Having been a cyclist, motorcyclist and car driver I’ve been witness to all manners of odd behaviour from the various sectors, but on the whole, most riders and drivers are courteous and competent and I can’t say that I’ve ever really felt at risk on the road, ….although having said that, I suppose the main issues I’ve witnessed are:
…….and then there’s the greenies on all the City Councils that feel it is most necessary to create cycleways for the poor, at risk cyclists!! I am of the opinion that these people have probably never ridden pushbikes, because that would require changing out of their kaftans and sandals, and I am most confused as to how they ever cope taking their children shopping, where one needs to cart prams, pushchairs and all manner of bits and pieces required to change nappies etc! My point being that it is much easier to drive the car, park outside where you need to be, do the business, round-up the kids and go home ….but the cycleways tend to strip away much of the convenient parking ….and lord knows how the businesses manage to survive?? ….not to mention that I heard recently that the Wellington Council coffers are down about $3-4M per annum due to reduced parking revenue. Anyways …. The point of this wee rant is to point out how the WCC, and their best cycleway designers have hit new lows in their quest for more cycleways rather than fixing the leaking water supply. I guess their best efforts would have to be: Island Bay: where they managed to place the cycleway next to the curb with little barriers on the outside that prevent the parked cars from encroaching on the cycleway, then there’s the vehicle lanes. Now in theory, this seems a great way to protect the poor cyclists, but ….the good cyclists prefer to ride on the road! This is because the parked cars and barriers prevent the road sweepers from cleaning the cycleways! Cambridge Terrace: where three lanes of a major thoroughfare has now been reduced to one bus lane, one vehicle lane and a two-way cycle lane. Adelaide Road: where it’s virtually impossible to find a carpark these days. So, we were away in Melbourne the other week and returned to Ngaio to find that the plague had spread to Kaiwharawhara Rd, Ngaio Gorge and Kenya St! In this case the Council Muppets, that hired the Numpties to design and do the job hit new heights! The new cycleways look very smart, with the barriers sporting two vertical markers, … but …. as far as I’m concerned, it’s a bloody shambles! For starters Kenya St and Ngaio Gorge are hills that cater to all manner of cycles and cyclist competencies. ie. retro style bikes, small wheeled bikes, mountain bikes, road bikes …..and e-bikes, ridden by a wide range of people and competencies. Now in a normal, pre-cycleway scenario, this range of bikes and rider competencies will travel at a wide range of speeds, with riders pulling out, overtaking and pulling back in as required …and vehicle drivers taking care to allow such manoeuvres. However a cycleway is not wide enough to allow overtaking so riders would need suck-it-in, or leave the cycleway to overtake! ….so what’s the point in having them!! I also note that at the bottom of Kenya St, it’s now a bit tight and where before, if there was a bus coming at you as you embarked on the clime, one could just slide into the unbarriered cycleway to have oodles room ….but now it would be marginal and one would probably have to pull over if one encountered a bus coming at them!? And then there’s a new twist in the design of this one! There are random carparks slotted along the way! How bizarre! how bizarre! The cycleway doesn’t meander around these carparks, it just stops and more often than not, there’s not enough room for the bikes to escape to the ferocious car lane! As I mentioned, the Numpties really have outdone themselves of this one!
*Sigh* …. Not sure if you’ve guessed, but I really hate cycleways and would generally be rated (in my cycling attire) as a non-user! In fact there’s a cycleway that runs along the harbour, between the Hutt Motorway and train tracks between Ngauranga Gorge and Petone, but I always ride on the motorway because of the grit and places where one would have to stop if meeting a pedestrian or other cyclist coming the other way. I really hate cycleways and would prefer the Council attend to the multitude of leaks in the water supply system! I really, really hate cycleways and would prefer the Council do away with them and resurrect the carparks as a form of revenue. I really, really, really hate cycleways …..unless of course, they are just an area of the road that is appropriately marked as a cycleway, but with no barriers that allow the general traffic to use them when there’s no cyclists in them and in doing so, effectively keep them clean of grit and other detritus.
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This blog is pretty much just about motorcycling ...but every now and then I might rant or dribble on about other things. Categories
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August 2021
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