Wellington City Council: We need you to design safe roads for cyclists

[Nick Potter]

[UPDATE: Check out the role this discussion is having by reading the comments left by people below. Thanks to the participation of Intersect members, concerned cyclists and hard working councillors, it looks like we're making some progress...Keep it up!]

Wellington City Council (WCC) recently re-developed a major road in Wellington (Riddiford St in front of the new regional hospital). This is one of Wellington's most popular routes for people who bike to town from the southern suburbs, and the council acknowledges it is a main corridor for cyclists.

WCC has a policy that "On main corridors, cyclists will have an option of riding free of general traffic by using dedicated cycle facilities where practical or by using dedicated bus lanes."

This is what the new road looks like:

As you can see, there is plenty of room for pedestrians (hooray!) and...cars: both moving and parked. Yet this development has made the road even more dangerous for people on bikes.

Cyclists now need to ride dangerously close to parked cars (that may open their doors at any time), or creatively dart down the middle of the road...

At the intersection, most cyclists need to get across a fast-moving lane of traffic to get into the middle of the road...

Often interfering with the flow of cars in the process...

According to WCC (see below) this road "caters for cyclists".

I notified WCC of my concerns about the safety of this road (see letter attached). I asked them how this road was consistent with the WCC Cycle policy (2008), which states:
Policy 1.1: Every opportunity to make the city as safe as possible for cyclists must be explored.
Policy 3.1: On main corridors [including Riddiford St], cyclists will have an option of riding free of general traffic by using dedicated cycle facilities where practical or by using dedicated bus lanes.
Policy 3.2: Every opportunity must be taken to make improvements to the cycle network (refer Appendix 1) to make the routes safer and more convenient.
Policy 3.6: WCC will provide coloured designated cycle lanes.

This was the council's response:
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From: Stephen Harte
Date: Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 8:18 AM
Subject: RE: Urban development and transport issue: Riddiford St

Thanks for your letter. The new design for Riddiford St does cater for cyclists. As suggested in your letter cycle stop boxes are to be provided at either end of Riddiford St at both the Mein St and John St intersections. As for dedicated cycle lanes along the new stretch of street these will not be marked. It is planned for cyclists to be facilitated when bus lanes are implemented. These are likely to be installed in conjunction with extensions to the Adelaide Rd scheme in the next few years by taking out parking at peak times. This approach is consistent with the policies you have outlined in your letter.
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At best, it seems cyclists can hope to be "facilitated" when bus lanes are built 'in the next few years" (and even then, only at "peak times"). I cannot see how this road is consistent with the council's own policies - but please convince me if you can!

Wellington had several high-profile deaths of people on bikes last year. This is not good enough. I also wonder how developments like this encourage more people to cycle in a city that aspires to be "the first capital city in the world to become carbon neutral". As our mayor stated in 2007, "the Council can create infrastructure and influence urban form to enable a carbon neutral capital."

There is still an opportunity to change this road for the better NOW. As the road has been significantly widened, the existing configuration could easily be changed to include cycle lanes (e.g. by removing some of the parking spaces).

I encourage you to add a comment here and contact the council if you are concerned about this development. You can email their Manager of Roading and Transportation and/or your local councillors. You might like to suggest that:
- This road is dangerous for cyclists
- It is inconsistent with the Council's own policies
- The existing configuration should be changed to make it safe and convenient for cycling, by installing cycle lanes in both directions.
- All future developments along major transport corridors should be consistent with the Council's cycling policy.

[The Intersect Crew]

My letter to Stephen

"...This is a breech of faith and is a major lost opportunity. I am not satisfied with your
response to Nick Potter’s letter, and am calling you to act on this issue today. There is still
an opportunity to change this road to improve it for cyclists NOW. As the road has been
significantly widened, the existing configuration could easily be changed to include cycle
lanes. This may involve removing some of the parking spaces – but cycle safety needs to
come above car‐parking convenience.

In addition, I want to be reassured that all future developments along major transport
corridors are developed to be consistent with the cycling Policy that the Council has
developed.

We are posting our letters and your responses online so that they are visible to the network
of cycling advocates across Wellington and the rest of the country.

My fellow advocates are busy promoting the cause of cycling through hosting events like
Frocks on Bikes to inspire people to get on their bikes, which is consistent with the stated
aims of a Council that aspires to be the first carbon neutral capital city. It is time to honour
these statements with action. I look forward to hearing back from you with an outline of
how you plan to address this situation."

See full letter attached.

[Nick Potter]

A forwarded email from another concerned Wellingtonian...

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From: Paul Bradley
Sent: 21 January 2009 13:44
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Roading developments and cyclists


Dear Sir,

It is disheartening to see that the new development of Riddiford Street* in Newtown has no provision for cyclists in the form of cycle lanes. Once again, cyclists are expected to share the car lanes, endangering their own lives and disrupting the flow of traffic.

The council's decision to disregard the safety of cyclists once again does nothing to support the council's claims of aiming for 'carbon neutrality'. Perhaps you can convince me otherwise, and while you are at it explain how this fits with your policy as follows - 'Every opportunity must be taken to make improvements to the cycle network to make the routes safer and more convenient'. As far as I can see, this is yet another missed opportunity.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Bradley

Disgruntled cyclist and Island Bay resident.
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* Nick's note: I accidentally wrote "Rintoul St" instead of "Riddiford St" in my initial description above, so this has now been corrected...

[Caroline Ward]

Date: Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 5:03 PM
Subject: Blatant disregard for cyclists' safety in new Riddiford St development
To: [e-mail]

Dear Sir,

I am ashamed of the newly widened Riddiford St development. This already perilous cycle route sees hundreds of cycle commuters from South Wellington every day, including children and high school students travelling to and from school by cycle.

It is astounding that the new development and road widening has completely ignored the safety of these vulnerable commuters. It is no wonder that we have such a high rate of cyclist fatalities on our Wellington roads when our council, completely in contradiction to their stated Cycle Policy (2008), continues to prioritise the needs of private vehicular commuters over the safety of the road's most defenceless users.

May I remind you of the WCC 2008 Cycle Policy:

Policy 1.1: Every opportunity to make the city as safe as possible for cyclists must be explored.
Policy 3.1: On main corridors, cyclists will have an option of riding free of general traffic by using dedicated cycle facilities where practical or by using dedicated bus lanes.
Policy 3.2: Every opportunity must be taken to make improvements to the cycle network (refer Appendix 1) to make the routes safer and more convenient.
Policy 3.6: WCC will provide coloured designated cycle lanes.

I look forward to seeing this Policy document put into tangible action in our city immediately, particularly dedicated cycle facilities free of general traffic along Riddiford St.

Sincerely,


Caroline Ward
Island Bay Resident, Riddiford Street User, and Disgruntled Cyclist

[paul bruce]

I sent this letter to Stephen Hart,
Manager of Roading and Transportation

Dear Stephen,

I have cycled along Riddiford St, between Adelaide Road and Mein Street on several occasions over the last weeks, and am appalled by the layout, given the WCC Cycle policy (2008), and Greater Wellington Regional Cycle Plan.

The present set up seems to be expressly designed to discourage cyclists, and is dangerous.
This is because cyclists are forced to come into conflict with traffic flows moving between different lanes. At the intersection, most cyclists need to get across a fast-moving lane of traffic to get into the middle of the road, often interfering with the flow of cars in the process.

Gil Penalosa, the cycle advocate from the USA who spoke to transport planners last year, would label this the Kamakazi design for just 1 to 3% of the population...who enjoy a challenging ride! Where is the dedicated cycle lane which would encourage those that need a a safer experience to venture out onto our roads?

WCC has a policy that "On main corridors, cyclists will have an option of riding free of general traffic by using dedicated cycle facilities where practical or by using dedicated bus lanes."
I understand that you are to make provision for cyclists within bus priority lanes sometime in the future, which would be a small improvement, but still not at all what was sought by cycle groups last year, and in excusably delayed.

Yours sincerely,

Cr Paul Bruce
Greater Wellington Regional Councillor
[e-mail]
Tel [phone]
"The thinking that brought you into trouble will not bring you out of it"
Albert Einstein

[Martin Hefford]

I wonder if we need to take some more visible civil action to raise awareness and get implementation of the WCC policy. My impresssion is that the councillors are generally supportive, but that WCC management and roading engineers are not.

In San Francisco there is a regular mass ride along a city road at rush hour to 'reclaim the city for cyclists'. The destination road being a secret sent out by text shortly beforehand. Might not work inWellington but any other ideas?

My letter to Stephen is set out below:

Dear Stephen

I was disappointed to read your reply to Nick Potter regarding cycling and the Riddiford St development. An opportunity lost.

I have three boys who cycle in Wellington city, as do my partner and I. Most of the city roading arrangements seem specifcially designed to make cycling more difficult and more dangerous. The obvious example being cycle lanes that lead you into the middle of a busy intersection and then disappear.

Graeme Tuckett gave a useful summary of the problem areas in his 24 January article in the Dominion Post. The most serious problems are the lack of dedicated cycle lanes and the use of crossing points ('concrete protuberances') that extend into the road. The other policy that would assist cyclists is a lower speed limit in the inner city suburbs - 30km/h.

I would like to know specifically what additional cycle lanes ware planned in the next five years and what their continuous length will be.

Regards

[christina bellis]

Kia ora koutou

I, too, have sent similar words as above to the Urban Development and Transport Unit at Wellington City Council. I received a reply that my email had been directed to Stephen Harte but I have yet to hear a reply from him. I sent my words of disappointment Wed, 21 January, outlining that Council is aware that it is much more cost effective to make road alterations all in one go, rather than return to the same development area in the future to change it. Bicycle lanes should be part of every re-development/upgrade to roadways. The city should be promoting active transport, not making it more dangerous and undesirable.

christina

[Jude Ball]

Martin and other intersectors - for visible civil action, see http://criticalmass.org.nz/index.php?id=43
Wellington has had a pretty non-critical mass in recent years, but the rumour is that this Friday is going to be a big ride. Tell your friends.

[The Intersect Crew]

Hi Martin
We established FrocksonBikes as a way of engaging our city in some consciousness raising around bicycles.
http://intersect.ning.com/group/frocksonbikes
There are some spinoffs that are less gender specific that are planned - including bike polo.

Cheers, Megan

[Patrick Morgan]

Progress?
I spoke with Paul Barker, the Council's road safety engineer this week.
He mentioned they are marking an advanced stop box at the Riddiford / Adelaide / John St intersection for cyclists heading north - Wellington's first!
Unfortunately they don't plan to include a cycle lane to make it easy to reach the box, as is standard everywhere else.

Patrick Morgan
Cycle Aware Wellington

[Wendy Barry]

How can we get this on the agenda of a council meeting? We could get lots of frocks on bikes and lads in lycra to turn up.

[Nick Potter]

This is what happens when cyclists don't have proper bike lanes: they get 'doored'.
- Here's a 30-second clip from Wellington that gives you the picture (thanks for forwarding this Marty).
- Here's a clip from New York, where cyclists staged a 'die in' after 2 cyclists were killed in 1 week by car door.
Lets hope it never comes to this again in Wellington... and that our council takes steps to ensure this by building roads that protect all its citizens, including cyclists.

In the meantime, cyclists need to stay at least 1m away from parked cars (note that the cyclists in the photos of Riddiford St are too close - perhaps because they felt forced to be there). Cyclists should also take the centre of the lane if they are moving close to the speed of other traffic.

[The Intersect Crew]

Hi All - I just wanted to let you know that our Councilors have been talking about this issue. See copy of our email trail below. Well done to everyone for helping to get this on the agenda, and thanks to our councilors.

From: Andy Foster [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Monday, 2 February 2009 6:27 a.m.

As promised I raised this at my portfolio meeting on Friday. I was advised that the plan is to have a bus and cycle lane along Riddiford St here. That would obviously take some time, and leave cyclists exposed to additional risk for that time - so I've asked officers to look at cycle lanes now.

Warmest regards
Andy
________________________________________

From: Celia Wade-Brown [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Sunday, 1 February 2009 11:26 p.m.
To: paul bruce; Hosking Megan
Cc: Andy Foster; Stephen Harte

Subject: Re: Riddiford Street Call for Cycle lanes
Agree it's not good enough (though lanes are wider than at one time planned. Andy us working to see if change can be made. The issues were brought up with engineers at Newtown Residents Assoc before implementation. There will be advanced stop boxes (new trial for WCC) which are a good idea but it's such a shame that the parking prevents a good cycle lane or extra wide mixed lane.

________________________________________

From: Paul Bruce [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Sunday, 1 February 2009 4.33p.m.

It is a WCC issue. You could do a public presentation before one of the meetings...
we need to think of a motion that which can have some practical outcome.

I am not a road engineer, however, I think we should ask that urgency can be taken to:
Set aside one lane on Riddiford St right now for cycles (and buses).
-or-
Road lanes narrowed, so that a dedicated cycle lane can be delineated.

Reasons:
Safety (for active modes),
Urgent action needed on reducing GHE,
Health,
Reduction in congestion (removing cars from road)
etc

It would be best to talk to Celia Wade-Brown
[e-mail]

regards
Paul Bruce

________________________________________

From: Megan Hosking [mailto:[e-mail]]
Sent: Thursday, 29 January 2009 3.38p.m.

Hey Paul – on another note: how would we go about getting the Riddiford Street Call for Cycle lanes on a Council Meeting Agenda?

Thanks, Megan