Given the way things are going in the UK, "supply chains" may end up with cyclists getting every lane on the Harbour Bridge sooner than we think.
The Brooklyn bridge looks great and is notable for an important reason. There had been a cycle lane for years but it was simply a painted line on the pedestrian crossing. Given the bridge was always choked with tourists it was impossible to expect sightseers to keep to their side of the line and often was just easier to join the crowds and walk your bike. Persuading city authorities that pedestrians and cyclists ("people too poor for cars?") are not the same thing is sometimes hard. I'm both a walker and a cyclist and I know at times we'll need to share. But if at all possible it works best if we can be separated for everybody's safety and comfort.
Cycling in New York is becoming amazing and one thing tends to lead to another. Good infrastructure has made the short term bike rental "Citibike" feasible. For about the cost of one decent cab fare, a visitor can get 72 hours worth of 30-minute rides (and much cheaper for residents over a year). Use the app to plot a "mystery tour" across Manhattan to places you'd never see otherwise with rental and dropoff stations every few blocks in many places (and taking up carparks!). Ride uptown from a Greenwich Village jazz club after midnight embedded in a crowd of food delivery cyclists. Swoop down on the magnificently curved Williamsburg Bridge cycleway into Manhattan and you feel like you are in the future. And hopefully, you are.
Even small things help. Here in Ōtahtahi junctions on the new cycleways now have destination signs with distances. Only 8km on cycleway from near my place to the University? Sure, I could do that....
Thank you for this! Feeling depressed and demoralized I went for a bike ride yesterday afternoon and was amazed by the number of people - families with kiddies on learner wheels, teenagers doing stunts around basketball courts, flatties on mountain bikes exercising together, sports cyclists in lycra, first-timers on hire bikes, older couples tootling along on ebikes - everyone out sharing the paths in the gorgeous sunshine, and I was immediately uplifted. The revolution is coming, ready or not!
I, for one, am disappointed this didn’t go ahead. I know it’s way more expensive, I know it’s not the simplest solution, but a lovely bridge with ample space for cyclists and pedestrians would have been a magnificent addition to the city infrastructure and, I’m sure, would have come to be loved by everyone. This is an opportunity list, in my view.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they said, the money we’d put aside for the bridge will added to the money to be spent on local cycling infrastructure and it’s all going to be built in the next three years.
Close the harbour bridge for a day and hear the screams of car drivers who temporarily have to find alternative routes at great inconvenience and expense.
Remind them that this is what cyclists have to put up with every single f***ing day.
I'll say it again. Waka kotahi is stuffed with over paid road designers who see the world through a car window. Phil Goff by saying NO has alienated at least one supporter
There's just no money to do anything. It's why we're all now driving at 70kmh on state highways, because there's no money to fix crash hazards. Those who once drove 90 in the 100kmh zones are now driving 70 in the 80 zone, making the drive from Nelson to Picton horrendously dangerous, when drivers late for the ferry, which never arrived in port because it's in dry dock somewhere, try passing on blind corners. All that's left in the budget is money to fix constanst landslides. We're still one-way over the Takaka Hill, almost 4 years on.
Not surprised and didn't think it was a viable solution. Claim a lane - Curran to Stafford - still the best answer. What I don't get is the resistance at local and national level from road design/approvals. Still significant infrastructure being designed with little or no regard for multi-mode transport.
That proposed cycleway appears to tick the viable, feasible and desirable Boxes. We must assume it is being considered seriously in relation to the Northern Pathway.
At the Stokes Point end I can envisage a simple on/off ramp just south of the driveway to the Sulphur Beach boatyard. The only problem to be resolved is crossing Stafford Road but that was the case before.
Re the proposed Summer trial – that will be of some use but it is most likely to involve recreational cyclists. The reduced reliance on cars will only happen if/when work commuters switch from cars to bikes.
It looks as though this proposal is for cyclists only - walkers will have to wait until a new crossing frees up another lane.
It’s the transformational government you have when you don’t have a transformational government. The Labour Party should change their name to the Clayton’s Party.
I'm imagining a giant crowd-funding doubling as a PR campaign for the allocated lane. Shame WK into it by getting every cyclist in the country to pledge $10.
Meanwhile in Christchurch this last week the blinkered regional council Ecan yet again became Ecannot when it refused to approve a trial for gold coin or free buses for under-25s. It’s not the whole answer by any means but it would have give one tiny signal that Christchurch’s absolutely shithouse bus system could be of some use in showing young people that cars are not the only way to commute.
Its a wider issue that the bike lane on the harbour bridge. Seems like the only way that actual meaningful climate action will occur in this country is if each of us does whatever we can in our own lives to stop the pollution and degradation. Governments like this current one promised so much but have done very little. Can't let it get you down - bloody humans!
Given the way things are going in the UK, "supply chains" may end up with cyclists getting every lane on the Harbour Bridge sooner than we think.
The Brooklyn bridge looks great and is notable for an important reason. There had been a cycle lane for years but it was simply a painted line on the pedestrian crossing. Given the bridge was always choked with tourists it was impossible to expect sightseers to keep to their side of the line and often was just easier to join the crowds and walk your bike. Persuading city authorities that pedestrians and cyclists ("people too poor for cars?") are not the same thing is sometimes hard. I'm both a walker and a cyclist and I know at times we'll need to share. But if at all possible it works best if we can be separated for everybody's safety and comfort.
Cycling in New York is becoming amazing and one thing tends to lead to another. Good infrastructure has made the short term bike rental "Citibike" feasible. For about the cost of one decent cab fare, a visitor can get 72 hours worth of 30-minute rides (and much cheaper for residents over a year). Use the app to plot a "mystery tour" across Manhattan to places you'd never see otherwise with rental and dropoff stations every few blocks in many places (and taking up carparks!). Ride uptown from a Greenwich Village jazz club after midnight embedded in a crowd of food delivery cyclists. Swoop down on the magnificently curved Williamsburg Bridge cycleway into Manhattan and you feel like you are in the future. And hopefully, you are.
Even small things help. Here in Ōtahtahi junctions on the new cycleways now have destination signs with distances. Only 8km on cycleway from near my place to the University? Sure, I could do that....
Thank you for this! Feeling depressed and demoralized I went for a bike ride yesterday afternoon and was amazed by the number of people - families with kiddies on learner wheels, teenagers doing stunts around basketball courts, flatties on mountain bikes exercising together, sports cyclists in lycra, first-timers on hire bikes, older couples tootling along on ebikes - everyone out sharing the paths in the gorgeous sunshine, and I was immediately uplifted. The revolution is coming, ready or not!
I, for one, am disappointed this didn’t go ahead. I know it’s way more expensive, I know it’s not the simplest solution, but a lovely bridge with ample space for cyclists and pedestrians would have been a magnificent addition to the city infrastructure and, I’m sure, would have come to be loved by everyone. This is an opportunity list, in my view.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they said, the money we’d put aside for the bridge will added to the money to be spent on local cycling infrastructure and it’s all going to be built in the next three years.
Close the harbour bridge for a day and hear the screams of car drivers who temporarily have to find alternative routes at great inconvenience and expense.
Remind them that this is what cyclists have to put up with every single f***ing day.
I'll say it again. Waka kotahi is stuffed with over paid road designers who see the world through a car window. Phil Goff by saying NO has alienated at least one supporter
There's just no money to do anything. It's why we're all now driving at 70kmh on state highways, because there's no money to fix crash hazards. Those who once drove 90 in the 100kmh zones are now driving 70 in the 80 zone, making the drive from Nelson to Picton horrendously dangerous, when drivers late for the ferry, which never arrived in port because it's in dry dock somewhere, try passing on blind corners. All that's left in the budget is money to fix constanst landslides. We're still one-way over the Takaka Hill, almost 4 years on.
Not surprised and didn't think it was a viable solution. Claim a lane - Curran to Stafford - still the best answer. What I don't get is the resistance at local and national level from road design/approvals. Still significant infrastructure being designed with little or no regard for multi-mode transport.
That proposed cycleway appears to tick the viable, feasible and desirable Boxes. We must assume it is being considered seriously in relation to the Northern Pathway.
At the Stokes Point end I can envisage a simple on/off ramp just south of the driveway to the Sulphur Beach boatyard. The only problem to be resolved is crossing Stafford Road but that was the case before.
Re the proposed Summer trial – that will be of some use but it is most likely to involve recreational cyclists. The reduced reliance on cars will only happen if/when work commuters switch from cars to bikes.
It looks as though this proposal is for cyclists only - walkers will have to wait until a new crossing frees up another lane.
It’s the transformational government you have when you don’t have a transformational government. The Labour Party should change their name to the Clayton’s Party.
I bet those buses or ferries won’t end up being free either - scan on and scan off.
I'm imagining a giant crowd-funding doubling as a PR campaign for the allocated lane. Shame WK into it by getting every cyclist in the country to pledge $10.
Lousy Government but a great Prime Minister. Easily the best since Norman Kirk.
Thank god the Opposition are so fucking useless.
The thought of those tossers calling the shots truly sends shivers up my spine
Box on Jacinda. You are our best hope.
Meanwhile in Christchurch this last week the blinkered regional council Ecan yet again became Ecannot when it refused to approve a trial for gold coin or free buses for under-25s. It’s not the whole answer by any means but it would have give one tiny signal that Christchurch’s absolutely shithouse bus system could be of some use in showing young people that cars are not the only way to commute.
It was not a big expensive difficult thing to do, taking one lane for bikes! Really pathetic decision.
Its a wider issue that the bike lane on the harbour bridge. Seems like the only way that actual meaningful climate action will occur in this country is if each of us does whatever we can in our own lives to stop the pollution and degradation. Governments like this current one promised so much but have done very little. Can't let it get you down - bloody humans!