The new Beach Rd cycleway is fantastic addition to the city however at the moment it’s a little short only extending from Churchill St to Mahuhu Cres.
That’s set to change next year as the second stage gets underway which will see the cycleway extended through to Britomart Pl along with an upgrade to the footpaths in the area. It is expected to be completed by July 2015 and report to the City Centre Advisory Board gives an idea of what it may look like which is more than just adding a cycleway and more like a linear park. Firstly here’s what the area looks like today.
Here is a high level view of the concept It includes Plaza type areas on the intersections of the three roads it interfaces with – Mahuhu Cres, Tangihua St and Britomart Pl – all three of which lose their dangerous slip lanes. The existing trees are obviously retained and the footpath and cycleway are defined by planting. There are also different types of concrete to help define which section is the cycleway and which the footpath.
Moving from south to north here are some renders of what the finished result may look like.
Mahuhu Cres
In front of the Waldorf Hotel
In Front of the Scene buildings
At Britomart Pl
Overall it looks like it will be a fantastic addition.
Processing...
It should also hopefully put an end to people using the wide footpath outside the Scene apartment buildings as a de facto road and parking area. I’ve experienced people driving at full speed down here, not to mention the daily delivery trucks and vehicles and moving vans from people moving apartments.
My only concern is that I’d have preferred to have seen planting up against the ugly walls and grills of the buildings rather that leaving them open as at present.
Would be great if the ground floor of those buildings were redeveloped so the are grills
“Scene” apartment buildings? They would be better re-named Obscene1, 2 and 3.
Why does it take until July 2015 to complete this Stage 2?
I’m worried about those renderings – will probably end up full of pedestrians, for a while at least. It needs to be much more obvious where pedestrians should be.
See here: http://goo.gl/3M470r – clear (streeview doens’t do it justice) floor markings, signs everywhere and a ton of cyclists, and this route is jammed with pedestrians all the time (who get really shitty at you if you ring your bell at them) – I avoid that section of the seawall. I think greening all bike lanes is just generally safer for everyone – it’s not like it will wear off in a rush.
You see this on the mission bay route already with people failing to follow the signs.
I’m excited about the whole thing though, so much change by the time I get back to see it all!
I too would share some concerns about the legibility of discerning the footpath area from the cycling area (at least the first part is bright green). The Vancouver Seawall cyclepath works OK mainly because it’s also quite wide (>4m), but you still have to keep your wits about you when negotiating through on a bike.
I also wonder whether the design has been run past an accessibility auditor. My first thought is that this will be quite disorienting for a vision-impaired pedestrian. The sideroad crossings don’t seem to line up with the mid-block footpaths (hard to work out if there are any tactiles too), the alternating concrete pattern will confuse limited-vision users, and even the last picture shown features a nice solid obstacle directly in the line of the walking route!
that obstacle has always been there, it’s a vent.
i share your concern on legibility Glen. This plan needs more work, and one has to ask the question why cycle lanes at vehicle rather the ped level are not possible. For that matter, why the cycle facility is lost from the south side of Beach when this edge has arguable less vehicle crossings and turning traffic.
On a detail, the stage one lanes need some vertical posts to prevent cars using them. I’ve seen two to date, one fool who could not reverse his way out of the dead end and one who was quite deliberate in using the cycle route. Not good, especially the speed he went to get through before anyone entered the lane.
Cycle lanes are at Ped level because they’re using the massive space already exists rather than taking away road space like they did in the first stage. The reason given for no cycle lanes on the south side is that AT expect that will see a lot more development and therefore more vehicle crossings over time whereas the Northern side won’t. Personally I think they should put it in anyway.
Needs green paint and cycle stencils at all of the entrances to the cycleway, good to see actual physical seperation from pedestrians though.
We’ve already asked for that during CAA’s input.
Put in some outdoor cafe tables and chairs as well.
It would be nice if this upgrade included adding the missing signalised crossing legs at these three roads. Britomart place has a makeshift Barnes Dance which works well, but the other two are missing legs. If you want to get from the southeast corner of the Anzac Ave intersection to the northwest of Tangihua currently, you’re out of luck.
There’s likely to be a new signalised pedestrian/cycle crossing on the east side of the Customs/Beach/Britomart Pl/Fort Street intersection. If that happens, the slip lane will probably also go.
Beach Rd was supposed to have been upgraded with paved footpaths in 2009 but was
cancelled due to the FGC, having a cycleway is a much better addition.
I mean GFC not FGC.
Let’s hope they also remove the slip lane from Britomart Place as part of these works. It’s unclear from the pictures.
As I understand it the plan long term is to turn Britomart Pl into a shared space so that would see it removed.
Will be very good to get rid of Tangihua St slip road. The Countdown around the corner generates pedestrian traffic, and I often see people step onto the road without realising that cars will zip round the curve at 30 – 40 kmh.
What’s the cost for this project?
A great map showing where kiwis are cycling:
http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#8/175.19507/-38.21728/yellow/bike
Very cool,a though presumably a that represents mostly just long distance sports cyclists and some commuters (assuming casual cyclists, most people going to work and people popping out to the shops don’t bother tracking their transport with GPS)
Make that “Kiwi Strava users” – not quite representative of the “getting from A to B” cyclist, but still a pretty cool map.
Grafton gully cycleway not showing yet- wonder if it’s real-time, or if you need tens of thousands of rides to even get a thin line on the map.
Major self selection bias issue though.
The dense block of red on this map clearly shows that cyclists who use Strava clearly like cycling somewhere where the cyclists are clearly separated from both motor vehicle traffic and pedestrians, and don’t even have to worry about on-coming cyclists.
Where is this amazing place that already exists in Auckland? Woodhill Forest.
http://labs.strava.com/heatmap/#11/174.50842/-36.65699/gray/bike
Does that stormwater overflow or whatever it is on the corner of Beach Rd and Britomart Place, that sticks about 30-40cm out of the ground, need to be like that? Right now it’s a massive obstruiction to an otherwise good wide footpath linking Britomart to the Arena. The plan at least makes for a decent amount of footpath around it, but it still sticks out bizarrely and is smack bang in the way of walking straight.
Is there any reason why it can’t be cut down or the footpath raised up so that it is level?
It’s a huge vent for Britomart. Not sure if it couldn’t be flush with the footpath however.
Meh. Most cyclists wont use it. If it isn’t an obvious cycle lane, it will be full of pedestrians. Most cyclists will just stay on the road.
You are thinking of the people currently cycling in Auckland. Those aren’t the target audience – I can confirm that most Aucklanders would never cycle on that road in the first place. Giving them an off-road facility is the whole point.
It will be interesting to see if AT will undertake a pre and post implementation survey of this new investment in the top class cycle way. it will be interesting to see if this top class facility is able to attract new cyclists and if the investment has resulted in any transport benefits. it there are some real benefits, then perhaps this will pave way for future investments in the cycling infrastructure, or not.
The new plans look really good! The cycle way in particular looks very safe for cyclists
How much further than Britomart is the cycle way going to extended?