The Quay St cycleway is now well under construction and there are two good pieces of news that emerged on Friday. One is a new image showing what the western section – which will be level with the existing footpath – will look like. It also shows that for the first time it in Auckland, a cycleway will be buffered from vehicles using planters boxes which is a fantastic addition.

Quay St with plant buffer

I hope AT start using these planters on other cycleways.

The planter boxes will extend all the way along Quay St

Planter Boxes - Queens Wharf

The other perhaps even better piece of news relates to how the cycleway will be designed around the Ferry Terminal and Queens Wharf. If you recall that during consultation AT said that in that section – the narrowest of the route – that bikes would have to share with pedestrians due to needing the space to accommodate the Explorer tourist bus and a few other uses. Following the consultation AT left that part of the designs blank saying more work needed to be done.

In good news, on Friday AT said they had come to a solution on this and it was to do the logical thing of moving the Explorer bus stop. That means the cycleway can continue the entire way along Quay St without forcing riders back on to the footpath busy with pedestrians.

Quay St Cycleway - Outside Ferry Terminal

Well done to all the people from AT involved in making this decision.

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23 comments

    1. Don’t forget the barely year-old stretch along Customs St East, where more people walk on the cycleway than on the designated footpath.

      1. That is Beach Rd, Customs Street E ends at the intersection with Britomart Pl, there are no cycle facilities on Customs Street E.

    2. We’ve recently closed off a road to most vehicles at work and everyone walks ~500 metres to their offices. It’s interesting that most prefer to walk on the road now there are few vehicles and not the footpath (I actually got growled at when I rode my bike up behind two oblivious managers who were walking illegally on the road). I think pedestrians require a reasonable amount of space to walk side by side and prefer to walk two or three abreast and a narrow footpath just doesn’t cut it. The footpath next to the cycleway looks plenty wide enough so it will be interesting to see where the pedestrians end up…

      1. Agree in part. A slight lip wouldn’t hurt but it’s 100 x better than the piece of Beach Rd where the cycle path looks exactly like the footpath, even with physical separation.

        1. a slight lip (<10mm?) is what I was thinking, not enough to cause a trip hazard but enough to say "this bit is different"

        2. Foundation for the Blind have stated that they want at least ~50-60mm to differentiate cycle-only paths or lanes on new projects. So would need a bit more.

        3. A 10mm lip increases trip hazard by something like 1000 times compared to a metre long sction with no lip. a 10 mm lip is worse than a 60 mm lip for trip hazard (source: viaStrada walking design booklet)

    3. This is the only section where the cycle-path is level with the footpath. Seats will be installed, facing the harbour, so that will help people stay on the wharf side, and help cater for the massive demand for seating in this area. This section lasts for about 30m, then the bike path drops down to the road level.

      Just a small correction, the planter boxes will be painted red – the same red as the ‘red fence’, so they don’t ‘jar’ as much in the wider environment, and will fit in with the red paving.

  1. Excellent news about removing that bus stop. I’ve vented my frustrations on it before, and it’s good to see AT have used some common sense!

    Now, to connect this cycleway to Nelson St…

  2. This looks like an excellent design for pedestrians. AT, please don’t clutter the “wide” pedestrian spaces with too much street furniture. Pedestrians like to walk in straight lines free of obstacles too.

    1. I don’t think the footpath / footpath futrniture will change much as part of this project – except the bus stop pinch point gets wider than it is now AND will have much fewer bikes on it. Win-win for both groups.

  3. this looks great. Another piece in the cycle jig-saw looks to be coming together. Yes good connections to Nelson Street are essential.

    Look forward to seeing cycle numbers in Auckland continue to rise – it really is an incredibly efficient (space, energy, costs) form of urban transport.

    Perhaps not something for everyone, but neither is driving a car :).

  4. I wonder how the Taxis that already illegally stop outside the ferry building will handle this? I don’t think it’ll take long before they realise they can drive over the rubber bumpers, park in the cycle lane to let their fare out and then drive down the cycle lane for another 50m or so until they’re past the planters and can pull out into traffic again.

    1. Just ride into them. Your tyre will be fine but their door panel won’t!*

      *Not actually promoting wanton damage as appealing as it is sometimes…

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