Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
Quite the opposite, anyone riding to the CBD faces quite a lot of uphill. Much more, in fact, than cars do. That's Russell's point, the cycleway takes people up the Newton Rd bridge from the level of the motorway below, and then down the other side, when for the cost of 100m of path through an existing park (which would also be available to pedestrians), that could be avoided. It's a very strenuous hill, only strong cyclists can get up it at all without getting off and pushing. Normal mortals pushing a commuter bike with a bag attached are exhausted by the top, and it's quite annoying to think that in a minute you'll be riding down the other side, and then doing it all again to get to Upper Queen St, as cars pass continually beneath you on the more sensible path.
It could be better designed at very little cost.
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Tom Semmens,
If your alternative is only a car then electric represents savings. But if one of the alternatives is a normal pushbike then electric involves a lot more expense than that.
I'm curious, what do you wear for that commute? It's just long enough that on a normal pushbike you would get a sweat up.
Personally I'm on a pushbike but just in regular clothes and around half of the people I encounter on the cycleway are the same. It seems to me that that the normalization you are referring to is well under way.
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to FletcherB,
The electric assist bikes seem to cost $1500-$3000 ???
Yup, unless you want a very low quality one. Those folding ones are often cheaper, but a folding bike is not something you want to ride any great distance, and probably not at all if you're a big person. But Tom's image was not of a person riding any great distance at all, indeed Mary Poppins isn't a commuter anyway, unless you call walking to the kitchen a commute.
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Tom Semmens,
more smiling Mary Poppins’ on an electric bike going home with a baguette and some groceries in the basket.
That would be nice. You use an electric?
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Steve Curtis,
” UPHILL?, why does it have to be so hard for something we are entitled to”
The idea of making cycleways more usable by making them less hilly is also what they do with roads. It’s not a crazy idea, unless you basically have no idea about what riding a bike for transport actually involves. It’s actually even more laughable for car drivers, because it’s not like they personally have to push the car up the hill using their own body’s energy. They sit in a box in air conditioned comfort, usually one per box, and are lifted by the power of a hundred horses at great speed, and yet still practically all of the money in transport goes to leveling mountains and boring tunnels and resurfacing wrecked surfaces, and depopulating entire suburbs for them. It’s kind of laughable to take issue with the sense of entitlement of cyclists.
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Sacha,
Is the climb back up to Symonds St near Elam brutal?
No, but it's unnecessary, avoidable. So people will avoid it, unless safety is their primary concern. It's the cycle helmet of cycleways.
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Sam F,
I wasn’t prepared for just how short it was, and the bizarre diagonal crossover at one intersection where it changes sides of the road. Then it disappears
This was what I meant by the appalling engineering. Next time, I'll just leave it at the crossing and carry on along the road.
And yet, mustn’t grumble. What else would we have gotten? Probably nothing.
This was my feeling, that it was built the way it is because it's available land. It was a use-it-once-for-the-novelty thing, even though it literally goes within 200m of my final destination. Unfortunately it's about 50m below it. I can't see how that could have been improved, since the only way to hug the ridgeline cuts through existing buildings. So I still use the road. The only actually convenient destination of that cycleway is the bottom end of it.
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Sacha,
But really, you’d probably go along the Ponsonby Rd ridge on the dedicated cycle lanes to be added there (if they survive the planning/motorists appealing process).
I would at the moment, but any route that saves unnecessary ascents on a bike is something a lot of people would choose.
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Russell Brown,
Oh yeah, I always forget that K-Rd has an actual bridge. Presumably you'd have to be on the north side of the motorway yourself, so crossing from the NW cycleway one way or another. That would be good, not just for Freeman's Bay but for all of Downtown/Wynyard.
it would involve an ambitious new motorway bridge, solely for cycles.
Yes, or a tunnel/underpass, which would be preferable, since the very idea of it is to avoid climbing to the height required to bridge the motorway, and the direction is all downhill on the other side. There already is a bridge, on Upper Queen St, it's what we have to use now.
But the option shown in the Transport Blog post that Sacha linked to – going under the Newton Road overpass and connecting with a new cycle lane on Ian McKinnon Drive – seems eminently doable.
Yes, it would barely even require earthworks.
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Myles Thomas,
Fingers crossed!
thru grafton gully and also under K rd down to freemans bay.
Well it does go down Grafton Gully now, although I’m slightly annoyed to find that despite it going the full length of the University there is not one convenient access point, unless you were going to Owen Glenn Building. All the rest involve a stiff uphill climb at the end of your trip. Admittedly it’s hard to see how they could have done anything else, but it’s just saddening to have a big cycleway go right past the University and yet to find that using the road is still more convenient. It’s basically nothing but a city bypass at the moment.
As for what it does at the bottom of the gully…dear God who thought of that? It’s the worst piece of engineering I’ve seen in ages.
I'm not sure how you think it could go under K Rd to Freemans bay. A tunnel?
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