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.

[Philip Hahn-Petersen]

Hi Nick, here is some American produced inspiration from my home country Denmark.

[Joshua Vial]

Great work Nick and everyone involved, have blogged about it :
http://www.joshuavial.com/people-power-and-cycling-in-wellington/

[Paul Be]

After getting a similar response from Stephen Harte to the one above in Nick's posting, I sent the following reply... I'd love to get Stephen and others from the council out for a ride so they can experience this 'safe' piece of roading for themselves.

--

Dear Stephen,

Thanks for your reply to my email regarding cycle safety on Riddiford Street.

You claim that the new road layout caters for cyclists. As a regular, long term cycling commuter, who has ridden on many roads in Wellington and Auckland, I can assure you that this is one of the most dangerous sections of road that I have ridden on. Many other cyclists and residents agree, as you can see by the 1354 signatures (and growing) on the WCC ePetition site which is viewable here: http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/e-petitions/ep/details/23

So, there is obviously a major discrepancy here. On behalf of WCC you are claiming that this road is safe for cyclists while thousands of residents disagree. Surely this highlights that WCC has got it wrong in this case. The best way to judge whether this road really is safe for cyclists would be to talk to those who are actually riding on these roads. This leads me to wonder if there has been any consultation between WCC and cycling communities or organisations such as The Cycle Advocacy Network (CAN). Is this a part of your design process? Perhaps consultation like this in future will help to avoid these discrepancies between perceived safety for cyclists by the WCC and the reality as experienced by those riding on the roads.

Regards,

Paul Bradley.

[Paul Be]

Oops, I put the wrong ePetition link in. Oh well, the point still stands. Reply this time from Stephen was "Thank you for your email. There is nothing further to add at this point". It seems like we aren't going to get any further with him at this stage.

[Paul Be]

Now here are some roads that really cater for cyclists. These photos were taken by my parents in Denmark last year. They make our so-called cycle friendly roads look like a joke.

Note the verge between the cycle lanes and the road - ultra safe!

Here you can see that the cycle lane extends around the perimeter of the round-about. Cars give way to the bikes.

Again, the cycle lane is separated from the road by a verge. This seems like the ultimate solution to car doors being flung open in cyclist's paths

Cyclists are even catered for outside of the cities.

[Jason Secto]

absolutely positively unbelievable stupidity ... lets block the road with a slow cycle day back and forth during peak hours :)

[Jason Secto]

Friday could be best --perhaps a loop around the block 4 times --next fri good for me==spread the word==we could all get coffee first ! J

[Caroline Ward]

radical's the way of the future, megan!

[Nick Potter]

I also notified Kerry Prendergast (Wellington's mayor) about the concerns that everyone is raising here. This was her response:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kerry Prendergast
Date: 2009/2/27
Subject: RE: Making Wellington a safer place -
To: Nick Potter
Cc: Stephen Harte

Dear Nick

Thank you for your email of 28 January 2009 regarding the redevelopment of Riddiford Street.

I appreciate your frustration at the lack of a dedicated cycle lane on Riddiford Street but it is often very difficult to achieve the ideal outcome for everyone with this kind of project and we simply didn’t have a wide enough road to create a dedicated cycle lane.

Having said that, we are satisfied that the changes to Riddiford will still result in improvements for cyclists – for instance the inside traffic lane has been marked slightly wider and we plan to include cycle stop boxes at both the Mein Street and John Street intersections to provide a safe place for cyclists to position themselves ahead of traffic and negotiate the multiple lanes.

There is also room for further improvement as bus lanes are implemented in the future.

I appreciate these changes may not be happening as quickly as you would like, but we still have decisions to make on how Adelaide Road will link up with Riddiford Street and as parking will be compromised during peak times if the dedicated bus lanes go in, we will have to carry out public consultation. As you will appreciate, this takes time.

But please be assured that we are committed to doing all we can to make improvements for cyclists where we can, in line with our Cycling Policy. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Stephen Harte, our Transport Network Development Manager direct on either 803 8084 or [e-mail].

Yours sincerely

Kerry Prendergast
MAYOR

[Nick Potter]

In the meantime, I recently noticed that someone else has painted their frustration about safety along this road...

[Alastair Smith]

Cycle Aware Wellington had a meeting with WCC staff to discuss the Riddiford St Issues. You can read the lettter to Paul Barker summarising our concerns.