Motorway emergency shoulder lanes not for motorcycles
Transit New Zealand and the New Zealand Police have alerted motorcyclists to the fact that they are not allowed to use
the emergency shoulder stopping lanes and bus lanes on Auckland’s motorway network.
While this happening throughout the motorway network, it is a particular problem along State Highway 1 on the North
Shore where increasing numbers of motorcycles are using the emergency shoulder lane, especially during morning peak
periods when passenger-carrying buses uses the shoulder as a bus lane.
Transit’s director of strategy and traffic, Terry Brown, says motorcyclists mistakenly believe they are able to use the
motorway shoulders because motorcycles are allowed to use Auckland City’s buslanes.
“The fact is it is very dangerous for motorcycles on motorway shoulder lanes because at any time a motorcar or truck
could pull into the lane to make an emergency stop without seeing them.
“It is also dangerous because they have to merge and weave with motorway traffic at on and off ramps,” he says. “For
example, during morning peak traffic periods, more than 1100 vehicles cross the emergency shoulder lane every hour to
exit SH1 at the Tristram Avenue and Northcote Road off ramps. These two off ramps alone illustrate how potentially
dangerous it is for motorcycles to us the shoulder lane. The motorway environment is quite different to that of Auckland
city where motorcycles are allowed to use the much slower local road and buslane network.”
Mr Brown says that from now on the police will be rigidly enforcing the ‘no-go’ rule for motorcycles on the motorway
shoulder.