The Hobsonville Road cycleway project submission closes on Friday 30 June. We have whipped up a quick submission guide to assist. But first a little background from the AT website:
The Hobsonville Road cycleway project is part of transitioning Hobsonville Road to providing dedicated facilities for those who want to cycle and make it safe for all users.
The objective for the Hobsonville Road designation is to enable the provision of a transport corridor that:
- improves connectivity along the corridor to Whenuapai and to Westgate
- integrates with and supports planned urban growth and the future transport network in Whenuapai
- provides options for people who want to travel by bike, bus or by walking
- is safe for all users
- provides for the growth of the population in the area’
Bike Auckland encourage you to support the Hobsonville Road bike lane project – this area is growing fast, and should have had bike lanes to get people to schools, shops, work and public transport a long time ago. Hobsonville Road is also a crucial missing part connecting West Auckland and North Shore off-road bikeways.
The added intersection improvements proposed will also help road safety for drivers and pedestrians, so once again this is really a road upgrade project for a growing area that gets bundled under the “cycleway” name, despite covering a lot of work that has needed doing for a long while!
However, with the recent brouhaha about the Upper Habour Drive separators, and the project proposing to remove flush medians and car parking on Hobsonville Road, it will face opposition, despite being the sensible and ethical thing to do. Write in with support, to make it happen! Feedback closes Friday 30 June.
‘Auckland Transport (AT) is proposing to install protected cycle lanes on Hobsonville Road between Squadron Drive and Oriel Avenue. This cycleway is part of a wider programme of works delivering the outcomes sought through the Climate Action Targeted Rate – reducing the impact of our transport choices on the environment.
Implementing a cycleway along Hobsonville Road will link North and West Auckland, and also provide safer access for the local community to shops, education, ferry terminals, bus stations and to other locations of interest.’
From the AT website
- Types of separators The road needs solid concrete cycle lane separators to protect human lives and encourage confident use by everyone, from adults to kids riding to school. Not rubber separators (barely adequate) and certainly not flimsy flexi-posts (ugly and very easily driven over and damaged)
- Bike Parking Please add locations if you have specific suggestions.
- Intersection Safety We support traffic lights where proposed, but these need to be “protected intersections” – the bike lane separation cannot simply stop there. Additionally, comment is needed on the raised side roads treatments in the western section. These raised crossings are good for both people on bike and on foot – but the proposed designs have issues. The crossings need to be set back one car length so drivers can look for a safe gap in traffic without blocking the bike lane. A setback also means drivers entering the side road are more likely to stop and give way to riders on the bike lane. This kind of set-back is best practice, and in AT’s own guidelines, but is missing here
- Proposed Crossing Locations We support the proposed raised zebra crossings over Hobsonville Road, but more walk/cycle crossings are needed, especially near to Oriel Avenue, to ensure cyclists can come and go from the “Yellow Bridge” and the Northwestern Cycleway. At the moment, there is absolutely no safe way for someone on a bike to come from the Yellow Bridge and use the new bikeway eastbound.
- Re-purposing of kerb side space We support the removal of the parking on Hobsonville Road. This should have been done years ago. Without removing the parking, a safe road is somewhere between impossible and extremely expensive.
- Removal of flush median along most of the road The flush median should be removed as proposed (i.e. except where there are turns into busier side roads). Keeping it would make the safety improvements much less likely to happen, and much more expensive.
Write in with support, to make these crucial upgrades happen! Feedback closes Friday 30 June.
