The potential risks of shared paths have suddenly come into the spotlight this week following the sad story of the woman who was struck by a passing cyclist on a shared path along Wooldridge Rd. This incident certainly highlights too that, while many similar injuries may end up in ACC and hospital records, they don’t always make their way to Council datasets.
Situations like these call to mind other locations around the city where a combination of path width, user numbers, and sometimes poor sightlines can be a recipe for potential dangers to the people using them. With that in mind, let me take you back to a photo I took in 2019 along Rolleston Ave when we only had a shared path there…
This was probably an example of only a moderate crowd walking and cycling along here – at times it could certainly be far worse trying to negotiate your way through the throngs. It was probably a good thing that we now have a separated cycleway running along the roadway providing separation from pedestrians through here.
We’ve talked about the pros and cons of shared paths before, and they can certainly be a divisive topic for some. The rise in faster e-bikes and other e-devices these days also complicates the picture. The key is often about ensuring a good design in terms of widths and sightlines to prevent any potential safety concerns (NZTA’s Cycling Network Guidance and Pedestrian Network Guidance have some useful advice on this). Looking at the Wooldridge Rd site, it’s certainly not a great example of a safe shared facility (warning markings at driveways can only do so much…), so maybe some separated path facilities are warranted along this section instead.
What are your thoughts about separated vs shared pathways?