I’m going to try my hand at a bit of infrastructure here (although completely unqualified to do so). I’d be very glad to hear your opinions on this and especially from the infrastructure specialists out there.
However, I do feel that I have a special qualification for doing this post (and possibly rare qualification on this site) of being a completely wimpy ‘lower case C’ cyclist. Whilst having been cycling for more years than I care to share, I have never liked playing with cars, I ride on the pavement when necessary, and have experience of guiding 8 to 80 year olds (the target audience of a true cycling city) around Auckland’s streets.
So to business …
I recently saw and interesting post on Auckland Transport Blog where the author analysed the streets in the city for walking, buses and cars – of course my immediate thought was ‘where are the main routes for bicycles?’
This is the image from his post where brown is cars, red is walking and green is buses.
So I had a go at adding my primary cycling routes (blue dots) …
Currently the waterfront and Fort St./High St./Lorne St. (and yes both directions) form the main arterial for my travel in the city. When I need to go out of the Queen St. valley, I take either Wellesley to Symonds St. or Mayoral Drive/Vincent St. to K Road. depending on whether I’m going East or West. I avoid the top of Queen Street and going directly west along Victoria or Wellesley as the hills are too steep for me there. I prefer to take the scenic route and use the waterfront ‘super highway’.
Now I know that some have the leg muscles for Auckland’s steeper hills but your average 8 to 80 year olds will take the easier routes every time. The key I think is to make these streets safe – both statistically safe and subjectively safe.
I am perfectly happy on the waterfront off-road cycle path, all of the Wynyard Quarter, around the Fort, High, O’Connell, Lorne Street area, Queen St. is reasonable but will be much improved when the new plans for pedestrianising it happen.
The top end of town is not so good -
Wellesley is marginal, while it does have a cycle lane it is narrow and just paint and I am hoping this is just a place holder for when they do the big ‘connecting the city to the Domain’ thing that is outlined in the Auckland Plan (see red circle on picture). Symonds St. is strictly still a ‘ride on the pavement’ job for me, Grafton bridge is ok if you don’t have a bus up your backsides and then you can go through the park, which is nice.
Mayoral drive is a bit hairy but you’re not on it for long then, once again, there is a bit of a dodgy cycle lane up Vincent St. – just paint and poor surface. I don’t like Pitt street at all as you have to change lanes if you’re in the road, but up the pavement and across at the lights works quite nicely. K road is ok if it’s quiet but it’s onto the pavement here too if necessary.
So the way I see it, if we want to get everyone cycling around the city, we will need to put connected Copenhagen-style cycle lanes on these top-end major cycling arteries. Essentially, any of the blue dot routes that also have green lines or brown lines (or both) on them.
What do you think?
Agree Unity, your routes are similar to my main CBD routes. – And the central city climb can be a drag especially after a return from the ferry to Mt Eden after riding all day on Waiheke. I have once taken my bike on the train from Britomart to Mt Eden station to save myself the 80m verticle climb!
most of my CBD riding has been in the peaks, there are some pretty fierce gradients around the Queen St valley, but a few thoughts
Queen St to Aotea Sq can be quite nice in the morning after getting off the ferry, but I'd definitely avoid it from Mayoral Dr to K'Rd except when it's absolutely quiet
the gradient up Albert St/Vincent St is much gentler and more progressive, as is Symonds St, which is probably a lot safer now with the bus lanes and less parkin
Not sure of the amendments but the Auckland Regional Cycle Network map was updated on the Auckland Transport website this afternoon
This is helpful. I really feel out of my element trying to get out of the bowl that is the cbd. I will try these routes next time.
From a network standpoint I think the other key cbd access streets should be included- such as Franklin Rd, maybe even Hopetoun??
Another issue is that these bike routes follow key bus routes, so separated cycling infrastructure would require a serious reconsideration of how people move through the city.
Probably also should show the proposal for the Nelson Street motorway off-ramp turned into a cycle route (though how to link it to K Road and Ian McKinnon is a bit unclear yet) and also show the extension of the Northwestern along the western side of ian McKinnon, over Upper Queen Street, then turning to the right and following SH16A on the western side down Grafton Gully till almost to Beach Road.
Oh, by the way, the city centre master plan shows their proposed cycle routes of the future city centre on Page 153:
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/SiteCollectionDocuments/aboutcouncil/planspoliciespublications/theaucklandplan/draftccmpmove7.pdf
Also, Unity – I am with you on preferring the "no dodging fast cars, please" options, even if they are a bit more out of the way.