This is part three of our three part series on issues reporting problems you encounter on cycleways. Check out part one and part two.
In June and July 2023 two Central East residents noticed that there were a number of comments in the Bike East Auckland Facebook group about people coming off their bikes on a bridge on the Point England path and sustaining major injuries including broken hips. We chatted to one of the riders who broke their hips and discovered that on the same day two riders broke their hips at the same spot within an hour of each other. It was later discovered that another rider broke their hip in the same spot a week before. We know one of these riders eventually had to have a hip replacement and are seriously concerned about how many more people have been impacted by dangerous infrastructure that isn’t fixed in a timely manner
But back to 2023, at the time these injuries were unfolding one resident was so concerned that after hearing about it, they went out the next day, purchased two rolls of non-skid tape and stuck it onto the bridge as a stop-gap measure.
Roger Lacey from the Bike Eastern Suburbs Bike Burb contacted Auckland Transport (AT) who then forwarded the request onto Auckland Council.
The other resident, Charmaine Vaughan, also happened to be Bike Auckland Communications Manager at the time and she posted in two local Facebook groups to try and determine the extent of the issue.
As a result of Charmaine’s post she got in touch with people who had sustained injuries on the Point England path slippery boardwalk. Some people didn’t report their injuries because they thought it was their fault. One person said he had ‘reported to the council including my injury but they refuse to take any action.’
After seeing one of Charmaine’s posts, an independent contractor contacted AT to suggest a solution for the Point England path, and very soon the surface on every bridge and boardwalk on the Point England path was replaced. This is a great result, however could it have been built safer and fixed faster without so many people being seriously injured?
Jumping back in time and across central East Auckland a little, we come to another problem boardwalk in Tahapa Reserve. In May 2022 there was great excitement in the suburb of Meadowbank, as the long-awaited stage 2 section of Glen Innes to Tāmaki Drive Shared Path – Te Ara Ki Uta Ki Tai (the path of land and sea) opened. Access to the shared path for many users is through Tahapa reserve – a short path that crosses a short boardwalk.
Children were keen to jump on their bikes and enjoy the freedom of getting around the local area on the safe shared path, particularly as two schools can be accessed using the shared path. However, not long after the shared path had opened, children started slipping off their bikes on the boardwalk in Tahapa reserve.
Parents contacted Auckland Council to report an issue after their children required hospital visits. Local resident Sarah Phillips has two teenage boys who fell off their bikes on the boardwalk in separate incidents, sustaining ‘pretty nasty injuries’. Sarah has allowed us to share her experience of reporting this issue.
After the first accident, I spoke to two people at the council who said they’d keep me updated & I never heard from either of them again …’
Following Sarah’s second son being injured, Sarah escalated the boardwalk issue to local Councillor Desley Simpson, and heard back from a Councillor Support Advisor for Democracy & Engagement that:
Community Facilities responded that after the incident in June(2022), they looked at this section and found that there was appropriate signage and the anti-slip bars on the ground were functional.
However as a result of Councillor Desley Simpson’s request:
…they agreed to visit the site again to do another assessment. Staff have visited the site and decided that a Health and Safety manager will need to complete a full risk assessment.
Sarah was then advised in early October 2022 that, “As a result of the investigation, our (the Council) Community Facilities Manager plans to add additional measures to the site including thinning out the bushes nearby to help with visibility, adding further yellow ‘slow down’ signs,and adding some grip paint 5m before the bridge and 5m onto it as an above and beyond measure.”
In an ideal world where issues were resolved effectively and efficiently, this could have been the end of it, and children could have confidently used the Tahapa reserve path to access the shared path. But unfortunately in early December there was another incident on the bridge; a teenager on their way to a triathlon came off their bike on the bridge and ended up in A&E.
As a result of this incident Auckland Council advised that:
…they will be painting the entrance of the bridge with the grip paint that AT use on their bike path intersections to add an extra control.
By mid-January(2023) the grip paint still hadn’t been installed but Council advised they would:
…be installing another slow down sign at the beginning of the bridge to remind cyclists it is a shared path and they need to control their speed.
In July 2023, a local resident purchased some non-skid tape and applied it to the problem area. They reapplied some more in January 2024.
Not much happened with regards to fixing the Tahapa Reserve boardwalk in 2023 but it’s during this year that the issues on the Point England path came to light. Once it was acknowledged that there was an issue with the Point England path boardwalks and they were fixed, there was a little more acknowledgement that the Tahapa reserve one could also be an issue.
In fact in February 2024 we were advised that this boardwalk is going to be made safer. Finally in March 2024 this boardwalk was made safer for people on bikes to use.
While we have done a deep dive into two specific issues we know that there are many, many more that probably haven’t got the result that is needed to keep people safe. It’s a major problem that people don’t know how to report things or don’t report things because they don’t think anything is going to happen. The burden should not be on the public to work so hard to get issues resolved. A system that requires people to work this hard is not fair and equitable.
Bike Auckland urges the council owned authorities who are responsible for managing our cycling infrastructure to look at how reporting issues can be made easier for the public. And as important as it is for people to be able to report issues, actually resolving the issues is almost as important.
