University choice great opportunity for cycling?
As just in from the newspapers, University of Auckland is getting serious about purchasing the old Lion Brewery site in western Newmarket to create a large new mixed-use campus. If the purchase actually occurs (there’s hints that other buyers are also interested, and the deal is not yet all finalised), this might be an interesting opportunity for cycling in Auckland.
Students traditionally are much more willing to cycle than other populations. They are more likely to struggle with the financial tithe required to maintain a car in our tarmac-centric society. They don’t buy into the “ride a bike and you’ll probably die” scare nearly as much as the rest of society. They tend to live closer to their work (i.e. lecture hall, lab, library…) than the rest of the Auckland population. They love the flexibility of a bike to zip around between various destinations over the day.
As this is an expansion, not just a consolidation, we can hope that we will have a window of opportunity for an actual mode shift, not just some cycling trips moving from one part of Auckland to another (by the way, while the move and closure of the satellite campuses (campi?) probably makes a lot of sense for the university, one can’t but think that this will cause some economic pain in Epsom and Tamaki).
A huge new development also always goes hand in hand with changes to the surrounding transport environment. If instead of an university, we would be seeing, say, offices here, we would likely see some traffic engineers and policitians call for – nay, consider it mandatory – to massively upgrade the surrounding roads and intersections. Anyone who knows Khyber Pass Road knows that it’s already rock-bottom in amenity and safety for cyclists and pedestrians. Could it become any worse if this road was further widened (yes).
This is not to say that there won’t be the some of that same pressure for a university. “Some will need to drive” will be the catchphrase. Okay, but that doesn’t mean this should dominate the transport vision. A new university campus would offer the chance to push for a much stronger active mode component.
Recently, I attended (via a local resident’s group, rather than for CAA) a meeting during which Auckland Transport’s corridor management plan for Khyber Pass Road was discussed [it is still in development, which now turns out to be a good thing]. The bad state for walking and cycling was one of the key issues identified, but there was not much yet on how this could change, seeing all the other pressures. Well, walking and cycling in the area may just have gotten a lot more important. Lets make sure that this gets carried over into action if it turns out that we are indeed getting many thousand new students into the area.
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I note that separately, Auckland Transport Blog also has a post on this item – concentrating on the public transport aspects – that is well worth reading. It also highlights how the campus locations that are to be closed are much easier to reach / park at with a car, so that too could encourage cycling, comparatively speaking, by removing the “driver subsidy” of free or cheap(er) car parking.
General News, Grafton, Newmarket
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Auckland, General News, Grafton, Newmarket, opportunity, University of Auckland
Fullers (CAA Sponsor)
Themocracy
This move certainly holds plenty of implications for PT and walking/cycling, but as far as I can see, one direct route for any student coming from Mt Eden or Sandringham or Kingsland will involve having to come down (and up going home) a part of Khyber Pass Rd, and goodness, that’s a handful at times. AT will definately have to improve that road somehow now.
Indeed, that was one of the key points I thought about myself. There will be a lot of pressure to just add bus lanes along the western part of Khyber Pass and then call it a day – “here’s your cycle facility”. It needs to be better than that…
Great news indeed, this is a golden opportunity for cycling, walking and livability in the area it improve.
The medical quarter was already justification enough for creating strong cycling and walking links as a high priority, especially along Symonds Street and Grafton Bridge. Now with this new expansion and the recent growth of Grafton Station, there is simply no excuse. I look forward to proposals of high-quality, continuous dedicated paths, overhead shelter, and consistently upgraded intersections that all put people first.
While the public transport network and the new campus will have a mutually beneficial relationship, there are limits to it, beyond which cycling and walking can have a broad impact. The rail network won’t connect Khyber Pass to the city campus very well (perhaps only Parnell Station would come close). And buses generally perform poorly as a shuttle service in such close proximity or near the end of their lines (almost the last mile). What only barely works for the medical quarter today probably won’t scale up well.
I’d like to see how this will connect with other projects nearby too:
The net benefit of a high-quality, on-street cycle link through the central university campuses could be multiplied by another high-quality cross-town link between Parnell and Ponsonby via Grafton — it could seed a meaningful and respectable city cycling network, potentially tapping into the NW cycleway too.
Meanwhile, I am puzzled as to what the proposed Grafton Gully project might bring to the table. Despite its geographical proximity, it methodically misses every mark, whether it is the NW cycleway itself, or the heart of the city campus, or a connection to the new campus via the gully or Khyber Pass or otherwise. A project with such a narrow scope (joining Upper Queen to the waterfront via no-mans-land) doesn’t show much flexibility in the context of the bubbling melting pot of the inner city and city fringe. A brownfields development like this expanded campus is exactly the sort of thing it fails to respond to, whereas sensibly re-purposing our streets would more likely meet such needs, now and to come.
On a different note, it’s not often that an improvement opportunity like this comes along, with a ready-made coalition of interests. The university, hospital, schools, residents, cyclists, pedestrians, public transport groups, and possibly even the neighbouring business associations should all want to seriously improve cycling and walking and public transport together.
I echo the sentiment on Auckland Transport Blog: for once, let’s get this right first time.
Is this a good excuse to open up the closed off rail tunnel under Parnell and create an alternative cycle link from Newmarket to the CBD?
Might be, might be – less critical than Khyber Pass and access from the west, I would say, but certainly adds to the tunnel’s case. Rob Thomas from the Local Board and some Parnell groups were pushing for that.