Hard News: The hard road to a cycle-friendly city
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For my sins, I've continued to participate in Facebook discussions about all this.
And I'm constantly struck by the fact that the protesters don't have a single actual idea about how to change the cycleway design. When I asked where they think the cycleway should go instead, one said "cyclists want it on the road" – okay, cool, if you're fine with losing all the angle parking, which you're not.
There's a real mob mentality going on. It's trivially easy to throw shit at AT – quite a lot harder to say what you'd do different.
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oga,
I am in that FB thread and I still think that design is ridiculous. Having the bikes do a dog leg behind the angle parking forces them to slow down, negotiate the angles around the cars, risk car dooring from people parking in that narrow half park visible in the picture, or cars that have parked too deep into the angle parking, blocking the cycle path.
I haven't personally seen these changes in the area, but my suggestion would be to remove the on-street parking completely on one side of the road and put in a two-way cycle lane with little street dividers to stop cars from parking in it. If the road is wide enough, put angle parking on the other side.
But I get it, people are precious about being able to park on the street wherever. If that particular area needs a footpath, angle parking, and a bike lane all on the same side, then someone's trying to have their cake and eat it, and the only things at risk are cyclists and the paint job on the first car in the angle parking.
If it wasn't for the way people use Richmond Rd and Garnet Rd as major thoroughfares, then the idea of changing the Richmond Rd shops to mixed use like in Fort Street could be a good idea, but I can't see people going for that because of their hard-on to get wherever as fast as possible.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I am in that FB thread and I still think that design is ridiculous. Having the bikes do a dog leg behind the angle parking forces them to slow down, negotiate the angles around the cars, risk car dooring from people parking in that narrow half park visible in the picture, or cars that have parked too deep into the angle parking, blocking the cycle path.
Someone in the thread makes a good point to the effect that maybe even cyclists, as well as drivers, should have to slow down in a complicated area with multiple users coming and going. I don't think slowing down is necessarily a problem, and I've ridden the paths and they're fine really. The main problem is cars parking over them – which will hopefully be, er, curbed when the green surface and some more physical separation goes in. But those are also likely to be straightened out as part of the review.
I haven’t personally seen these changes in the area, but my suggestion would be to remove the on-street parking completely on one side of the road and put in a two-way cycle lane with little street dividers to stop cars from parking in it. If the road is wide enough, put angle parking on the other side.
AT would be buying a massive fight by removing that much parking. That was what the whole fuss was about before the Occupiers started declaring the cycleways were "unsafe" etc.
If it wasn’t for the way people use Richmond Rd and Garnet Rd as major thoroughfares, then the idea of changing the Richmond Rd shops to mixed use like in Fort Street could be a good idea, but I can’t see people going for that because of their hard-on to get wherever as fast as possible.
Shared space - yeah, I've thought about that too. Make everyone really slow down.
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Bart Janssen, in reply to
AT would be buying a massive fight by removing that much parking.
True. It would be a fight. The question is would it actually be the best decision for all users?
I don't know the answer to that but experience overseas argues that removing carparks increases shopping in areas where that has been done.
The sad thing is that because a small number of protesters such a question can't even be posed let alone investigated properly.
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