This is a cross post from our good friends at Bike Auckland.
Here’s the guts. Auckland Transport is currently consulting on connecting the bottom of the Nelson St cycleway to the waterfront. And they need to do it before December 2020, because… America’s Cup.
The design is fine, as far as it goes. But it only goes halfway!
Why? Because… America’s Cup, budget, and time. Can’t afford the “disruption”. Can’t afford the full route. And there’s not enough time to build the full connection (which has been ready to go for the last two years) because… America’s Cup.
This leaves a gap on the map that means:
- more and more people on bikes and scooters will be squeezed through the busy restaurant area of the Viaduct Basin…
- …which will be jammed with more and more people, because… America’s Cup.
THE GOOD NEWS: we can see a tactical way to solve this conundrum. But we need your voices, loud and clear, to help AT out of this pickle and make a good design even better.
Use our quick 1-2-3 summary and smash that big pink button NOW to let AT know they can do this, and that our support is conditional on them delivering the full route! And scroll down for more details and the background.
Add your voice before Sunday 8 March!
Let AT know you’ll support the project on these conditions:
- Please “ungap the map” with a tactical extension to Quay St via Lower Hobson St as per Bike AKL’s design
- Reshape the crossing at the south end, to make it safer and save a tree, as per Sam Hood’s smart suggestion
- And give the new Market Place bikeway a strong kerb, distinct enough to stop cars from parking on it
(Plus of course anything else that’s important to you!)
Here’s the project page, with maps and plans. AT’s project team will be hosting one more drop-in session to discuss the project:
Saturday 7 March 2020, 9am to 11am – Sierra Cafe, 48 Market Place, Auckland Central
What’s the background?
December 2015: Phase 1. Lightpath opens, with a section of protected cycleway on Nelson St as far as Victoria St. The plan is to extend this safe route to the waterfront, linking into the Quay St cycleway and the rest of the network.
Mid-2017: Phase 2. The Nelson St protected cycleway is extended down the hill to Fanshawe St and just into Market Place, as far as Pakenham St East, completed by December 2017.
At the same time, AT is finalising a design for Phase 3, and is confident enough to plan publicity material about how great it will be for families to be able to ride safely and uninterrupted from the pink path to the waterfront.
September 2017: AT consults the public on the design for Phase 3: a two-way bikeway on Market Place, continuing past the Tepid Baths on Customs St West, and through Lower Hobson St to Quay St. We – and the public – said “Great, build it!”
We also said, “This connection finally extends the promise of Lightpath all the way to the harbour.”
And then, for over two years: crickets.
The current consultation
February 2020: AT is now consulting again on that final section – but only half of it: the two-way bikeway through Market Place, with raised tables (and bike/walk crossings) at the intersections at both ends.
Market Place will become one-way for vehicles in this section, with all the current parking shifted to the eastern side of the street. The plan is to have this built by December 2020, which is great.
What’s the problem?
By stopping short of the full connection to Quay St, the current plan will pour a rising flood of people on bikes and scooters directly into the Viaduct Basin “shared path” (which is more sort of a brick plaza and dining area), right when crowds gather for the America’s Cup.
Here’s the 2017 map of the planned route via Lower Hobson St. Note the tidy green zig-zag that takes it around the outside of the Viaduct precinct, rather than right through the busy restaurant area.
And here’s the current situation. Spot the blue “potential future cycleway” – now two full degrees of separation away (including new investigation and fresh consultation) from “finally extending the promise of Lightpath all the way to the harbour.”
What?! Why only half the route??
Here’s what AT told us:
Customs Street West and Lower Hobson Street cycling connections will be investigated post AC36 [America’s Cup], and weren’t able to be considered prior due to constraints around time, budget, and disruption to traffic.
Frankly, we’re unimpressed:
- Will be investigated post America’s Cup?? Close on four years since it was first designed and consulted on?
- Time constraints?? Now? Two and a half years after consultation, with the America’s Cup on the horizon the whole time?
- Budget constraints?? Forgive us but that rings hollow in a week where AT and Council have celebrated the fact that a billion dollars is being spent on getting the central city up to scratch, transport-wise.
And as for “disruption to traffic” – this is something Aucklanders can all agree on, but a necessary part of making travel safer and smoother for all. People walking and biking are traffic, too – and delaying this link will prolong disruptions to their safety and access.
We also asked how the Viaduct restaurant area was expected to handle the rise in small-wheeled traffic that inevitably comes with new infrastructure, amongst the crowds expected over the summer of 2020/ 2021. Here’s what AT told us:
This route is a designated shared path. We encourage all road users to share with care and it is expected that cyclists will respond accordingly in a slow speed shared path environment. We will also be looking at what we can do to make the path through the viaduct better for riders. Safety and wayfinding signage has been strategically integrated into the project scope.
Can we fix it? Yes we can!
We know you’re hungry for answers at this point; and you know we don’t take this stuff lying down. In fact, this is exactly the sort of challenge that makes us sit up and get busy thinking of solutions.
Having seen the way it’s possible to widen footpaths on High St overnight – and how a tactical bike lane was built on Federal Street using planters and plastic armadillos – we are asking AT to raise their game and apply the same tactical urbanism in the soon-to-be-very-busy Viaduct area.
We have agreement in principle that this should be done, but we need your strong support to get it over the line.
Below, we’ve sketched up an option for Lower Hobson Street that creates a wider path, along a route that’s going to be a lot less busy with pedestrians. We’re putting this in AT’s hands for detailed design, including smart traffic-calming and whatever it takes to safely bridge the gap along Customs St West as well.
Obviously we’ll be looking for non-slip surfaces, excellent signage and smart use of paint to make this route intuitive to new users, and strong protection from passing traffic and would-be bike lane parkers.
Meanwhile, back on Market Place…
The design for Market Place is great, but we’re asking for two fixes here.
Firstly, we’d like to confirm a robust treatment on the edge of the two-way bike path, strong enough to deter people in vehicles from using it as parking or loading space.
Secondly, we support a redesign of the crossing at the south end as suggested by Sam Hood on Twitter. Sam’s proposal is overlaid in red on the AT design, below. Realigning the angle bike paths and the crossing, plus narrowing the entrance to the one-way part of Market Place, provides:
- better traffic calming
- reinforces the one-way section for vehicles
- doesn’t force people on bikes through two 90-degree bends
- adds a degree of bike-calming at the crossing, for those headed towards the Viaduct
- saves a tree (the dotted green circle)!
Right. Ready to have your say? Get in before Sunday 8 March!
Let AT know you support this project on these conditions:
- Please “ungap the map” with a tactical extension to Quay St via Lower Hobson St as per Bike AKL’s design
- Reshape the crossing at the south end, to make it safer and save a tree, as per Sam Hood’s smart suggestion
- And give the new Market Place bikeway a strong kerb, distinct enough to stop cars from parking on it
(Plus of course anything else that’s important to you!)
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Some good ideas about Lower Hobson – I agree it seems daft to keep mixing cycling/scooters in the ‘shared – but should be pedestrian’ area of the viaduct.
Considering Lower Hobson is currently restricted by all the works on Quay St – It would not be causing too much drama to convert the shoulder parking/loading area into a cycle lane. Would have to make sure the loading area is moved elsewhere though – and tourist buses use this area too, but loading can be provided just around the corner on Customs with some changes to parking.
Stronger enforcement to get taxi’s out of loading areas in this area is needed too.
AT also should be adding a few more zebra crossings in the Viaduct area too – there’s a few raised tables that can easily have white lines painted on them.
Stronger enforcement of the 30kmh speed limit too – way too many people zoom through this area … right outside the AT office ironically too
Thanks for this info but unfortunately i have already filled out this survey before i realised that they have realistic and sensible possibilities to make it go further.
The use of the dreary, un-pedestrian friendly Lower Hobson is a great idea.
I work on Market Place in the old Market building and that intersection with Customs St is a nightmare, cars come flying round there so to make it one way is going to be great..really and as usual they haven’t gone far enough as the street doesn’t need any parking, its literally next door to the Viaduct Multistorey and the massive Downtown Carpark and its not like Market Place is full of amenities as its mostly commercial and residential, so one of the only pathetic arguments for on street parking on the street is invalid.
Anybody, yet alone transport professionals, who believe that the narrow path between the restaurants and the viaduct harbour quayside is a suitable “shared path” to be shared between transiting cyclists and pedestrians loitering, just enjoying the space, and it’s multiple attractions, must have rocks in their head.
About as sensible idea as creating a cycle route down Queen Street by redesignating the existing footpaths as “shared paths”.
A High Street type kerb extension seems entirely practicable as a quick, pre America’s Cup fix, awaiting the design and resource allocation to a final build later.
The green left arrow from Fanshawe to Market has to go. Drivers use this to bypass red lights by chicaning around the toilet block and continuing toward Customs. Often at dangerously high speeds. Even buses do it sometimes. That Pakenham / Market intersection needs a Victoria / High St style makeover.
Victoria?? I meant Shortland
My NX1 does it a couple of times a week. Not the craziest thing I’ve seen a bus do – On Tuesday NB4060 did a 6 point turn on Customs Street West just before Queen street (outside H&M), then reverse parked into stop 7015.
While an improvement on the AT effort this leaves two sharp corners in the path.
I’d prefer Nelson St – Sturdee St – Lower Hobson.
More work involved with that though? Bus lanes (need to stay) here, plus busy car park entrance/exit points?
IMO keeping bikes/scooters out of that area seems safer.
Thanks, Bike Auckland, I’ll be using this and your improvements are great.
I don’t think the size of the Fanshawe St – Nelson St intersection should be legal.
I find it a strange design. How valuable is that angle parking? Why does it go back to a 2-way cycle lane on one side?
I think it makes more sense to do something similar as on Elliott Street. How busy can that street possibly be?
Perhaps if AT had made provision for loading and taxis they wouldn’t have faced as much opposition.
@miffy – What opposition? Pretty sure they already consulted on the whole cycleway and was decided it should go ahead
September 2017: AT consults the public on the design for Phase 3: a two-way bikeway on Market Place, continuing past the Tepid Baths on Customs St West, and through Lower Hobson St to Quay St. We – and the public – said “Great, build it!”
Tactical urbanism is no more, ADO is disbanded. Sooner or later those good things will be reversed.
It was always much ADO about nothing.
I use this route most days. If I was going to do half of something, it’s not the Market Place stretch that needs a cycle lane. That is already zoned 30km/h and feels safe with low traffic volumes and slow traffic. The main risk on Market Place is drivers wanting to left turn over the top into Peckenham Place, if they don’t see, or consider themselves to have right-of-way, over straight ahead cyclists.
It’s the lower Hobson St section that needs a cycle lane. That is way too tight, and drivers in that stretch feel way too aggressive, to feel safe cycling along without separation.
And the shared path around the Viaduct Basin is kind of slow and full of pedestrians at peak times, so then people on bikes and scooters need to work really hard to be considerate to pedestrians. Which many are, but I’ve seem an uptick in aggressive rental scooter riding through there.
Agree, you could easily make the Market Place one-way without doing anything, it’s 30kmh anyway so that’s the easy bit for some tactical Urbanism….however, people moaning about loss of car parking spaces has caused the problem…when all they need to do is direct them to that massive bunker of a carpark building one road down.
Incredible, eh?
https://twitter.com/cityaklccrg/status/1234674861592567810?s=21
So with 52,500 parking spaces in the city centre, on-street spaces are simply not required. Yet the grief we’ve had trying to remove them! There’ve been only 359 removed in 4 years due to this resistance to progress. The opportunities opened up for people using the neglected modes are massive if we could remove more. Indeed, the poor safety stats for the city centre are largely due to the road reallocation resistance. People’s health and lives have been compromised because of this.
Step up, AT. You’re holding progress up.
Heidi
you seem to be right that there are just too many parking spaces available. Every morning as I go to work (on the bus) I look at the electronic counts of empty spaces for the Council car parks. There are always many hundreds of parks available. And remember these are the cheapest parks available, so how many more expensive ones must there be?
Sky City obviously has a massive over supply because they have had to slash their early bird price to $15.
If there is a shortage of parking AT has the answer in their Parking strategy and that is to raise prices.
In an environment where taking cars off the road to reduce emissions is an imperative AT’s performance regarding all forms of parking is inept (it’s a far nicer would than incompetent, and to be fair, it may simply be inertia.)
The time is long overdue to say to those complaining about a perceived shortage of parking, we don’t accept it is an issue, and we need to reduce parking for the benefit of the majority.
Yep spot on Heidi. There is so much supply that AT’s ability to reduce demand by raising prices in the inner city doesn’t work. Only answer is reducing supply.
Too few cheap parking spots.
You’d end up paying $25 instead of $8 if you have to park in a private building. So there will be complaints, how can you possibly expect otherwise. Of course in theory AT is free to ignore those complaints.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/119951877/aucklands-climate-debate-its-not-going-to-be-pretty
Cr Richard Hills:
“We should be trebling the rate of building cycle lanes – 10 kilometres a year is not good enough, it should be 30.”
Well done Richard, forget about some piddling extension around Quay St – let’s really build something.
And while off topic the rest of what he said is exciting, “He pointed to problematic areas outside specific climate change actions, such as the bundle of transport projects for Auckland worth $3.3 billion unveiled by the Government in January.The biggest project is the $1.35 billion Mill Rd arterial, which will open new rural land for development on the city’s southern edge between Manukau and Drury.
“There’s a real conflict there – you’re going be opening many of these projects just before we are meant to have halved our emissions,” said Hills.
Brave stuff Richard and I applaud you.
And more, “Theoretically we need to increase our public patronage by about 300 per cent in the next ten years, which is not small,” he said.
While I think he may be short by a factor of two it is public recognition that the current January growth rate of 4% is woefully inadequate.
It looks as though Auckland’s climate change lead may be in good hands, but it will be a hell of a fight. I note that one third of males my age group don’t believe humans affect the rate of emissions growth – you have to be kidding!
Problem is, this shouldn’t be brave thinking. It’s simply common sense and we need to get both society and politics to a point where common sense doesn’t even get noticed let alone applauded.
Good ideas from Bike Auckland.