This week I have been delivering some guest lectures on cycle planning and design to engineering postgrad students at Canterbury University. I covered a range of topics, from developing cycling networks to the many different ways you can provide for cycling on streets and at intersections. One type of facility getting a lot more attention and implementation these days in NZ is separated cycleways – and it appears that the growing cycling numbers are testament to its success… Way back in Feb 2013, we didn’t have so many of these in Christchurch – or elsewhere in NZ – but the evidence of their benefits was starting to build up elsewhere in the world…
There’s been a lot of good discussion here in Christchurch about developing separated bikeways, but we’re not the only ones in New Zealand looking seriously at the issue. I’ve already mentioned previously what Auckland are planning to do soon. Meanwhile Dunedin have also been talking a lot about the topic, particularly since a high-profile cycling fatality late last year.
Local Spokes Dunedin stalwart and Injury Prevention Professor Hank Weiss has produced a wonderful article summarising the details and merits of separated bikeways (or “cycle tracks” as they’re commonly referred to in many places). He draws on the growing research and design work looking at these types of facilities, particularly in North America where there has been quite a renaissance for separated bikeways in the past few years.
Enough from me – have a read and add all the useful information to your memory banks!
What do you think of separated cycleways?
I LOVE separated cycleways. From our home in Sumner I can cycle the first 6.5km to town on the Chch Coastal Pathway, then have the choice of
– upstream alongside the Heathcote River (slow and scenic and separated),
– Charlesworth Reserve (shared w pedestrians), out to separated cycleway on Humphreys Drive (and on to the separated Linwood Drain path or the centre or unseparated sides of Linwood Ave). Then onto quiet roads through Linwood and onto the CBD usually down Worcester St.
I am especially wary of St. Asaph Street as I have too often been cut off by cars crossing – it feels safer than the roadside cycle lanes though
I have to agree about St Asaph… the block with PB Tech, and PB Tech’s driveway in particular, is where I fear most that a driver pulling in to a business is going to roll through the cycle lane without looking for me. It’s nice that the local car yards have pavement signs reminding drivers to check before they pull in, but I feel there must be something about the design of the street that encourages this behaviour… maybe the way that the camber of the road AND the parking bays mean that when the parking bays are occupied, you as a cyclist are not very visible to the driver thinking to pull in.