Since our recent posts about dodgy bike stands and car parking, I’ve received quite a few other pictures and stories from other readers about similar things observed around town. Thanks to the many contributions received! I thought I would collate a few of them here for interest and discussion.
Alice Terrien has sent in a few pictures: I was biking down Antigua street again this morning and not one but 2 cars were parked in the cycle lane, in the very same spot! I’ve often seen cars parked in that very spot during the day. I suspect they belong to people working on the Metro sports facility on the other side of the road.
And here’s Alice again: I took that photo of the bike racks on Cashel Street, opposite Ballantynes, just after reading that guest post from Jan Jakob about cycle parking. The scaffolding they put up for the work on that building is almost touching the bike racks, which makes them quite difficult to use! I’m surprised Southbase even got away with that.
Also a few older photos of bad parking along/on cycleways. I don’t often stop to take pictures (you never know if the driver is about to come back!) but those were just too ‘good’ 😝
Robert Fleming has also seen some dodgy bikestands: This stand was placed at Eastgate Mall around a year ago. On a previous visit I had much difficulty getting the bike into the stand and nearly wrecked the front wheel attempting to extract it.
Meanwhile, Meg Christie has been rather intrigued by some car parking: Would you believe this car is legally parked? A traffic warden was measuring it as I came (walking) past on Manchester Street and said she couldn’t ping it because it wasn’t bad enough! Not only is it well into the cycle lane, its also parked at a yellow dashed line. I told her that as a cyclist I would not be happy having to be pushed out into the middle of the street but…not bad enough!
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Graeme Woodward is looking ahead: What is the best way to raise with council specific ideas and issues related to bike parking? For example – there is a golden opportunity to put some bike parking on the corner of Papanui and Harewood roads adjacent the cluster of cafes and restaurants where there is already a wide open space on the footpath (south-western side of intersection). I’m a regular at the café and I find I have to lock my bike to the foot of a planter box (pictured below), which kind of works for one bike, but is far from ideal.
Also, I dropped by the FreshChoice in the city last Friday evening (Lichfield St). I could not find any bike parking – it may exist, but for the casual visitor such as myself it was not obvious nor conveniently located near the entrance to the supermarket (photo below). I locked up onto a traffic sign post near the ‘P5’ car parking – it seems there would be scope to put a bike rack there somewhere adjacent those car places. It would be great to advocate to council to provide some bike parking in these areas.
Some good ideas; you could try using Snap Send Solve to let Council know about these ideas – it’s also a good way to tell Council about any examples you see of poor parking.
Have you noticed examples of dodgy car or bike parking?
For the FreshChoice in Lichfield St there is bike parking right at the entry to the Crossing carpark – it is not ideal, because it is the same type as the one in the Council carpark, i.e. you have to push your wheel into a support thingy, which doesn’t work if the tyre is too wide, and it restricts the ability to lock the bike to the frame, and makes it difficult to lock up a cargo bike; nevertheless, an option. My real issue with that parking is that for the life of me I can’t figure out how the entire entry to the car park was ever okayed – and you have to walk there when going from the cycle stands to the FreshChoice. I know I complain a lot, but this really is one of the worst designs in the CBD. The three (!) car lanes are too wide, and there is no marking of a pedestrian crossing. I try to keep the bombastic rhetoric down, but that car park is another monument to motorized violence, and people walking along the sidewalk crossing the entry will be severely injured one day. An entirely foreseeable result with that type of design.
Sorry to reply to my own comment, but that entry to the car park is also a great example of the nonsensicalness of NZ road rules, at least as I understand them (which does not need to correspond with reality). I assume that technically, because the footpath stops before the entry, and continues afterwards (meaning a car does not have to drive over a kerb to enter or exit the car park), a pedestrian who is simply walking along the sidewalk is supposed to give way to fast car traffic entering and exiting that car park. Of these two, entering is the bigger problem, because if a car comes from behind, you won’t see it. This of course wouldn’t be the case if cars turning into a street or out of a street would have to give way to pedestrians (in my experiencing, this is the case everywhere else I lived outside NZ). I wonder how many people would be aware of the different give-way rules due to the sidewalk design and particularly how many pedestrians expect to have the right of way because it looks almost but not quite like any other entry or exit (the ones that trigger Rule 4.4 of the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004).
I agree with the horrible design of the Crossing carpark entrance. Regardless of what it looks like, it is still a driveway, not a roadway, and so drivers are legally expected to give way to anyone on the footpath – but the design tells you a different story…
Indeed, this is a terrifying traffic rule, and as Jan already pointed out, internationally unprecedented (at least in the West-European context where I come from). Me and my family had quite a few near-misses as pedestrians caused by cars coming from behind and turning into streets without the slightest concern for pedestrians who can’t see them. In my job, I have to fill out book-size H&S forms incorporating every possibly hazard for students on field trips, but major – and easy to solve – traffic hazards caused by a lack of proper rules are not addressed adequately! I’m afraid, pedestrians & cyclists do simply not have priority in this country. Another example is the lack of presumed liability in NZ law, but that’s a different story…
Bike parking at the Fresh Choice is horrid. They’ve relied on the existing hoops that are at the intersection of Colombo & Lichfield, or Cashel Mall, or in the bus exchange, so don’t believe that there should be any directly outside the shop. I have a wheel lock so just leave mine outside the flight centre/supplements shop in the alleyway. Some people lock their bikes to the gate at the alley entrance.
Last time I was there – used the stands 10 meters towards Colombo st – on the same side. Agree that another stand outside the supermarket would be handy though
Ok, thanks – I didn’t know about the ones tucked inside the carpark entrance (I can just see them on Google streetview – haven’t checked them in person as yet). Good to know. For the casual visitor such as myself, it would be great if there were some signs near the laneway entrance and/or supermarket entrance directing you to the bike parking. I don’t do my regular shopping in the CBD, and I turned up there a few Friday evening’s ago – “right, where do I park my bike?”. Nothing obvious nearby so I improvised.
The speed humps on Worcester street have been a constant problem since they were put in. Cars regularly park in the way and bins are often in the way also. This is a design fault and is not being actively addressed. Its a safety concern for users on a daily and weekly basis
Agreed.
Its a design fail which has been created by accomodating residents who were concerned about being a thoroughfare for vehicles, and now seem set on trying to get rid of cyclists.
Its another case of shouting about how safe cycle streets are while ignoring the actions of those who seek to make them unsafe.
I just find it easier to cycle down the middle of the road when that happens, in front of any traffic and a few times I’ve managed to sit on my cycle in front of their vehicles and check my phone when they’ve sat there and waited to leave. Wouldn’t recommend this to everyone though. Be terrible if everyone took the law into their own hands now wouldn’t it?
Just after Fresh Choice opened I rang CCC and spoke to FC staff about bike parking. Neither were very concerned! Only choice is to shop elsewhere and then ring them to say how much you spent and why they lost out on the sale. The only other thing I could suggest is ignoring the signs about taking their trolleys away and leaving them at the cycle stands at the corner.
Lock your bike to a couple of trolleys?
Just a thought, but in Denver, USA, someone set up a website for the public to submit photos of things blocking cycle lanes. It can help the general public submit photos and locations, which can help identify problem areas. The site isn’t perfect. It takes a while to load all of them, but it does help visualize the biggest problems spots.
http://carsinbikelanesdenver.com/index.php?center=39.769,-105.103&zoom=12&max=5000