth collecting that so they let us use the road for free. But they claim that it costs them 14c for someone to pay by web so a return trip of $1 each way is $2 minus 14c for cost of making the payment equals $1.86 towards the cost of the road.

As a protest I avoided the toll road on Thursday night & Friday night last week while in a car - that is $4 less to the jerk-offs!

[swbarnett]

We don't contribute to congestion, in fact we are part of the solution.

If we didn't cause the problem, why should we pay for the solution ?
Indeed - another good point.

[MarkH]

So how much would the construction cost have been if the road was built only to withstand 300kg (bikes) vehicles instead of 2000kg (cars), or 40,000kg (trucks)?

I would suggest $0.00 - if only bikes went that direction there would have been no reason to do anything at all, there is nothing wrong with the other route. The number of bikes using the route isn't enough to pay for a tunnel so small that it would only be usable by a small child crawling through, so only for bikes it wouldn't be worth building a tunnel at all.

The only real problem with the old route was the slower vehicles using it (like logging trucks) that held up all other motorists. Motorcyclists are benefiting from the toll road even when going the old way.

[Ixion]

We got quite a favourbale press mention in the Harold. The article was headlined about decreasing the speed limit over the Brynderwyns (don't get me started, just don't), but we got half the space. The protest rally on the 27th is about ACC though not toll roads. Though , who knows. There are definately going to be some surprises on the 27th



In other motoring news, motorcyclists are furious the Transport Agency intends ending free rides and charging them $2 to use the Northern Gateway toll road on SH1 between Orewa and Puhoi from June 1.

Although the agency insists it is only fair to charge them the same toll as car owners, the Biker Rights Organisation of New Zealand says motorcycles cause far less wear and tear on roads.
"Here we have one Government department [the Transport Agency] saying motorcyclists should be treated just the same as cars, and another Government department - ACC - saying motorcycles are different to cars and should be treated differently," said Biker Rights Auckland president Les Mason.

He was referring to higher proposed increases in accident compensation levies for motorcyclists, who he said plan a large protest rally in central Auckland on June 27.

Mr Mason predicted that most recreational motorcyclists would opt for the alternative free coastal route between Orewa and Puhoi, but said the agency could face problems collecting arrears from commuters who might keep riding on the toll road while refusing to pay up.

The agency says it collects tolls to repay a 35-year loan of $159 million towards construction of the $356 million road, rather than to cover maintenance costs, and motorcyclists enjoy the same time savings as car drivers.

Mr Mason denied that, saying the coastal route was faster for motorcycles and savings offered by the toll road were cancelled out by the time it took to pay, including removing protective gloves and helmets at collection stations.

[Dutchee]

What I don't understand is, I got a letter a couple/few weeks back saying I'd have to start paying fees for the road from June 1.
It was only addressed to me. I expected a second letter to turn up for my husband. It hasn't.
Now, if they've got a programme to ignore the 2nd person at the same address, why not merge the names.
If they had someone sit and go through the list, they'd have been better off sending out the 2nd letter.
I've only once used the road on my own (it's usually when a few of us are going for a ride), and I really hate it. I last rode it to see if I hated it and to get to my parents' place quicker, but won't be going that way again.