Posts by Sam F
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Russell Brown,
That was today? I had tomorrow morning booked off work for it; it was on the CAA website and everything.
ETA: Ah, they changed the timing at 5:30pm last night. I guess I’ll be exploring it at leisure by myself...
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Wow that is such an obvious solution. How come it was not the default option in the first place?The only issue I can see is the need to cross Ian McKinnon Drive which is intended to be a fast bybass for the top of Symonds street mess.
The Council's plan is to lop off the western lane from Ian McKinnon Drive to create a separated cycle path, so after coming through Suffolk Reserve you won't need to cross the "mini-me-motorway" at all.
Topography is noted as another "issue" at Suffolk Reserve - the Council plan shows a nice theoretically sweeping path that goes right up the steepest part of the reserve (I don't know how far they have thought the project out yet). I like my MS Paint version better - less direct as the crow flies, but it seems a lot less steep overall and would leave more of the park intact for other uses (it has zero facilities of any kind right now).
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Russell Brown,
I’m game. It’s a public park so I sort of own it ;-)
I checked it out this morning on the way to town. A couple of things make it less than ideal at least at the moment:
1) It’s a short, sharp climb from the cycleway up to Suffolk Street – you’ll want to change down early or you may end up walking it like I did
2) The park itself is quite steep and angled in different directions so unless you are an accomplished mountain biker it’ll be tricky to ride through it safely in either direction. (Wet grass, slopes and road tires do not mix…) If you don't mind hopping off the bike briefly for a few minutes it does save a lot of effort especially if your fitness level isn't great.Ben’s right though – a path cut through the flat bottom part of the park would completely solve the problem. (See attached Google Maps and MS Paint masterpiece). I suspect the park sees basically nil use at present anyway so it might actually be a catalyst for some other improvements there too.
And in fact – stop press – something very much like this is already being considered by Auckland Council, as you can see on page 38 of this report (PDF document). Estimated cost for this plus allowance for a protected cycleway going right up the western side of Ian McKinnon: $2 million.
(Hilariously every single one of the cycle improvements in the linked report is identified as having potential issues of “constrained road corridors” – even Nelson Street! – presumably that constitutes a handy too-hard basket, in case Council loses its nerve on these fixes because of “stakeholder” opposition or for other reasons.)
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to BenWilson,
for the cost of 100m of path through an existing park (which would also be available to pedestrians), that could be avoided.
I noticed yesterday that somebody has, in fact, beaten a path through the trees between Ian McKinnon and Suffolk Street – there was a guy riding a bike over it… of course I would never endorse local PAS’ers getting out with pruning shears to make it more usable as a genuine shortcut…
(Seriously: I get weary of being lectured about wearing activewear when I ride.)
I go for the mid-point and usually ride in T-shirt, trainers and a nice light pair of boardshorts. For summer at least, it is pretty much what I'd be wearing anyway. (Jandals go in the pannier for when I arrive!)
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Hard News: Works in progress, in reply to Roger Lacey,
Thanks for that, Roger - I was too astonished that this old saw had come up in a cycling thread at PAS of all places to reply to it, and I'd written enough above already...
Says Ben:
This was what I meant by the appalling engineering. Next time, I’ll just leave it at the crossing and carry on along the road.
I've been tempted by that most days I've ridden there, actually. I assume they got scared off removing on-street parking by some worthies operating businesses past the crossing, and that's the reason why it has that unique cross-road diversion. It's not particularly safe either - I was halfway across it on the green last night when somebody blew straight through the red headed west.
The only actually convenient destination of that cycleway is the bottom end of it.
Yup. If I didn't work literally right at the bottom of town, and hadn't had a health scare which made me less willing than previously to tangle with cars, I probably wouldn't bother either.
I found it very much fit for purpose when heading through town to Tamaki Drive, but as a transport cycleway rather than a recreational route, it's not quite what was called for. If they go ahead with the planned crosstown links that Sacha showed above, that might get it a bit closer and more usable.
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I'm pleased by the improvements to the cycleway but I'm becoming steadily more horrified by the scale of the new interchange as it comes together. It seems that between Grafton Gully and SH16, we only get cycleway projects on any scale through areas that are being completely stuffed (or were stuffed decades before) by motorways. Personally I find it hard to put your head down as you pedal and say "very nice, mustn't grumble", all the while in the shadow of the massive place-ruining project beside you.
I was ill before Christmas so didn't get a chance to try out Grafton Gully until a week or so ago. I previously got to work via New North Road, K Road and Albert Street which I had gotten down to a fine art (20 minutes to town on a good day) but which seemed increasingly perilous - the cycleway seemed like a good way to speed up the trip and avoid some of the risky parts. From St Lukes Road to Quay Street traffic free? Sounded great.
And it is great in places. On the way in coming from the West, you still have the big grind up to Newton Road and the instant roll back down, only to climb again to Upper Queen Street, but that sounds like fodder for a later project. Upper Queen Street bridge is improved out of sight, but I'd definitely recommend using the right-hand side not the left (otherwise you wait at one more signalised crossing and have to do an annoying little climb back uphill to the cycleway entrance).
Once you’re headed down the cycleway all is bliss most of the way down the hill – even one more signalised crossing right beside the Owen Glenn building isn’t too bad – and then you have to cross a signalised left turn lane and then join a thinly disguised repurposed pedestrian crossing over the mouth of Alten Road and ride uphill and across one more road to get onto Churchill Street (behind the Police premises).
The Beach Road section of separated cycleway is interesting but I wasn’t prepared for just how short it was, and the bizarre diagonal crossover at one intersection where it changes sides of the road. Then it disappears down Mahuhu Crescent towards the park and appears to suddenly vanish – in fact it diverts off to the left and there is one final cycle signal to cross Queen Street, although there’s not much signage to help you follow it.
Going uphill from town through Grafton is obviously more of a slog, and you have more time to notice some of the prettier elements of the setting (the bush, a great close-up view of the bridge) but also how completely isolated it is from the liveliness of town. There aren’t many side destinations or interesting diversions once you are headed uphill – just the roar of cars to your left. The Kingsland stretch is right beside homes and is usually quite packed with people – Grafton Gully feels like the motorway it sits beside, only slower.
I half wonder if a better result wouldn’t have been achieved if they had simply decided to bite the bullet and implement Beach Road-style lanes all the way down Symonds Street (if width allowed). It’s somewhat pretty and the downhill experience is fun, but at Grafton Gully you do rather feel like you’ve been shunted off to a place where you are guaranteed not to be in anyone else’s way. If I didn’t work on Quay Street it probably wouldn’t be worth the indirectness and longer distance. And yet, mustn’t grumble. What else would we have gotten? Probably nothing.
Apologies for the long post.
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And one more tremendous local read from a few years back – No Fretful Sleeper, Paul Millar’s amazing biography of Bill Pearson (another intersection with Great New Zealand Argument).
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Not new, but handily the best I've read this year is Robert Hughes' The Fatal Shore. Fascinating, incisive work of history, beautifully written as only a famed art critic can do, and with so many intersections between Australia's convict settlement and the allegedly more enlightened process in New Zealand. And gosh, it's rough and funny where warranted as only an Aussie could do it
By far my favourite nonfiction book ever, though, is David Halberstam's Korean War magnum opus The Coldest Winter. Less about war than about how a country can sleepwalk into disaster over years or decades, and the way that human decisions within institutional frameworks have unexpected consequences. It's massive and sad and terrifying and in many ways, a testament to how our world still works. I'd recommend it to anyone.
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Hard News: Some reprehensible bullshit, in reply to Andrew Geddis,
If only they'd plumbed in a coffee machine this one might have lasted till Easter :)
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Anyone who has renovated their own home will know what a $10,000 bathroom looks like, and it don’t look like much.
You go with some jumped up Grey Lynn tiling procedure, you wear the results.
