The Automobile Association says the rules about bus lanes in Auckland are still too unclear.
Drivers have been charged almost $2 million in fines for illegally using the lanes in the first six months of the region's new council.
There was controversy last year about whether authorities were unfairly trying to catch drivers out and using the $150 fines as a way of gathering revenue.
The council-controlled organisation Auckland Transport says the overall value of fines for the six months from October is down 6.8% on the same period a year before. Spokesperson Sharon Hunter says that shows the organisation's goal of changing driver behaviour is working.
But the AA's Simon Lambourne says that in some locations it's still difficult to work out if a lane is a bus lane and what the rules are.
If the council wants to prove it's not using bus lanes to make money, he says, it should put all the revenue raised into transport projects.
In March, the latest month for which figures are available, 2907 tickets were issued for misusing the lanes. In February, 2305 tickets were issued and in January, 1836.
