Ladies Mile gridlock today - the new normal

Police have told Crux that a minor driver behaviour incident near Lake Hayes has nothing to do with traffic coming to a complete stop along SH6 Ladies Mile this morning.

The consensus seems to be that this is the new normal - and set to get a lot worse.

It was the same story yesterday with traffic coming out of the Queenstown CBD. There was a solid queue at 10am from Stanley Street in the centre of town to the BP roundabout at Frankton - six kilometres of bumper-to-bumper traffic on a blue sky day, when it is not summer holidays, nor peak hour commute time, nor ski season. 

Like today - it's just a normal day in paradise. Sunny skies, pleasant temperatures - and cars stuck in traffic, going nowhere. 

This is also before the planned expansion of housing along Ladies Mile and the southern corridor route from Jack's Point and Hanley's Farm - all merging at the BP roundabout where expansion work is scheduled to last three years.

Police at the scene told Crux this minor traffic issue was not the cause of today's delays.

There is no indication that any of the planning authorities have an answer to this traffic dilemma. One of the police officers at today's minor Ladies Mile incident did suggest that the district needed to look to overseas countries like Japan to learn lessons on how to build infrastructure. 

He's probably right.