For some time I have wondered about the point of NZTA spending $50 million-plus on the Welcome Bay tunnel when the same volumes of traffic still have to merge to cross the causeway. It all appears completely pointless. Nothing more than a morning carpark for Welcome Bay residents!

Until such time as TCC takes on and completes the other half – the four-laning of the causeway/15th Avenue to Cameron Road – then the tunnel spend may as well not have happened at all!

Equally strange is that TCC traffic department's management seem to have deliberately planned the arterial route traffic light changes so as most traffic must stop at each set of lights. The apparent justification appears to be to ensure traffic flows are congested so vehicle users will use anything but a car? That level of planning is bewildering.

The solution looks to be public bus services to eliminate congestion, however it's planned to make that congestion as bad as can be managed to try to ensure the transformation.

Regrettably the availability of public transport on a timely and efficient basis, even for school kids, fails to meet the needs of most, hence a lack of en masse use by the public... meanwhile the congestion continues. Why?

I Stevenson, Tauranga.