Thanks For Helping Us Celebrate the Grafton Gully Cycleway
Hey – what a terrific turnout last Thursday night to launch the Grafton Gully Cycleway! (That’s the new name for the path bringing the NW Cycleway into town). Many thanks to our presenters – Scott Wickman, for his superb virtual pedal- through of NZTA’s section of the route; Gyles Bendall (Auckland Council), giving us glimpses of how Council’s Urban Design and Parks team will add to the project, and Melanie Alexander (Auckland Transport) for her assurances that we will get a seamless link path all the way to the Waterfront. The team at ‘matter’ (our favourite architectural practice from Grey Lynn) brought the show to a close with fast talk and great urban design and cycling images. We are impressed they can walk a tightrope between keeping things real, while floating stimulating and novel ideas.
Scott Wickman has given us a copy of his presentation and Melanie’s AT colleagues are just starting on the drawing board. This is your chance to get your ideas and comments into the ring. Add them to this blog and we will pass them on. Scott’s presentation is available for download in PDF format.
Bridges, Cycle lanes, Funding, General News, Grafton, Ian McKinnon Drive, New Zealand Cycle Trail, Northwestern Cycleway, Off-road paths
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Bridges, Cycle lanes, Funding, General News, Grafton, Grafton Gully Cycleway, Ian McKinnon Drive, Melanie Alexander, New Zealand Cycle Trail, Northwestern Cycleway, Off-road paths, Scott Wickman
Fullers (CAA Sponsor)
Themocracy
Thanks Scott for a great presentation. It seemed like a great project that will not only help those of us who cycle but also open up a hidden gem in the city.
I’m really hoping the support from Auckland Transport leads to a real cycle-friendly connection to the waterfront – easier said than done!
It would be good to see the slip lane from Upper Queen Street onto Ian McKinnon Drive as well as the one from Upper Queen onto Canada Street removed – if this is to become a bicycle highway we need to make it safe – slip lanes are awful and don’t deserve to be in a city. I also assume they plan to install a pedestrian/bike crossing where Canada Street meets Upper Queen Street? Or will the cycle lane be underneath the road at that point?
Stage 2 of the project would be a good point at which to add in the long discussed cycle lanes on Wellesley Street as it crosses the motorway, connecting to those planned on Grafton Street. Ideally a cycle lane could also be built connecting to Symonds street on the embankment to the north of Wellesley Street there too.
I also feel that NZTA should be looking to take a lane off Ian McKinnon Drive and use that as the space for a cycle lane in each direction, rather than the expensive and elaborate option of cantilevering something off the side. There’s no real reason Ian McKinnon should be so large – the only benefit I see is that it’s providing a nice corridor to install trams from Dominion Rd at some point in the future. In the meantime it should be humanised and a step in that direction would be narrowing it and using that space for cycling facilities.
Many thanks for your comments, bbc- they are just the sort of constructive ideas we are keen to have so we can get them in front of AT and NZTA. I hope others will follow your lead!
Yes, a new pedestrian/cycle crossing is planned at Canada St to make it easier to get onto the new Grafton Gully cycleway. We’re got good ideas about improving the Newton section of the route at our public meeting, and we’re glad to take your suggestions on board. Thanks again!
Ian McKinnon Drive is AT, not NZTA, but removal of the slip lane would be a nice improvement when the cycleway is extended from there – and it would be cool if AT could consider a lane reduction to reduce construction costs for Stage 3 (Newton to Upper Queen) of the cycleway. However, I worry that they will want that space for cars and/or buses…
Sorry I missed it – its a fantastic project!
I think the cycleway will be good for straight-out commuters (as a way of avoiding crowded streets at peak hours) and leisure cyclists. But I don’t think it is an out-and-out great project since a) it has few access points and b) it goes through the middle of nowhere.
These criticisms can be leveled at much of the north-western, it is like a motorway that is hard to get on but handy if you are going point to point. Cars benefit from motorways in that they speed up the journey with their higher speed limit even when the route is sometimes a little longer. Bikes don’t get this benefit — you can reach top bike speed on pretty much any road whereas cycle-lanes tend to be constructed for slower speeds, especially on corners or where there are several other cyclists around.
That leaves safety, and clearly this route would be safer for bikes in terms of car-collision potential though very careful planning will need to go into making these rather obscure places feel (and be) safe to cyclists (particularly women) using it at less populated times.
Currently, coming out at Upper Queen, its easy to scoot across to K road, onto Liverpool St and City Road then down Symonds to minimise hill-climbing and distance. The only hairy bit here is the intersections on upper queen and the right turn to K road. Symonds st is not bad to cycle down with the bus lane and could be improved. I hope AT doesn’t see this cycleway as the only option for cyclists and neglect to improve this most direct route.
So the grade profile for this new route needs to be carefully assessed. It’s clearly going to be worse than the above for most destinations. Maybe the current poor profile of the North Western could be improved by bypassing the need to come up and over Newton Road? It’s all unused NZTA land down below.
Even though the cemetary part of the route does seem rather isolated I like that it offers up the option to head up to the Domain. The whole cycleway could open up opportunities for tourists to explore the city if completed correctly.
It’s a great project but there’s a couple of things that will need some good design thinking:
i. it’s a steep downhill once you cross over Symonds St and sweep left down into the gully- the cycleway will have to be quite wide around the corner to make it safe – and no, speed bumps aren’t a substitute
ii. it’s isolated down there, and it’s going to take good lighting (and maybe some security cameras?) to make it feel safe for everyone.
You’ve hit the spot on all of those points. It is a hostile alien part of town at present so hard to imagine how it will give the security we all need. Good gradient, superb lighting and clear sightlines are ‘must have’ items that we will be working on as the detailed design work progresses. We will be reporting as we go so you stay in the loop.