Discussions are happening with the Spreydon/Heathcote community board about how to improve safety on the section of Dyers Pass Road where it is narrow from Sign of the Takahe up to Sign of the Kiwi and Worsley’s Spur. Suggestions on the table initially include:
- Painting yellow lines on 9 blind corners to discourage cars from trying to squeeze past cyclists on blind corners. The road is around 2.5 m wide, so even with a cyclist hard left, the car must cross the centre line by a good half meter which happens all the time and is very dangerous for oncoming cars & cyclists.
- Place signage to encourage cars to overtake in the right lane, not by ‘squeezing’ past. I like the one from California making it very clear the bike can use all of the left lane if needed, and the car can overtake in the right lane. This will reduce confusion about whether the road code’s ‘taking the lane’ suggestion is acceptable or not.
- Reduce the speed limit on the uphill section. A variable limit would make sense – slower during weekends when a continuous stream of bikes is going up there, then faster during peak car commuter times.
A separated road cycleway up Dyers Pass would be nice but obviously very expensive to build so not likely to be considered. Improvements on the safety of Centaurus & Cashmere Roads are also up for discussion so if you have any ideas let us know.
I can’t see how any of those are going to stop motorists from saying “I bloody hate cyclists”… Which admittedly isn’t what is trying to be fixed, but we’d certainly be feeding fuel to that fire by trying any of the above.
They’re good ideas, although not so sure about can use full lane sign as that’ll be taken badly by many motorists. I prefer the 1.5m gap sign.
My extra suggestion is use anti graffiti paint on the signs & make them very robust as typical signs will not last more than a few days before they’re attacked
Dyers Pass. Widen the strip left of outside white line, where it can be done. The outside white line is right in the gutter in parts.
Centaurus. A good start would be to fix the bike lanes so they are rideable. I have reported a number of areas that require repairs on Centaurus to CCC , but to no avail.
Taking the full lane going down hill is good as the speed differential is lower. Going up hill, not so much.
An update: we met with the Spreydon-Heathcote Comm Board this morning, who were very sympathetic and supportive of some improvements here. Likely to result in a workshop of relevant parties to kick around a few ideas in more detail. Will also be looking to survey people about incidents they’ve encountered up Dyers Pass – watch this space…
Invite them for a field trip to see what its like. Beats reading reports.
Why not be somewhat different? reduce the speed limit a bit, and ‘dutch style’ the road. See what has been done in Scotland at http://pedalonparliament.org/gogar-station-road-how-to-fix-a-road-in-273-emails/
I’m very keen to see these type of road treatments in NZ (have been promoting them here for five years). But Dyers Pass Rd is much more winding than the Scottish road. You can’t use this treatment where you have limited sight distance.