Traffic congestion levels aren't as high as they were before New Zealand's COVID-19 alert level 4 lockdown, the Automobile Association (AA) says.
Data shows traffic volumes are down 10 percent in all of the country's main centres compared to what the AA saw at the end of February.
AA infrastructure adviser Barney Irvine says a lot of people are continuing to work from home - which is having an impact - but also the state of the economy.
"Less economic activity means less driving - less driving, of course, means less congestion but that factor of people working from home is really important as well," he told The AM Show on Monday.
"We've got about 20 percent of people working from home - according to the latest figures - that's compared to around 9 percent prior [to COVID-19]."
In Irvine's opinion, congestion will remain low should the economic slump as a result of COVID-19 continue.
"It [congestion] won't go away but it will be in a bit of a holding pattern, and we won't see the ramped growth we've seen in recent years," he said.
Irvine said pre-COVID congestion will eventually come back but it was a question of when.
He said the main challenge was minimising the impacts of congestion in New Zealand's main centres while also having a fully-functioning economy.
Andrea Williamson, the NZ Transport Agency's Auckland system manager, told Radio New Zealand last month fewer people commuting to the airport was also contributing to less traffic.
"If there are fewer cars on the motorway, then there's a smaller queue which means that everyone is a little bit happier when they get on the motorway."
