Happy New Year! One of the fun things I like to do in my spare time is to hop on my bike and go and explore some part of the city that I haven’t visited lately. Inevitably there are some new developments that have popped up since last time, and that often includes new transport facilities including cycleways.
I like to snap various photos along the way to capture all this (often for future posts like this!); sometimes I’ll take a photo because there’s an issue that I’d like to report to Council via their SnapSendSolve process. And sometimes it’s because a feature I visited is actually quite good – or rather bad – or sometimes just intriguing in its own way… So, with that in mind, here are a few recent things from around Christchurch that caught my attention for better or worse:
Let’s start with some good things: it’s always good to see when initially bizarre cycleway markings are properly rectified!
Likewise, it’s good to see cycleway network staff acknowledging that advance warning marking of potentially hazardous things like bollards needs to be sufficiently long enough for people to react in time and move over (especially when following in groups). We’ve got best-practice national guidance on this now, so there’s no excuse to still have piddly little diamonds marked around poles…
Another thing I like to spot are the many different types of bikes around Chch these days; it’s not just your classic mountain bikes and road bikes. Increasingly I’m seeing families with the kids in a cargo-bike box or on the back of a stretch bike – and in this case, a recumbent…
Many of the new Major Cycleways seem to have settled on a separator design featuring ramped sides all round. This seems like a good thing for both motorists and cyclists alike to minimise potential damage. However, I do wonder whether any adventurous riders who try riding up and along the separators might get a nasty shock when they encounter the drainage gap in the middle…
Some of the new crossing points along cycleways near intersections seem to have an odd habit of putting them out of alignment with the straight desire line. Having to shift an extra ~20m sideways just to go straight across seems rather annoying (and, judging by all the people who ignored it and crossed straight over, not actually working anyway…).
In a similar vein, roadside pathways that cross some distance up side streets are an exercise in frustration. And I don’t know why someone feels it necessary to sign every single one of them with “CYCLEWAY ENDS/BEGINS” each side, as if people couldn’t work out for themselves that the cycleway is obviously crossing a side road…
On the subject of side roads, I was intrigued to see these markings on a few new side streets in a Wigram Skies subdivision. The “driveway crossing” style markings coupled with no Give Way markings on the pathway imply that the path has priority. But that’s possibly not clear from the roadway approaches (those signs in the photo aren’t about the crossing).
From the “so close and yet so far” department, there are some pretty good other pathway networks throughout Wigram Skies for walking and cycling, but this one stopping short of Wigram Rd frustrates me. Barely 250m away up the road is the Little River Link major cycleway, and but for a short pathway and crossing…
Incorporating a little bit of history and context into a cycleway is always nice. Out near Waterloo Business Park, where rail sidings used to extend to, the old railway lines have been cleverly incorporated into the adjacent gardens and path crossings – nice…
Speaking of gardens, spring and summer inevitably mean lots of plant growth – when it comes to many of our cycleways that can mean your “3m wide” pathway suddenly feels like it’s only 2m… More work needed around the place by Council to monitor vegetation sprawl!
Finally, for all the mobility advantages that the new public share bikes and scooters bring, it is incredibly annoying how often you find them plonked in the middle of a pathway, obstructing the way for others…
That’s just a sample of some of the interesting things I have noticed on my travels – perhaps you have seen some others?
What have you seen when cycling that delights/annoys/intrigues you?
Delight ? Passing near some kids on one of my weirder bikes, and getting a positive reaction. Hearing “Hey look at that !” is wonderful.
I loathe those artist’s ideas like the embedded rail lines. They’re fake, made to order and added to the build. They’re not real work-hardened rails so they rust, and confusingly they can be slick like tram tracks in the rain. Clearly designed by someone who doesn’t turn that corner in the winter. Infrastructure should be function over form.
As for different bikes – have you seen the guy commuting on the tall bike?
Well, judging by the old StreetView photos, they seem to be exactly where the original rail lines used to be prior to the road realignment…