The "Commute"

[thehovel]

Saw this in the herald:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=12002272

Don't any of these "thorough' journalists ever consider a motorcycle? I'm sure even a 125cc scooter would be quicker here.

I commuted for 20 odd years from Mt Wellington to Beach Haven about 25 km. It takes about 30 minutes. Your close order riding really gets up there when you ride dally. One day a truck inverted it's self on the Victoria Fly Over about 3:00pm(as they do), getting rid of the truck was no problem the 7 or so yards of soil on the other hand had to be shoveled up by hand. I left work at 3:30 pm hit stationary traffic as so as I entered the motorway. I filtered through to the Nelson St off ramp where a cop car was directing traffic off. I rode over to the cop who was having a look at proceedings further down the motorway and asked what was happening. The cop told me and I back tracked to Nelson St and rejoined the motorway a Fanshore St. I got home about 4:10 pm. A work mate who also lives in Beach Haven and left at the same time got home at 7:30 pm.
IMHO if just 5% of motorists rode m/bikes there would be no congestion at all.

The quickest I have done the trip from Mt Wellington to Glenfield shop is 20minutes but that was being very naughty.

[MarkH]

it's a little disingenuous to not include motorised two wheel traffic

does anyone who commutes on motorbike that way regularly have any comment?

I'd guess that 12km they travelled would still be slow going due to the need to be careful in traffic. My guess would be ~20 minutes on a reasonable commuting motorcycle/scooter.

Yesterday I went for a ride, decided to pop up to Auckland to visit a friend. It is 135km by the shortest route, 200km by the route I took. I had a lot of fun and when I got onto the motorway it was flowing pretty good, but I did end up lane-splitting for part of the trip because . . . well, I was on a bike so fuck sitting in barely moving traffic! I probably saved 5-10 minutes, but in very heavy traffic I would save a LOT more time.

I moved out of Auckland 5 years ago, the traffic is definitely one thing I DON'T miss! I also don't miss the cost of rent, I live so cheap now I have been able to afford a new motorcycle!

Before I moved out of Auckland I commuted on a Burgman 400, that worked pretty well. It was fast enough to travel the motorway at 100kph and was pretty easy to use at slower speeds. It had enough storage between the top box and under the seat to do my grocery shopping. I did change to a 'proper' bike once I moved out of the city though because the Burgman was definitely more suited to city riding (Burg=city, man=man - even the name tells you it is a city vehicle). If I moved back to Auckland now, I'd consider selling the Nissan Leaf and buying a Zero Motorcycles DSR as my city commuter - I think that would work really well.

[BMWST?]

i am not familiar with the route they took but a road bike would be almost as fast as a 50 cc scooter.On a flat road with a good surface its easy to do 35 km hr on a road bike