New Zealand (at least the south island, since we haven’t driven around the north island yet) seems to be littered with one lane bridges. Even on major highways, you’ll be zooming along at 100 kph (just over 62 mph) and suddenly there will be a bridge ahead of you, barely wide enough for one car (I’d be afraid to drive a truck across one). Some of these bridges are quite long. On the longest ones, there will be a “passing bay” — a place in the middle of the bridge about two car lengths long that is wide enough for cars going opposite directions to pass each other. We went over one bridge that was long enough to require three passing bays.
We have perversely noted that many of the one lane bridges are in places where you don’t have a really good view to see if there is traffic coming from the opposite direction. After going over a few one lane bridges like this, we will suddenly come to a bridge that is two lanes wide, and will joke that they put a two lane bridge there only because there was a clear view in both directions.
The most bizarre one lane bridges we have seen were originally train bridges. Or should I say, are still train bridges. They paved the bridge around the tracks (sort of like the light rail tracks on city streets where you can drive in Portland). So the same one lane bridge not only serves for traffic going both ways, but for trains too. It feels weird enough driving over a train bridge, but you need to watch out for oncoming traffic too. Yow. I’ll post a photo of one of these.
Even more frightening than the one lane bridges are places where the road is cut into the side of a rocky cliff, and not only is the road one lane wide, but only tall enough for a bus. These are particularly frightening because (for some perverse reason) the road always curves around so you cannot see oncoming traffic. Luckily the speed limit is 15 kph (less than 10 mph) so assuming that oncoming cars obey the speed limit, you will have plenty of time to stop (and then negotiate who will have to back their car up on a curving one lane road on the edge of a cliff). Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of these one lane cliff roads, because usually everyone in the car has their eyes shut tight — except for the driver of course, who is watching out for oncoming traffic. After negotiating the first one of these we came to, Yvette, who was driving, screamed “They’re trying to kill us all!”
The most amazing thing is that in all the one lane bridges we have crossed, (and I’d guess around 30) we have only had to wait for oncoming traffic twice. As you approach the bridge, there will be a sign saying which direction has priority. Of course, if there is already someone on the bridge coming toward you, you wait, no matter if you have priority. And they do the same thing for you.
The beauty of living in a place with so little traffic.
The thing I remember about NZ driving is – narrow roads like you mention, but in addition, places where you round a curve and see that half of the road in front of you has been washed out! Like on the sides of those “cliffs” you mentioned – after a good rain a bunch of the hill washes away and takes a bite out of the road with it!
Comment by Jennifer — 12 Feb 2005 @ 1:40 pm
When I was in NZ on South Island in July, I went skiing at The Remarkables. The ski bus we took up to the slopes followed a similarly precarious hillside one-lane road, only it was snowy and there were about 50 people on the bus, so the whole time I was imagining the headlines – tourists die in horrific mountain crash…
Comment by Abigail — 13 Feb 2005 @ 6:42 am