The Harbour Bridge opportunity

On the basis that there’s a silver lining to every dark cloud, the threat of the “clip-ons” falling off has resulted in an accelerated strengthening project which may also facilitate the addition of cycling and pedestrian transit across the Bridge.

Hooray!

For a long time cyclists have voiced their dissatisfaction at not being able to cycle between the Shore and Auckland city. Having personally cycled over the Sydney Harbour bridge and Vancouver’s Lions Gate bridge it seemed such an anachronism to return home and find that in the 21^st century Auckland cyclists are still expected to take the ferry.

Our new cycle-friendly Council has an excellent opportunity now to promote this cycling option, and complement it with an updated cycling strategy that links the bridge in to the current/proposed network. Even better would be to create a cycle corridor parallel to the motorway up to Oteha Valley Rd – if we can create a corridor for buses, and if we can create a corridor for cyclists along the North-Western motorway, why not a cycle corridor on the Shore? A corridor on the western side would be preferable so the prevailing winds blow the pollution away from the cycling lane.

The Herald article at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=214&objectid=10472441 (Cyclists and walkers may get to use bridge) painted a fairly confident picture that the bridge crossing for cyclists was feasible, but the downside came right at the end of the article:

“But new North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams, while agreeing a cycleway would be "ultimately" desirable, said Auckland had plenty of other transport needs, such as better bus services.”

Hardly enthusiastic support from someone who is supposed to be pro-cycling, Andrew! Yes, bus services are important, but we’ve already spent hundreds of millions on the Shore bus lanes. Let’s peel off a little bit of funding for cycling facilities to compensate for the massive under-investment cycling facilities have missed out on in the past.

Please, please, please – get a Council resolution together so the powers that be see the Shore as enthusiastic advocates of cyclists and pedestrians crossing the bridge!

On a personal note, this will be my last post for a while. I’m taking a well-earned break from my Project Manager role with EDS at Smales Farm, and will be touring Indochina until late January 2008. Needless to say, I plan to do a bit of mountain biking and road cycling while away!

I’ll look forward to seeing a whole lot of new cycling initiatives taking shape when I return :-), and will be happy to continue a dialogue with anyone who wants to listen.

Cheers

Steve