OPINION: The AA congestion report out this morning makes sobering reading.
In fact, you should be able to read it on your way to work this morning as you inch through the traffic to be someone's wage slave for the day. Actually, don't do that because I'll get in trouble.
I hit the traffic heading south at Albany last Thursday and it took an hour to cross the bridge. That was against the traffic.
It's unproductive, it's uneconomic and it amounts to 85 hours a year sitting in your car - isn't that a hideous thought? Two weeks solid sitting idle in your car, and all signs show it's getting worse.
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This is real and it's affecting you now, so what's the Government done to address it? Not much. They started badly by cancelling some important roading projects and then they got busy stuffing up KiwiBuild.
The truth is that two of the big city roading projects haven't started yet.
The roads out of Auckland will get a sticking plaster and a lick of paint rather than a state-of-the-art highway, petrol prices have never been higher thanks to increased taxes and Jacinda Ardern's light rail promise to the airport is light years away, if it ever gets here.
Aucklanders should demand better from our central and civic leaders. Let's stop the talk, the mind-numbing reports - time and time again we consult, we talk, and nothing happens.
The promise is that by 2028 all this congestion will be locked in at 2016 levels, but none of the experts believe that because the authorities have been stagnant.
And one more thing - that delay in Auckland last Thursday? It was because a cop had pulled someone over.
It can't have been for speeding, but we all gawked and it slowed things terribly. I urge police, if no one's hurt, take the car and offending driver off the motorway, down the off-ramp and discuss it away from the chaos. Your approach right now only adds to an already frustrating and desperate situation.
Duncan Garner is host of The AM Show.
