It seems someone forgot to tell Aucklanders that it’s meant to be too cold and wet to ride a bike in winter. The latest cycleway numbers have been released by Auckland Transport and they continue to show strong growth with numbers on all routes with more than a year’s worth of data showing a 7.4% increase over July last year.
It should be pointed out that July had one extra working day compared to July 2018. Data from NIWA also shows it was also slightly warmer than normal and about as wet as usual.
As you can see, one of the top performers continues to be the NW cycleway at Kingsland and growth has been so strong on the route over the last few years that the number of trips recorded in the winter is almost as high as it was during the summer just two years ago.
While we’re on the topic of cycleways:
The Karangahape Rd Enhancements project is now well underway.
Works have started at each end of the project
The NZTA have announced they’re doing a new round of consultation on Skypath the Auckland Harbour Bridge Path.
The NZ Transport Agency is asking for more public feedback as it develops the design of the Auckland Harbour Bridge Shared Path for walking and cycling.
This time we’d like to hear feedback more specifically about how the shared path will connect or “land” at Westhaven and Northcote Point.
In May the Transport Agency announced its preferred design is a five-metre-wide path attached to the southbound side of the bridge. The path will directly link Westhaven to Northcote Point and connect with the planned SeaPath shared path to Takapuna.
The Transport Agency is working on a Detailed Business Case to examine the path in more detail and it’s expected to go to the Transport Agency Board for approval later this year, says the Transport Agency’s Senior Manager Project Delivery, Andrew Thackwray.
“In July, we held two drop-in evening events where we discussed the high-level design with stakeholders, local residents and other members of the public. We also received some useful feedback about the SeaPath project.”
“We know there is significant public support for us to get on and build the shared path as quickly as possible and we are grateful for the feedback that we’ve had so far. We have heard that people generally like the five-metre width of the path and feel that it provides safe connections for users.”
“We now want to share our work so far and get feedback on where the path will land and connect to the local walking and cycling networks in Westhaven and Northcote Point.”
The Transport Agency has reviewed a number of options for the landings using information from technical investigations along with feedback from earlier public engagement.
While the Transport Agency is not progressing the SkyPath design, it is hoping to use the consents already granted for the SkyPath design option. The Transport Agency has assessed three options for the landings at Westhaven and Northcote Point:
- Option one: Consented ramps that are part of the SkyPath design
- Option two: Ramps that are specifically designed to connect with the new part of the path
- Option three: Lift and stairs combination
The outcome of the assessment work so far is an emerging design with ramps that is an enhanced version of the consented SkyPath design.
“These new ramps represent a safe, well designed and cost-effective way for all users of the path to access the it easily and safely while taking into account impacts on the local areas at each end,” says Mr Thackwray.
The project team is looking forward to sharing the landing options with cyclists, walkers and local communities on both sides of the bridge.
Drop-in sessions will be held at:
Tuesday 20 August 3.45 – 5.45pm
Northcote War Memorial Hall
2 Rodney Street, Northcote PointTuesday 20 August 7 – 9pm
Glenfield Community Centre
Cnr Bentley Ave & Glenfield Rd, GlenfieldThursday 22 August 5 – 7.30pm
Ponsonby Primary School Hall
44 Curran St, Herne BayThe two-week public feedback period will run from 21 August to 4 September.
A bit further south, later this month the NZTA will start installing a new $7 million, 106.5 metre curved pedestrian and cycle bridge across the Southern motorway as part of the long running Southern Corridor project.
The steel bridge will be 3.1m wide and stand at least 6.2m above the motorway traffic lanes. It will be painted black, but at night will have white up-lighting and safety lighting.
The new bridge will link into a new a 4.5 km shared path being formed on the western side of the motorway between the Papakura and Takanini interchanges. On both sides of the motorway, the bridge will connect to existing coastal paths beside the Manukau Harbour and Pahurehure Inlet, and also to local road footpaths.
“The connected network of pathways will provide people with improved access to schools, work, local community destinations and the wider transport system. This investment will help to deliver safer and healthier streets for Aucklanders, supporting the development of more liveable communities.”
I can’t help but wonder where else we could use some $7 million waling and cycling bridges to help reconnect communities. A few more street re-connections in the Central Motorway junction?
In the coming months we’re expecting to see construction start on a number of new projects including:
- New bridges across SH1 at Northcote to complete the Northcote Safe Routes
- The extension of the Quay St cycleway along Tamaki Dr to Ngapipi
- The Avondale to New Lynn cycleway alongside the rail line and new bridge across the Whau river.
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Question – where does one find updated maps of the cycling network?
There aren’t any because there isn’t a cycling network.
Anyway I wouldn’t bother: every map I have ever seen of the central isthmus falsely shows sections marked as cycle ways that are actually either busy roads or narrow paths.
I would love to commute by bike from where I live in Mt. Albert to where I work in Ellerslie, but I’ll be buggered if I’ll risk riding on the Balmoral Road – Greenlane – Great South Road route. But I can’t find a decent map that might suggest a cycleway based route – I did once ask and got given a route through back roads that looked like it was drawn by a hungover Frenchman and would have taken forever.
Haha Sanctuary that’s a classic route right into the darkest dead zone, the central isthmus Void, where No Cycling Infrastructure Shall Exist. Ever.
It’s an area with what, the population of Wellington in it, and essentially nothing provided for cycling at all. For all the good news about the NW Cycleway, the Pink Path, or the Point Chev / Grey Lynn stuff, or Quay Street, or progress finally on K Rd, or the distant prospect of SkyPath, none of those touch The Void. They do nothing. Literally nothing, for hundreds of thousands of Aucklanders. Who also pay their rates and want to commute by bike but can’t. It’s way beyond acceptable.
There isn’t a single stretch of protected cycle lane anywhere in the void. No safe hit posts or armadillos to make even the odd stretch of random magic paint leading nowhere feel even remotely useful.
Where’s the plan? Where’s the advocacy for a plan?
Hey Sanc, you’re right that there’s not much in the way of cycling infrastructure in that area. I used to cycle commute from Sandringham to Onehunga, one trip on Mt Albert Road convinced me to look elsewhere.
I ended up going along the quiet residential streets, something like Halesowen-Peary-St Leonard’s-Empire and then down Manukau Road, using the ped shelters to avoid cycling the Royal Oak roundabout. No specific cycling infra but it didn’t matter, even in the morning rush hour the east-west residential streets are really quiet.
For you, how about going around the south side of Maungakiekie by using Mt Albert Road as far as Sandringham Road (IIRC there are now on-road cycle lanes on that stretch), Sandringham-Parry-Invermay-Landscape-Selwyn-Greenfield-Manukau-Turama-Rongo-Campbell Road? Not too much of a detour and much quieter than Mt Albert or the horrible Balmoral-Greenlane West traffic sewer.
Or you could go through Cornwall Park and come out further up Campbell Road… which would be a little hillier, though as there are hills through the Mt Roskill section an e-bike might be a good idea anyway.
I’d give it a crack 🙂
Hi Glen, that is a viable route, but it turns what should be an easy direct 7km cycle ride (Taylors rd – St Lukes – Balmoral – Greenland – Great South Road – Main Highway) into an 11km+ circle route, and I really can’t be bothered adding 50% to my journey distance – for me, 7-8km is the maximum range I will use a bike for commuting. I know the angry MAMIL peleton that steaks along the North Western cycleway every morning will guffaw at that, but I want to commute to help the planet a little bit, get a little bit fitter and do it in my work clothes with a minimum of fuss, not adopt a new lifestyle option.
Balmoral/Greenlane is dreadful (I ride it sometimes, but I’ll only attempt it offpeak), though it’s an obvious route to the Greenlane train station for a lot of people and would enable crosstown trips through an area that’s currently extremely challenging. It’s at the top of my wishlist for the area, for sure.
I’d suggest this route from Mt Albert to Ellerslie.
https://imgur.com/5CjwwPS
Fair enough then! 🙂
You could try a similar idea, cycling along the residential streets through Mt Eden, something like Gordon-Argyle-Kenneth-Paice-Grange-Disraeli, and then through Cornwall Park.
If you come out onto Maungakiekie Ave you should be able to use the back streets in One Tree Hill/Ellerslie (say Te Kawa/Waiohua) and then cross Great South Road at the Rockfield Road lights, which is a push-button controlled crossing (I’m assuming you work somewhere near the Goodman’s business park). Should dodge the awfulness of biking the GSR and not add much distance 🙂
Nice route Nicholas, lots of travel through parks and it neatly avoids the Royal Oak roundabout 🙂
The upgrade to Oakley Creek is great. Here is a video for a section of the route.
Haha yes! Pretty sure Victoria Park has a ‘shared’ path running alongside Halsey Street that is neither suitable for walkers or bikes and definitely not both at the same time..really needs addressing.
I’m told that those two paths are to be merged into a single path at some point (after much complaining about it!) – one is maintained by council, the other by AT, so breaking that barrier down took some time.
Some quite good new paper ones have been about for a while in train stations etc. I think you can order them online and download them online as well.
https://at.govt.nz/cycling-walking/cycle-walking-maps/#network
“Quite good” ..but even in the few useless short lines on map C2 they are still not accurate: Merton Road is only one way for example.
Yes we have along way to go & to keep them up to date. As a side note I often see the older out of date PT timetables in their main stations, sigh.
AT’s cycle map is reasonably up to date, but you’re out of luck for Ellerslie.
https://maps.at.govt.nz/arcgis/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=88a582e934f6473dba32cb3ab909890a
LOL it says there is a “On-road cycle lane” on Greenlane West – painting a narrow strip of road green does not magically turn something into a “Cycleway”.
The West – East link along the St Lukes – Balmoral – Greenlane arterial is a bit of a poster child of how botched the cycle network actually is. There is a semi-separated cycleway to St Lukes, then you take your life in your hands (or use a rubbish bin littered and badly maintained footpath)to Greenlane West where you get a bit of green paint to protect you, the you get to ride on a footpath converted to a “cycle lane” because it has a white line painted down it, then you are back playing dodgems with buses and angry small business tyrants in their SUVs along Great South Road.
Yes. The St Lukes – Balmoral – Greenlane arterial is a neglected piece of foul traffic domination. It needs to be in the Connected Communities programme. No, it needs to be in a programme that’s going to successfully make multi-modal people places on our arterials.
Great comment Heidi. St Lukes–Balmoral–Greenlane is flow-obsessed 80s traffic engineering at its nadir. It’s long past time for a rethink.
You’re pretty much out of luck everywhere. Once you remove ‘quiet routes’ (50km/h speed limits, plenty of parked cars reducing visibility, not to mention the zig-zagging around) and ‘on road-cycle lanes’ (just paint, the Greenlane one is narrower than my handlebars). You’re left with hardly any coverage. And shared paths are not that great either. They work ok if there’s hardly any pedestrians (like NW out west past Waterview), but once there’s more people walking (like Tamaki Drive) – they’re pretty useless.
That map is also a bit out of date, it’s missing Franklin Road and part of the Northcote cycle route.
Painted on-road cycle lanes are hit and miss — they’re not all bad. Mainly it has to be wide enough, and continuous. Same as the protected ones.
For example most of the Northcote cycle route is paint, but it works because it is properly laid out as a cycle lane. In Greenlane they seem to just have sprayed some bicycle stencils in the gutter.
Yep it’s out of date – also missing the phase 2 Quay St cycleway (The Pohutukawa Relocator section), which is still marked as shared path, rather than protected cycleway
The insulting thing about ‘quiet routes’ is that because:
A) they are designed the same way as the roads around them (and no further treatment has been provided) and;
B) selected because they have low traffic counts
These roads are /by definition/ the least direct and least connected streets in the area and therefore the least useful for cyclists.
Also, cars often drive faster on quiet roads. NZ doesn’t have a proper streets hierarchy.
Every morning I make the decision to either bike to work and get wet and sweaty, or spend twice as much time and some money on the train. Most days the bike wins.
90% of my ride being on cycleways is a great motivator.
Can anyone tell me why NZTA are consulting yet again on the skypath?
And how did option 3 even make it onto the list as a viable entry/exit?
Option three: Lift and stairs combination
Surely a bunch of engineers can do better than a lift and stairs, or do we really need to have a wholesale cleanout at NZTA and get some forward thinking folk in there that might even just want to get stuck in and get the job done rather than fluffing around year after year after year.
The latest consultation is about the landing designs.
The ‘Skypath’ design was not fit for purpose and NZTA are considering if they should try to improve Skypaths effort, spend a fortune on buying 4-6 homes on Northcote Point to allow their path design to continue to Sulfur beach, or the lift and stairs option.
Remembering that the final design is then going to be subject of a feasibility report – including scrutiny of the total cost – the landings need to be cost effective.
Adding the purchase of these homes would add probably 10-15m to the project cost. While a cycling/walking path is widely supported by Aucklanders, a cycle path that may end up costing 150m, is probably not that popular with the tax payers in Bluff or Kaitia.
While the lift and stairs are not ideal, it may actually be the best option to get the project built
This is great progress, but one look at a map of ‘cycleways’ of Auckland shows where the problem really is – delivering a few short stretches of shared paths doesn’t even start to address it – it’s only adds a few spots on the map, not a network. We need the ‘last mile’ addressed properly, with reduction of speed limits in the general suburbia, removal of on-street parking, so proper separation (not shared paths) for cyclists (and other small-wheeled vehicles) can be delivered.
AT is clearly asleep at the wheel. NW cycleway is not actually a cycleway but a mere shared path, with many pinch points and terrible surface quality in places, yet despite the usage going up significantly – nothing is being done (I realise that there are some plans around the Kingsland stretch, but that only happened after significant noise was made in the press).
Recently AT made appearance at my workplace (in Newmarket, we have 500+ staff) trying to convince us we should shift our commute away from cars. When asked about what’s being done to make cycling into Newmarket better all we could got was silence from AT.
The growth is phenomenal but it’s happening despite of AT, not because of them.
Totally agree. I can’t get to / from work without riding on several km of busy, hostile roads. No fun at all in the dark, and downright scary if you have to get home in the wet. Everywhere east of Newmarket is just a wasteland.. advance stop boxes or a painted line that stops half way to nowhere. If you’re lucky.
For all the glam projects, most of which are years delayed, or compromised or both, *nothing* is being done to sort out the basic issues on our arterials or residential side streets. Shame on you AT. And Bike Auckland. And GA. Nice words, but we need actions.
And the latent demand is huge, as evidenced by the growth resulting from just a few paths. AT’s not the only one to blame here. The GPS narrative should have been interpreted by bureaucrats into a far higher cycling budget nationally. Goff should be leading the cycling and safety programmes, not throwing AT to the wolves as he has done. But yeah, this growth is mainly in adults. Success can be measured by a network that means children can cycle safely anywhere in the city, independently of their parents.
I guess it’s compromise. Possibly what AT meant was take the bus or train which Newmarket had in spades.
Their task is to improve movements all round whist not stuffing businesses and residential with removal of carparking and lanes where avoidable for those who want all that removed so they can bike to their chosen destination in more comfort.
*in safety, I think you mean. Newmarket’s too critical a link, and is near too many schools to ignore the cycling network there. And has too much parking as it is, particularly for a place which has bus and train connections ‘in spades’.
Buses have almost no priority through Newmarket. Broadway and Khyber Pass have no bus priority, there’s no bus priority to turn into Park Rd either. Every time it rains in the afternoon it can take 25-30 minutes to get from Broadway to K’rd. I used to catch a bus (I live in Te Atatu Peninsula) to/from work. I think my record we 20 minutes from Broadway/Khyber Pass intersection to Khyber Pass/Park rd. I cycle now and the whole route takes me about 35 minutes, door to door. The worst stretch is between Upper Queen St and Newmarket – completely bike hostile environment, with no route through but on the main roads, with narrow lanes and parked cars.
Absolutely. That’s exactly how Newmarket is by bus, or bike. Ditto Remuera or Ellerslie or Epsom etc. These are inner urban routes that everyone further out has to use.
Buses from Downtown Auckland virtually have a priority lane from Customs Street to Newmarket especially if they use Grafton Bridge. But they take at least 3 times longer than the train easily.
Khyber Pass has a bus priority lane at least half its length (lower half from the motorway and it’s strictly enforced I might add.
And the Park Rd fiasco could be helped if the light phase went longer than the 3-5 seconds that it is programmed to give (lets through about 3 vehicles on a green phase if you are lucky and a couple more if they run yellow and reds which is not good). But that is just plain typical of Auckland’s mindless traffic light phasing, reviews of it and their philosophy or lack thereof. And the bus movements in Broadway flow reasonably and I know this as I use them so I don’t see that as the problem area for PT.
But that’s the thing about buses, bloody hopeless in traffic.
Maybe Park road should have 1 car lane and 2 bus lanes.
Getting another 3 to 4 vehicles through right turns on amber and red is part of the de facto road code in Auckland. If you have a queue of 20 cars turning right, then the difference between 2 cars getting through vs. 6… you do the maths. It is weird at first (both the red light running, and the fact that traffic lights are phased like that) but you get used to it after a while.
I realise ensuring the harbour bridge crossing planning is important but I thought the Skypath had that more or less sorted?
I mean NZTA look like they cannot drag this out long enough. Prayer mats out at their HQ facing the Caman Islands for a National victory so they can scrap it and get on with motorway extensions looks more the order of business.
Wonder if the north western cycleway numbers will ever overtake the Tamaki Dr ones? Unlikely one the Tamaki Dr one is upgraded I guess.
Good to see some projects starting to gather pace.
The plan above shows a new pedestrian bridge to link the shared paths. Um? Can we not expect better terminology?
But $7 million is a great figure to keep in mind as we try to repair this city. My community’s been clamouring for connections over the severance of the motorway for decades. Council spent money, and locals spend time, on engagement back in 2001, and this was a key outcome. Similar work a few times since.
There should probably be a new activity class: SH Reparations, that could fund a whole set of these bridges. To fund it, the SH Improvements budget should be incrementally handed over until in 10 years’ time there’s a maintenance budget and a reparations budget but no more SH building… 🙂
Oh, the coup that would be required! And oh, how this country’s future would look brighter!
Totally agree Heidi, there are endless examples of motorway severance across Auckland. Our area, Ellerslie has a doozy, one of many… it’s impossible to cross the motorway for 1.5km between Ellerslie Train Station and Penrose Road unless you’re in a car, making more people drive and causing more congestion at the Ellerslie-Penrose motorway onramp. What a mess.
There is an underpass between Gavin St and McNab St which could be reopened tomorrow but for bureaucratic inertia… the local boards are aware of it but AT cares not… we fight on.
Yes, re-open that underpass! It’s narrow and horrible but at least it’s there. It even has lighting.
The impression is that only big high profile projects get any support, even by the advocacy groups. But then nothing else gets done, when even very rudimentary, extremely low cost, quick-to-implement improvements could be game changers, locally. Do 100s of those, 1000s of them and watch the transformation, locally, everywhere.
I agree about lots of small jobs combining to have a big effect. NZTA’s Innovating Streets for People programme will have lots of small projects, and hopefully at some stage we can blog about those. That programme is designed to enable small improvements and to find barriers to them, many of which are about processes being scaled for big jobs only. For example, fees for street closures being in the order of $10,000 even if it’s a small residential road.
Small quick fixes are a common theme throughout Bike Auckland’s posts. I think Nicholas Lee’s post about cycling in Onehunga and Lance Wigg’s post about safety were both posts describing the power of many small improvements.
The new AT work around schools is an approach that provides a set of small improvements that work together to make a considerable change.
This year, I’ve advocated directly to AT for changes to their maintenance programme to allow for ‘betterment’, and for small trials to reduce vkt, (as recommended by the Dutch before any cycling network will be successful). I’ve tried to get answers about bicycle beg buttons, having realised there’s a systemic danger in some of them, and have tried to get individual egregious illegal parking issues cleared up (eg a car dealer who was parking his cars all over the footpath, verges and on the road in the kerbside spaces). (Those are examples of many.)
Last year I campaigned for a pocket park at a mall entrance, conversion of a car space to bike parks, covered bike parks, new pedestrian crossings on desire lines, the reworking of yellow dashed lines that slowly whittle a footpath away to nothing, phasing changes to prioritise pedestrians where wait times are unreasonable, fixing up a dangerous mess left by AT when they moved a fence…
I know that advocates are trying for change all over the city. I believe there are, for example, 600 outstanding requests for footpaths.
Would you like to read blog posts about these small jobs we’re generally failing to achieve? They’re a bit depressing. Something’s very broken, but there are many people trying to fix it.
Heidi thank you for your efforts. And the others. I’ve done years of advocacy for exactly the same things.. approaching 10 years in my home suburbs. Nothing has happened. I mean, literally nothing. I realised I was wasting my time so I stopped. Worse than that I was becoming complicit in the “big projects” narrative.
Now I don’t even want to read anyone else’s blogs or posts on the same lines either because they are wasting their time as well and being equally complicit in the same con trick and it is all just too depressing.
GA is the same. So is this post. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results us the definition of insanity. The entire frame of the debate needs to change. I think it has to become very local. Schools for example. Individual streets. Low profile, simple, basic fixes everywhere that communities want it. Forget spending years forcing through grand schemes that locals don’t want. Island Bay.. what a waste of time.. even if the battle us ultimately won the war is lost. Heartache and minds are lost. Big time. Forget theoretical priority lists. Go where locals do want change and engage with them.. through the local community groups.. get stuff done. Fast. Creatively. Locally. Then tell the stories. There are such places. I live in one. All we ever get told by AT is we aren’t a sufficiently high priority. Even Bike Auckland doesn’t want to know for the same reason. GA the same.. cares about big stuff. Sorry but that’s the reality.
Yeah. The entire frame of the debate does have to change. Completely agree. A number of my posts have been about the shift required, and exposing what the barriers are.
On the topic of cycling, the “Top Table, Full Purse” post essentially demonstrated that the mechanisms for change are available; change just requires leadership to utilise the mechanisms. There were a number of direct quotes embedded in my text taken from what I call Letters of Excuse.
Instead, we’re being let down by people responding to fear of backlash.
AT are even delaying the release of a key engineering document because they think ‘advocates’ will sing its praises. Why is this a problem, you might ask? Because apparently we’ll alert the ‘change-averse’ contingent to its existence. How f**ked is that?
Cities and countries have broken through the aversion to change successfully. Auckland has a progressive government and council in place. Right now should be when we’re making huge strides and your and my experiences should be being turned around.
We’re being let down by a vacuum in local leadership on transport issues.
Heidi – as part of Bike Devconport, we advoicated for years to the Devonport-Takapuna LB for micro projects to imrpove cycling. This in an area with the highest cycle mode share in the city.
We presented 10 micro changes that could happen in the area (such as widening pram ramps to shared paths or making a cycle cut through for filtered permeability). These could have been funded from the board’s discretionary spend.
We got exactly nowhere. This partly because the Devonport-Takapuna LB is the laziest most reactionary board in Auckland. But also because they just do not see the return for them politically as there is no ribbon cutting ceremony to prance around at.
Most of those clowns are still standing so I just hope there is a complete clear out of that board. Actually Jenny Mackenzie (not coincidentlyy the youngest board member) was quite good. But she was also the most junior and had very little influence.
What really annoys me is that the stinginess for active modes and the hurdles put in place waste so much money, time and goodwill throughout the community, at resident, community group, local board, councillor, consultant, advocacy group and officer level. Often nothing is achieved. Where it is, the whole thing would’ve been cheaper had there simply been a programme in place to provide it.
I had a good chat with a Danish cycling expert on this subject by phone earlier this year. He said for the equivalent sorts of jobs that I was trying to get done, the process in Denmark was more straightforward. If communities proposed an idea, they still have to apply and to show the rationale. But because there is an officer who has a budget to provide, say, 200 improvements of that type, the community groups simply had to demonstrate that the project was indeed one of the worthy 200. Not that much work if it was a valid project.
Essentially, improvements are welcomed, not treated like an evil attack on the status quo.
Wow.i never knew it existed. If opened I would have always used it to avoid dangerous Gavin st/Penrose Rd intersection. Penrose overbridge is terrible for cyclists. I always used the footpath to stay alive.
I’ve posted a tweet about this section of the discussion.
https://twitter.com/stateless/status/1162123788814704640
“Penrose overbridge is terrible for cyclists. I always used the footpath to stay alive.”
Yes, narrows, up higher so loose momentum & big vehicles often at speed. Learnt that one, the path has a large big bump you have to slow for (caused after many motorway bridge collisions I think.)
1) Think i’ve only caught the bus a couple of times all Winter and cycled the rest, weather has been great and Franklin Road cycleway makes it very very easy (going down!)
2) If you check AT’s Facebook page re: K Road works, they simply put up a post of what works is going on. This has cue’d a heap of people in the comments section saying how its going to cause traffic, lack of parking rah rah rah..why oh why can they not communicate properly with the public? The FB post should have started with talking about the benefits, then discuss the works.
I caught the bus today, as I left my bike at work last night. The K’Rd lane closure and traffic jam is terrible. I got off the bus back on great north road and walked into the CBD from there.
The NW cycleway has also had a closed section since the weekend, forcing everybody back onto the roads. No signs says whats going on or how long it will take. Some people would be better off taking Gt Nth Rd but there are no warning signs at St Lukes either.
Incidentally there is a sign at the St Lukes crossing advising cyclists to ring their bell before encountering pedestrians, twice at 10m and twice at 5m. This implies a cyclist speed of about 9km/h which is slower than running and much slower than the typical 30km/hr+ of many cyclists, 40km/h+ of some e-bikes. It should really advise pedestrians, joggers, lime scooters, dog owners, children, etc. to keep left, not wander all over, not loiter and not suddenly change sides without looking. If I need to brake in a hurry my hands are better placed hovering over brake levers than ringing a bell.
eBikes should only go 40 kph if 1. downhill, 2. the motors are unlocked.
The max I do on the flat with no headwind is 35 kph. Riding upright (dutch style) should be around 15-25 kph.
Anyone doing over 30 kph is biking fast. They need to pay attention and should slow down for hazards. Especially on shared paths.
Good point Nicholas. People forget that the assistance of (most if not all?) e-bikes is designed to cut out at a certain speed. Ours is about 28 km/h I think. From there on, you’re pedalling on your own, on a heavier-than-conventional bike. Not a recipe for ultimate top speed (unless it’s an e-racer bike etc.)
In other words, they’re not designed for going flat-out fast, they’re designed to help you up hills/start from stationary etc. (hence the term ‘electric assistance’). Let’s keep some perspective please.
Most new bikes now have no speed limiter and there is no legal requirement for one as far as I know. They only limit is on the motor size at 300W.
Still not likely to go faster than 37km/h with 300W. I can’t see the problem in most environments. Obviously not on a crowded shared path.
Not quite as simple as a speed limiter. Different battery management profiles can change the wattage delivery.
This is all good when you’re on a cycleway or even shared path. When I’m on a road (which is far more than I ever hope for) – I need the ability to move with the traffic or risk being squeezed to the curb, particularly by buses. Speed greatly helps with this.
Current legislation with the 300W limit actually makes it hard to use heavy cargo bikes. You need far more power than that, 750W is not unheard of.
Also – when it comes to speed – nothing beats a good road bike, you can achieve 45km/h+ on those.
I agree that common sense and general courtesy is required when biking, but as with people driving cars – it’s not possible to legislate that.
30 kph is only for shared path if it’s not shared.
I ride 13km each way from Onehunga to Wiri for my commute. 45 kph on a bike is very fast. I don’t think it should be the default answer to road conditions.
As a cyclist the best option is generally to either: 1. take the lane, or 2. slow down and/or stop.
Average speed for cyclists in places like the Netherlands and Denmark is in the order of 15 km/h. E-bikes and road bikes of course can go faster, but going 30 km/h will not go well on crowded cycle paths and shared paths.
Ideally you’d have a separate footpath over there. Until that happens… I’ve been in a similar situation on Shakespeare Road in Milford, and you’ll just have to go slowly for now. Walking school buses should be reasonably easy to avoid, etc.
If you can’t ring your bell while still hovering over your brake levers then your bell is in the wrong place. Get an old school shaped one if you haven’t one already and mount it as close to your brake as possible.
I agree about the poor handling of the NW cycleway. It finally opened today, 6 days after the closure. There were no detour signs on the alternative route – just a blockade either end. Every time I rode past this week there was zero sign of activity under the bridge. No workers, no paint, no scaffold, etc.
I realise the motorway proper is much busier, but let’s say the truck had been heading the other direction and hit the road side, would the same standards of keeping it closed with no visible activity and no detour signs be considered acceptable? Given the number of cones, electronic signs, etc. that come out for accidents late at night I highly doubt it.
Then there is the fact that the road was left open to vehicles driving underneath the whole time. Surely if there was a risk of failure it would have been even worse to those under it than on a bike up top? Makes me wonder if the NZTA just forgot to reopen the bike lane?
Those numbers are impressive. I remember when they used to report the number of bikes per month rather than per day to make it seem less embarrassing.
Is there any data on how electric bikes might be affecting the trends?
Looks like our cycleways are growing and measured routes without safe infrastructure are stagnant… Maybe they should try build more of this stuff
The numbers on the graph don’t seem to match the lines. eg Dominion Rd looks the same as last year but says 11%
Too bad for those on the 380 or 313 bus stuck in the huge traffic jams created by the installation of cycle lane traffic islands on the St. George Street rail bridge in Papatoetoe for non-existent cyclists.
Too bad also for the emergency services vehicles that will now be hindered in the execution of their duties.
Are you anti-mode as far as bikes are concerned?
Like most Nat/ACT supporters, I’m pretty sure Vance is opposed to cycling on principle. Hamish Price, the nasty troll who runs Simon Bridges’ Twitter account, actually laughed at a leftist journalist having his e-bike stolen and posted that it proved that cyclists are criminals. This is the kind of mind we’re dealing with.
I’m opposed to peoples lives being put at risk by brain dead things like this.
What about cyclists’ lives being put at risk because of a failure to install good quality cycle infrastructure? Mostly because of NIMBYs who dont understand how transport in a proper city works. You don’t care about that?
Are you also concerned about peoples lives being put at risk by general traffic congestion, or just when it is caused by cycling infrastructure?
Jezza, I think that you have to unpick Vance’s comments. Logically lives are not put at risk because people are sitting in cars that are stationary due to congestion. So I think we need to assume that he is referring to emergency service vehicles being delayed. Maybe this is a great opportunity to expand our bus lanes to deal with such an eventuality?
To clarify I was also talking about emergency services vehicles being delayed in traffic as they are across Auckland every day.
I agree bus lanes are the ideal solution to this problem.
A bus lane might be more beneficial.
People around here actually use buses – including myself from time to time.
Have you sat and counted the cyclists all day to know they are non-existent? Or do you just assume that as there is no congestion in the cycle lanes – a la Hosking?
I would suggest it is all the cars causing the traffic jam but hey that’s just logic and obviously has no place in a discussion about traffic in Auckland.
As someone who has lived in the area for over 20 years I think I’m reasonably familiar with who uses the roads.
But unless you sit outside and take a count of all the vehicles, you are just guessing and using anecdata.
In my experience, people are shocked by how many cyclists use a route once thye see the numbers. Even with Lake Road in Devonport, which has one of the highest cycle mode shares in Auckland, people will tell you no cyclists use it when that road hs about a 6% cycle mode share at peak times.
It is a well known phenonemon with bus and cycle lanes:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/104452182/the-coffee-shop-window-defense-of-cycleways-and-bus-lanes
https://www.driven.co.nz/news/lifestyle/opinion-the-real-reason-auckland-s-cycle-lanes-are-always-empty/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2019/jul/03/ten-common-myths-about-bike-lanes-and-why-theyre-wrong
I am one of those non existent cyclists through that intersection. Have you seen me going from mangere bridge to ptoe at 620am? I haven’t seen you so do you exist?
I have seen cyclists along station and Buckland Rd.
That new island just slows speeding traffic down. There is always congestion there. Find an alternative, not a scapegoat.
They should put a counter there.
I am one of those non existent cyclists through that intersection. Have you seen me going from mangere bridge to ptoe at 620am? I haven’t seen you so do you exist?
I have seen cyclists along station and Buckland Rd.
That new island just slows speeding traffic down. There is always congestion there. Find an alternative, not a scapegoat.
They should put a counter there.
SH1 Extension South of Papakura?
I would be interested to know when this will extend down to the Southern Auckland Gateway. Someone cycling from Bombay could e-bike to CBD quicker than driving or driving/PT at peak. Does anyone know?
Linkage with Pukekohe/ Paerata Paths?
Also it would be awesome if this links into the Pukekohe/Paerata Paths Plan…
https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/have-your-say/topics-you-can-have-your-say-on/pukekohe-paerata-trails-plan/Pages/default.aspx
Given the population of Hamilton is going to be squeezed between Drury and Pukekohe in the next 30 years it seem to be a good time to get it sorted.
Although doing it now while it’s still largely greenfields is nowhere near as fun as retrofitting it in later on (Sarcasm Intended).
Winter cycling slump? I didn’t know Auckland had a winter.
Yeah, it has a Warm-Wet-Season and a Cool-Wet-Season.
AT’s website Timeline says of Tamaki Dr Cycleway:
May/June 2017 – Consultation.
September 2017 – Revised design and feedback report.
March-2019 – Detailed design and consent process.
Mid-2019 – Construction starts.
Any idea of expected completion date?
judging by how long the Quay St extension took and the complexities at the port I’d be amazed if it was under a year.
AT / NZTA Seem to have gone very quiet on the Gi to Tamaki path. Phase 2
Their last update said “Plans are in place to start construction by the end of the year (2019) subject to statutory approvals and funding being in place.”
It’s the middle of August, and as far as I’m aware it’s not even out for tender.
Does anyone know any more?
In May the word was construction would be starting in October. So probably a couple of years away yet. Then three or four years to build if Stage 3 is anything to go by. No wait, that was just a boardwalk widening… five sounds more realistic. Opening in 2026 then.
Looks like the great south road crew gave up. What would it take to get some infrastructure here?