Would you like to cycle in Orakei (Local Board)’s parks? Specifically Crossfield Reserve, Glover Park and Madills Farm? Then you should respond to this Council “have your say” survey.

Obviously, cycling will not be appropriate in all parks, and not in all areas. However, the (very pretty looking) masterplans for these park upgrades show various routes – mainly along the edges of the parks – which would be highly suitable for local residents, families and children on their bikes.

We therefore ask everyone to write in and ask for these parks to be made “cycleable” where possible. Cycleable paths should be wide enough (3m) to be shared with pedestrians at relaxed speeds, and should avoid stairs and steps (or where those exist, they should provide push channels for bikes to be easily moved up or down).

Faster cyclists (which will be the key concern for many non-cyclists) can be discouraged from such park routes by making them curve and meander a little here and there (especially where they go downhill), or by occasional switchback gates (which, if built right, work well to slow down cyclists without preventing bike access).

All these parks get / have car parking & road access. Why not also cycling access?

Some of these parks could offer lovely local rides and shortcuts for Aucklanders – so please share this around to your friends as well. Responses need to be in this Friday!

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3 Responses to “Orakei – parks for cycling?”

1. Kirsten says:

   September 18, 2012 at 1:47 pm

   Thanks to the Orakei Local Board for making this consultation process so effective in their ward. (although let’s point out that none of these parks is actually in the suburb of Orakei – Madills Farm is in Kohimarama, Glovers Park in St Heliers, and Crossfield Park is in Glendowie)

   Check out these parks before you submit – it’s important to have local knowledge, as these are green spaces with very important values for the surrounding communities which also get intense use as sports grounds, with many thousands of visitors arriving at weekends.The need to balance the competing needs of community and residents and the increasing numbers of visitors for football games has been behind the consultation process.

   I know about the Madills Farm issues at first hand since I live pretty close to the park, and
   it’s great to see the emphasis on additional landscaping and attractive paths which are certainly great for relaxed slow-speed riding and for families with small kids on bikes. So it’s good to remind our parks designers that cycling will be part of the mix. A 3m wide path, where possible, is always ideal, but may be hard to achieve in some places.

   Although they’re beyond the scope of this planning process, thinking about the use of these sports fields really highlights some bigger transport (and cycling) issues. Madills Farm gets literally thousands of players coming each weekend and while it’s great to see the family enjoyment involved, it’s also hard to avoid the observation that they all come by private motor vehicle, choking the surrounding streets with traffic and parking, and adding to the weekend congestion on district roads such as Tamaki Drive. It would be wonderful to see just some of these families arriving by bicycle or public transport!

   I’m a big fan of using green ways as links through this area – there are huge potential for green cycle ways running through Purewa Valley and St Johns down to Glen Innes and Tamaki which could potentially offer fantastic cycling connectivity. These 3 particular parks have a role to play as gentle green spaces and sports grounds – with cycling treated appropriately as part of the mix.

   And remember to ask for bicycle parking – maybe some of those kids will come by bike!
   • Max says:

     September 18, 2012 at 2:11 pm

     Thanks Kirsten, some very good comments. Please send on the message to others in your community who might want to submit.

     Bike parking definitely is a must too (and so much easier to retrofit than even more car parks).

     On the Waterview motorway project (which involves (re-)building some sports parks as part of the mitigation) I recently queried the fact that a skate park (of all things!) was to get car parking. I don’t think that many skater kids drive to the skate park…
2. Kirsten says:

   September 18, 2012 at 2:30 pm

   Friends of Madills Farm have a great website with background

   https://sites.google.com/site/friendsofmadillsfarm/