We’ve had the odd grumble in the past about contractors not thinking about bikes when doing works, and there’s still plenty of recent examples for them to work on. So it was rather a surprise last week when riding through South Hagley Park to come across this (excuse the glare off the reflectors):
Currently work is underway to fix the drainage of the sports fields in the Park. Something out on the path needed to be dug up and sorted out and, rather than just let everyone muddle past on the adjacent grass, a temporary asphalt path was installed as a bypass! Worked perfectly fine. This week the job was done and the path has disappeared again (unfortunately another vegetation contractor was now doing their best to block the path with their activities; can’t win ’em all…).
They’re only little things (although that bypass could have been quite important in the middle of muddy winter), but I appreciate the thought that went into it. Hopefully that augurs well for when the path in North Hagley Park is widened in the near future, and the many regular riders there have to be temporarily accommodated elsewhere. And hopefully over time, if cycling becomes more widespread around Christchurch, it will become more automatic for contractors to think “where will the bikes go?”
Have you seen examples of good temporary traffic management for bikes?
Other good news is the posts seen in http://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/2015/12/16/photo-of-the-day-more-new-cycle-lane-separators/ that were only there a few days before being removed by contractor have been put back again