[NZ] New Zealand Highways

[Moveax]

Originally Posted by KIWIKAAS

That road used to be called a motorway but the title was revoked about 10 years ago. It's what you would call a ''super 2'' in Australia (a 2 lane highway with overpasses). These days in NZ to be called a motorway the road must be at least 2 lanes each way, divided with grade seperated intersections only.

And also no pedestrians or cyclists I assume, considering that Ngauranga Gorge meets those requirements but isn't classified motorway. It has a footpath along the edge although I don't know who's nuts enough to use it.

[KIWIKAAS]

I don't know why the Ngauranga Gorge isn't classified motorway. I always thought that ''footpath'' was more of a impact zone for falling rocks?

Up untill the early 1990s a highway only had to be pedestrian free to be called so. There were some very wierd examples of normal 2 lane highway and suddenly there would be a ''Motorway Begins'' sign without any visible change in the road condition.

[KIWIKAAS]

Some scenic highways in NZ.

North Island

Taranaki


Central North Island (Ruapehu region)





South Island



Cromwell


Lake Wakatipu


Milford Road





Central South Island
Mt Cook


baaaah


Lindis Pass





South Island Coast


Fox Glacier township

[KIWIKAAS]

Auckland harbour bridge



Southern end Auckland Harbour Bridge and Westhaven

[ChrisZwolle]

That's what i call driving

[KIWIKAAS]

Wellington urban Motorway (Parliment is bottom right of image)



Ngauranga Interchange - Wellington



Nothern Motorway - Christchurch



Southern Motorway - Dunedin

[go_leafs_go02]

Originally Posted by Alex Von Königsberg

When overtaking is permitted in both directions, they use a white single broken line (like in Europe). When it is permitted only in one direction, they use a solid yellow line and a broken white line right next to it (on the passing side). When overtaking is prohibited in both direction, a yellow solid double line is used just like in Canada and the US. I don't know the logic behind it though...

Ah thanks. Makes sense. Don't see the real logic behind using a white dotted line and a yellow solid line, but whatever!

thanks for the explination. I am now informed

[KIWIKAAS]

It's quite simple. A yellow line means ''don't cross''. A broken white line means ''overtake if safe''.
It's basically the same markings as in North America before they changed all centre markings (including broken lines) to yellow in the early 70s.

[Alex Von Königsberg]

In North America, yellow central line (whether broken or solid) indicates that it separates opposite traffics. You may or may not cross it depending whether it is solid or broken, but then the colour would not matter. As much as I am a fan of European road marking, I still have to admit that yellow central marking works better than white.

[Jean Luc]

Originally Posted by KIWIKAAS

Ngauranga Interchange - Wellington

Is the Hutt Valley Road, that heads north from this interchange along the water's edge, motorway standard?

[KIWIKAAS]

The Hutt Road ceases to be classified as a motorway shortly after this interchange. It is however being upgraded to motorway standard.
The Hutt motorway continues towards the CBD (bottom left) to become the Wellington Urban motorway as it passes the CBD.
The Ngauranga Gorge Rd (expressway standard) heads north to become the Northern motorway about 3kms north of the interchange.

[ren0312]

Originally Posted by Jean Luc

Isn't there a motorway running north out of Dunedin for a short distance? See here: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-...2799&z=11&om=1

What's with the non English sounding place names, as someone whom is not from New Zealand, but who speaks English, I really find the English sounding place names easier to pronounce than the non English sounding ones.

[ChrisZwolle]

I like it. It sounds exotic, like in Hawaii.

[KIWIKAAS]

It's all part of Polynesia (which Hawaii is also part of). The langauges spoken in the region are strikingly similar to one another. Chris would probably have less trouble pronouncing the Maori names correctly due to the phonetic spelling (as is the case in Dutch).

[Moveax]

Originally Posted by Jean Luc

Is the Hutt Valley Road, that heads north from this interchange along the water's edge, motorway standard?

No but it's close, and getting closer. Next month the first of several projects will start. This first one will remove the first 3 sets of traffic lights and replace them with an interchange and overbridges. An access road will be built so that properties along the highway won't have direct access onto what should be a motorway. Within the next 5 years is construction of another interchange at the SH58/SH2 intersection and starting the design work for another. Outside of the next 10 years the last traffic light intersection (on the median divided four lane section of SH2) will be replaced with an interchange.

Within the next 10 years all the minor intersections will hopefully either be closed or replaced with left-in left-out. At the very least the minor intersections will have some kind of "safety improvement" done. There is one minor intersection, the one which is next to the sea further north) which will quite likely undergo a "major upgrade" as is described (somewhere can't remember where) as part of another project to link between SH1 just south of the Tawa interchange and SH2 at Petone which will probably involve the replacement of the only existing grade separation on the highway at the moment, the Petone over bridge.

[ssiguy2]

Beautiful roads! Gawd how I would love to visit New Zealand.

Those Auckland freeways are far superior to anything Vancouver has.

[KIWIKAAS]

A couple more of Auckland

State Highway 1. Northern Motorway





Auckland Harbour Bridge



Downtown



Southern Motorway

[TheCat]

Cool, round speed limit signs

[Æsahættr]

I really like the two-lane yet divided highway

[TheCat]

Originally Posted by lotrfan55345

I really like the two-lane yet divided highway

That setup only makes sense to me if it is a 2+1 configuration. Otherwise, how do you pass?