- Auckland Transport has revealed the city’s 16 most congested arterial roads.
- The worst choke points span the city but most are in central areas that feed into the CBD.
- The NZ Herald asked Auckland Transport to identify the most congested roads in 2025.
Auckland Transport has identified the city’s 16 most congested arterial roads to the NZ Herald, none of which will likely surprise the commuters who use them, but which highlight a gridlock crisis that is most severe in central areas feeding into the CBD. Data from the 2025 peak in February reveals that some commuters are traveling barely faster than a brisk walk during morning rush hours.
The slowest speeds in the city were recorded at Manukau Road/Broadway in Newmarket, and Ponsonby Road/Newton Road in the city, where morning peak speeds plummeted to just 8km/h. Similarly, traffic at Raleigh Road/Lake Road on the North Shore averaged only 9km/h.
In terms of total time spent in transit for specific stretches of road, Ti Rakau Drive saw the longest recorded morning travel time at just under 16 minutes, followed by Gillies Ave at 13.4 minutes. The data indicates that the bulk of this morning traffic originates from suburbs immediately surrounding the city centre, specifically Grey Lynn, Mt Eden, and Remuera. AT sources its data from an external provider, as well as from vehicles, smartphones and other mobile devices, much in the same way Google Maps does.
The worsening congestion is attributed to rapid population growth in Auckland’s outskirts, which necessitates longer commutes to access services and work. While congestion charging is being considered as a solution, geographic experts warn it could have the unintended consequence of pushing heavy traffic onto local residential roads as drivers attempt to bypass toll zones. Currently, traffic into the CBD increases by as much as 50 percent on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.