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Jun 13, 2023

Motorway madness: E

Share this article A man found himself having a chat with Auckland police in the early hours of this morning after being spotted riding down the Northwestern Motorway on an electric scooter. Police

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A man found himself having a chat with Auckland police in the early hours of this morning after being spotted riding down the Northwestern Motorway on an electric scooter.

Police said they responded to reports that came in about the man’s actions around 3am.

They found the scooter rider near the Newton Rd on-ramp in Grey Lynn. A police spokesperson said they spoke to him.

He subsequently exited the motorway.

Police have historically called such stunts “dangerous acts”, as seen back in January when a man was captured riding his e-scooter across the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

The man received a formal warning for his actions, which were depicted to be riding his scooter behind a bus on the multi-lane motorway.

He appeared in the video to be travelling at similar speeds to the traffic around him. “What a mad, mad, mad dude,” the person filming said as the scooter rider checks around him for blind spots.

In 2019, a rider was seen heading northbound shortly before 7pm on the bridge and shielded by a ute behind him with its hazard lights on.

The stunt forced traffic behind him to slow to a trundle.

In May this year, another Auckland man decided his mobility scooter was enough to take on the Southern Motorway.

A video supplied to the Herald showed the man, dubbed a “thug life koro”, travelling across the Ellerslie roundabout and holding up traffic.

According to the New Zealand Transport Agency website, mobility devices may be ridden legally on the road, but police said they were concerned about the danger of the driver’s decision-making.

“We will be making follow-up inquiries,” a spokesperson said at the time.

One of the most dangerous moments on Auckland’s State Highway 1 motorway came earlier last month, when a man stopped his car in the middle of the Southern Motorway and sat on the roof of his car.

The stunt blocked early afternoon traffic. The man was described by a witness to be “sitting there meditating like a monk”.

Police later charged the 25-year-old with dangerous driving - calling it a “dose of reality”.

The meditating man told the Herald: “I am a young Kiwi who had lost friends to horrific car accidents and ... I see NZTA spend millions, now billions, on road safety to get our road death toll to zero.”

He said he was protesting the campaign and had his own alternate ideas.

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