A few weeks back, I caught up with a friend at a brewery near the western end of Blenheim Rd. It was a lovely day so I biked over there, managing to avoid “running the gauntlet” for most of the route. On the way home I figured it would be slightly easier to circle back though Wigram, which entailed making my way around the Sockburn Roundabout and then over the Sockburn Overbridge. This has never been one of my favourite biking options, so I took various photos of my ride through, highlighting the “interesting” features along the way. Here’s one of them:
If you’re trying to work out where to cross here: no, there isn’t a kerb ramp by the sign – it’s actually further up just past the slip lane (and then you have to work out how to safely get across two lanes of busy traffic in each direction…). Fortunately in my case, I was just continuing on towards the overbridge, which is also a pretty narrow shared path option alongside the roadway. But it’s symptomatic of what you get through here when on a bike (or walking for that matter).
Until the new Southern Motorway made its way out of Christchurch towards Rolleston, these sections of Blenheim Rd and Main South Rd used to be a State Highway. Like many parts of the Christchurch SH network, not a lot of love for cycling has been provided along this corridor and it certainly shows. To be fair, the Sockburn Roundabout is pretty notorious for motor traffic as well (signalised intersections anyone?), but if you want to cycle through it you’ll have to work your way along the off-road shared paths around the periphery and maybe cross a few side roads as well.
Now that Christchurch City Council have picked up the baton for this corridor, it would be nice to think that maybe one day they’ll tackle the tricky question of how to make it more friendly for cycling…
What do you think of the Sockburn Roundabout and Overbridge for cycling?
It is dangerous as a cyclist myself around the roundabout and the over bridge cycle lanes should be placed from blenheim road-around about-overbridge to springs road/main south road lights
So what I understand of the signs on the footpath is…pedestrians and cyclists shared the footpath. I imagine this area is dangerous therefore cyclists share the footpath with cyclists.
I look at the sign of a person and it can be confusing because it looks like the person is heading out onto the road where definitely there is no crossing.
‘cyclists share footpath with pedestrians’…duh!
I am sure this roundabout is dangerous for cyclists but it is also very dangerous for drivers at peak times.
I made a complaint about the Hallswell junction roundabout a few years ago.
The council need to fix these roading issues. To say both roundabouts send my blood pressure through the roof is understating the case. VERY POOR ROUNDABOUT DESIGN.
I only come into Christchurch now if I absolutely can’t avoid it .
We have weekend warriors on bicycles having impromptu races…and we treat them with the greatest of respect. However the reciprocal kindness from those who think they rule the road now isn’t evident. I have had to navigate Christchurch to get to the hospital recently and all of the cyclist’s I’ve encountered have been intractable, deliberately practice running red lights, are aggressive and think that a piece of tarmac designed to accommodate motor cars is solely their domain. I cycle myself…and am utterly appalled at the self entitled behavior cyclist’s from Christchurch practice. It’s called sharing the road.
Be very aware. The next time you cretins come out to rural areas to cycle about with gay abandon you well may find us, who are tolerant may have changed our tune.
We choose to go to ashburton now instead of christchuch to shop and spend money. Most people that live in the Selwyn district only go to christchuch because they have to…not want to. But that’s ok. You make access that difficult for cars and build your cycle ways. We’ll just up sticks and go elsewhere…. because the animosity from you isn’t worth the bother.
Sorry to hear your experiences it will be a shame you can’t move around , did you have any comments at all on the topic of the RaB to share
I am a pretty confident cyclist but I avoid the Sockburn roundabout like the plague.
Not a traffic engineer but traffic lights would it make it so much easier to cross the road as a pedestrian or a cyclist.
no more light please . It’s just make Sockburn roundabout suffer from the Myocardial infarction…..
I do this roundabout every day, but before 7AM. I am a bit lucky in that I have an old 29er converted to an e bike, so the trick is to pedal flat out and pin the throttle so you are going round at the same speed at the tin tops
I do this every so often on my gravel bike and if there is strong easterly, I chicken out and use the crossing points.
Please don’t put in any more lights!
Walk or go in a car cycle lanes stuffed my road up heihei rd
Sometime I riding bike to CBD for study and work from Yaldhurst, whatever toward or back from the CBD, I ride along the racecourse Road towards the roundabout. It’s way easier to pass though the crossing at alloy street rather then from the Main South Road towards the Blenheim Road, the only problem is you need to ride on the pedestrian walkway until you reach the traffic light at curletts road , or cross the road at Watts Road with care.
This problem is hardly able to solve. The traffic there is already busy enough. if you ask for any opinion how to make the cycling life better with minimal alternation, make a Bike crossing which allow me to safely pass though the road back to(or from) the opposite side will be good , It’s way easier to cross the road in the middle of straight road rather than near the roundabout. But to be honest, Sockburn roundabout need to rebuild to resolve the heavy traffic problem.
What stops you from taking the “Southern Express” cycle way?
I would like bike to work more, but at peak times its a bit hairy for my liking. I find using the walking bridge over the rail line sometimes better to use.
Did this post get linked somewhere unusual? There’s an exceptional number of anti-cyclist responses already.
I’m a confident cyclist and traverse this roundabout twice a day on the commute. Even I take the “footpath” most of the time unless its dead quiet.
The way that Lowther Street merges 2 lanes into 2 lanes is ridiculous, then add the bus stop to make it even worse. Lowther should be closed off, and Waterloo Road extended through to Epsom Road, for the safety of all road users.
Another option is to install an underpass, like the Undertaker except have multiple branches. But that would be money and mostly for the not-cars, ie walkers and cyclists.
Hmm, it is a little bit odd – the usual 100-200 page views a day suddenly jumped up to over 3000 views in the past two days… No obvious reason where they all suddenly came from.
So it turns out that Google has suddenly been featuring this article on its news feed; hence the sudden burst in interest – a bit random, but there you go…
One of the first roundabouts I took my daughter to when she was learning to drive. Good experience and she learnt alot from it. Has become a very good driver. Please no more lights!!!
Maybe all perspectives need to be mindful of the time and distance to hospital, plus the staff shortages once there: Coupled with that, plates for cycles might add a degree of accountability when the red mist decends, to reduce the number of adrenalin made decisions and increase the drag coefficient. 😉