The problem is - we have too many cars

Like most big cities in the world, Auckland has a lot of traffic problems. There are so many people living in the city, and all trying to drive to and from work at the same time, that the motorway gets very full. When it stops dead, it is called traffic gridlock, and it is a growing problem all over the world.

There are some places on the motorway that are particularly bad. It can take some people hours to get home at night. If there is an accident, people can be stuck in traffic for a very long time. This is a photo of cars crossing the Harbour Bridge at night time. You can see that it is rush hour, and the cars are only crawling along. Auckland's population is growing at a rate of 25,000 per year. There are already 560,000 cars and 92,000 heavy motor vehicles registered in the region. On average, 145,000 vehicles cross the Auckland Harbour Bridge every day, and 200,000 vehicles travel along the Southern Motorway between Gillies Avenue and Khyber Pass Road.

Mr Pereira is a traffic signals engineer for the Auckland City Council. He has about 30 TV screens and computer screens which he watches, to see how traffic lights in central Auckland are working. If there is a problem, he can override computer systems and take control of traffic lights at intersections to try to ease congestion. He needs to do this if there is an accident on the motorway, or heavy rain. If the motorway is in gridlock, all the main streets in the city start to slow down and get blocked too.