Waterview – Home Free For Cycling

If you have been following our messages over the last couple of months, you know that the Waterview Project went from a possible disappointment to a resounding success for cycling.

This was mainly due to “all the stars aligning” – i.e. not only did we have a good case for cycling, we also had a lot of community groups wanting similar things, and a Board of Inquiry that was willing to listen to concerns and make constructive changes in the design to mitigate the effects from this enormous new motorway project.

With the final decision now released, and beyond appeal, the benefits for cycling are many, and worth counting up again:

•  A new cycleway connecting Waterview with the suburbs to the north, east and southeast, and joining the Northwestern Cycleway and the Waikaraka Cycleway – making for a much better connected network
• Two new bridges for the new cycleway, to avoid long detours and allow the route to cross the gorgeous, inner-city wilderness of the lower Oakley Creek area, and the rail line
• An upgraded and slightly relocated Northwestern Cycleway between Carrington Road and Te Atatu – with new dedicated walking / cycling bridges over the streams / inlets and the Rosebank Road motorway ramps. No more narrow clip-ons.
• A short westward extension of the Northwestern Cycleway, from Te Atatu to Henderson Creek. This will allow riders to skip another section that is currently on local roads, similar to what the Kingsland upgrade did last year in the inner city
• A new shared path linking north through Pt Chevalier Interchange and then continuing along the coastline west of Pt Chevalier up to Eric Armishaw Reserve
• Various new short sections of cycle paths to link up to the new facilities from surrounding suburbs, some of which were proposed by Cycle Action

We have also succeeded in creating strong relationships with various groups associated with the project, and look forward to seeing these new cycleways being built in the coming years. The stated intention of the Board was for these paths to be built not only as a legacy improvement, but also to reduce the impact of the 5-year construction phase of the motorway. Therefore, we hope that Aucklanders will be able to enjoy some of these new facilities as soon as in 1-2 years.

Solent Street upgrades on Tamaki Drive

In June, Auckland Transport announced at a meeting of the Orakai Local Board, that one of the next improvements for Tamaki Drive cycling would be an upgrade of the Solent Street (Ports of Auckland) entrance.

We understand the works are to include maintenance to the off-road paths at the intersection, an eastbound cycle lane, and improvements to the west-east pedestrian crossing (which is also heavily used by off-road cyclists). We hope that the works will manage to be completed in time for the RWC, so that tourists (and locals of course!) can get an increasingly smooth ride along our prime waterfront road.

Tamaki Drive Cycling Working Group

Last month’s publicity about the slippery white line hazards on Tamaki Drive has put us in touch with a fabulous group of sports cyclists using the road, and are keen to make it safer and more enjoyable for everyone. We are hugely grateful to Mark Taylor from Mt Eden Cycles, Paul O’Brien (who has ridden with Mark) and Terry Baucher and Murray Vaile from the Devonport Xpressos for taking this initiative.

We have had two meetings with these guys together with good people from Auckland Police and Auckland Transport, and now have a list of ideas to work on to improve cycling safety and the relationship between people cycling and other users of Tamaki Drive.

Ideas floated include limiting bunch sizes, faster action to remove hazards like glass and some novel work with the Police to change public perceptions by endorsing cycling on Tamaki Drive. Mark and co will be working to liase with bike shops to get feedback on our ideas.

A big thank you is owed to everyone who is working with Cycle Action on this initiative.

 

Ian McKinnon Drive & Dominion Road

The cycleway works on Ian McKinnon Drive are proceeding well, and soon we will have a much nicer ride into the city from Dominion Road. It is timely therefore, that Auckland Council / Auckland Transport are now discussing upgrades to Dominion Road again.

It appears clear that the changed project design now being worked up will not transform Dominion Road into anything like a “cycle boulevard” – partly because local residents are concerned about the impact of a larger-scale transport project on their on-street parking and local amenity.

Cycle Action, on consideration, still feels that the project can provide reasonable improvements to cycling – though likely more for the kind of more confident commuter cyclist, who will appreciate features like wider, more consistent, shared bus lanes.

Ngahue Drive

Cycle Action, like others, has raised the increasing level of issues experienced by cyclists now that Ngahue Drive has been changed from one lane each direction with a wide median to two lanes without a median. Cyclists who previously were able to ride this road in relatively acceptable conditions, now report verydifficultconditions.

We raised this with Auckland Transport, and also understand that the Mayor has asked them to investigate ways of improving the situation. We will keep you informed on further changes.

 

Onehunga Foreshore

The project to rebuild a foreshore for Onehunga – offering beaches and headlands freely accessible to the public again, after the motorway disrupted this local environment decades ago – is getting closer.

Cycle Action visited an open day of Auckland Council showing the proposal two weekends ago, and is pleased to see that it contains a variety of access paths for walkers and cyclists, a new, wide walking and cycling overbridge over State Highway 20, and discusses ways of improving Orpheus Drive for longer-distance, faster cyclists.

With the manifold cycling improvements that have occurred in the Onehunga-Mangere Bridge area over the last couple years, we are please that this project is also one of the new kind where cycling is seen as an integral, positive feature. It is much more fun praising Council and their design teams for positive initiatives – rather than trying to get them to adopt things they hadn’t thought about, and we see such projects as another sign of cycling’s mainstream appeal.

Construction of the new foreshore is to take approximately until 2014.

 

New Central Cycle Map Coming

The very popular cycle maps created by ARTA and Cycle Action Auckland several years ago are getting updated. The first map, for the Central area, is to be released in time for the RWC, and again features input from Cycle Action – as well as showing additions from recent years such as the Kingsland section of the Northwestern Cycleway, or the Mt Roskill cycleway link. The timeframes for updating the other maps will follow.

Once it is released, you will be able to look for the map / order copies where you can still get the old maps, i.e. at Auckland Transport, orattheMAXXwebsite.