{"id":346321,"date":"2026-03-25T02:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346321\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T02:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:47:09","slug":"fuel-prices-keep-drivers-off-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346321\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel prices keep drivers off roads"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Susan Edmunds<\/a>\u00a0of RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n

Rising fuel prices appear to be keeping some travellers off the roads in the main centres.<\/p>\n

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub helped RNZ compile NZ Transport Agency data showing traffic at sites throughout the country.<\/p>\n

It shows Auckland’s light vehicle traffic numbers are down 2.2 percent and Wellington 4.5 percent.<\/p>\n

Christchurch’s are up and heavy vehicle activity is also up across the country.<\/p>\n

“Essentially what we are seeing in the very latest data from Auckland and Wellington is the volume of car driving has come off a bit, and that suggests that people are responding to the increase in prices and the uncertainty around fuel supply.”<\/p>\n

He said that was a trend that was likely to continue.<\/p>\n

“I think prices have risen even more since then and high prices discourage people from driving, so it’s not surprising.”<\/p>\n

He said the early shift was likely to be among people who were able to choose to work from home but some people would find that difficult.<\/p>\n

“We remember back during Covid, those people who were essential workers still had to come to work. Back then it was about exposure to virus, now it’s about exposure to cost.”<\/p>\n

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said it would take time to show the trend in the data.<\/p>\n

“Some people will still be burning through the remaining fuel they might have purchased beforehand.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s more one of those things that, given we have heard of a high level of public transport use, it does seem like there are some early suggestions that people are moving their sort of transport means and methods.<\/p>\n

“But I think probably too early to make it definitive that you’re seeing an absolute switch in activity.”<\/p>\n

AA spokesperson Terry Collins said he had noticed an increase in public transport use.<\/p>\n

“The train to Greytown last week was chocka with 56 standing.”<\/p>\n

At Gaspy, founder Mike Newton said he had heard from a number of people who were driving less or switching to cycling.<\/p>\n

“People are definitely looking for alternatives.”<\/p>\n

People who were able to work from home were likely to be doing so more often, he said.<\/p>\n

But he said the drop in crude oil prices in recent days should help to stop prices from increasing as quickly.<\/p>\n

“There’s so much uncertainty … I’m not sure we’ll see a drop but we might see the price levelling.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Susan Edmunds\u00a0of RNZ Rising fuel prices appear to be keeping some travellers off the roads in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-346321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}