Charmaine Vaughan of Bike Eastern Suburbs shares her frustration with a poor decision from the Ōrākei Local Board, and asks your help to change their minds. This blog is adapted from a post by Charmaine in the Bike Eastern Suburbs Facebook group. Relevant Local Board meeting minutes here on pages 9 and 10.
Auckland Transport have been consulting on this project, Links to Glen Innes Cycleways, and building it out bit-by-bit for about a decade now (more info on that in a prior Charmaine blog here).
Now, as we approach a critical “last-mile”, which would address one of the more dangerous roads down to Glen Innes from College Road — a section which links a big chunk of the community to:
- The train station
- Colin Maiden Park
- Netball courts
- Tennis courts
- Swimming school
- And more!
— we get another road block.
Sadly even after Charmaine’s compelling 3 minute presentation to the Ōrākei Local Board in support of the Links to Glen Innes Cycleways and the benefit of transport choice to the whole community, they voted against most of it.
To be more specific, Ōrākei Local Board voted to support:
✔️ The Merton Rd East cycleway, which will run down to Glen Innes.
This is the smallest section in the design, but is nonetheless crucial, so we are happy to see the local board support this at least.
On the other hand, they voted to not support:
❌ Raised crossings at the Merton Rd roundabout.
❌ Merton Rd West cycleway, which spans from College Road to the roundabout.
These roundabout crossings not going in would be bad. The Merton Rd roundabout is notoriously dangerous to ride, and removing these critical traffic calming measures from the design keeps it that way. Merton Rd West is also pretty gnarly, and covers the majority of sheer distance for this part of the Links to Glen Innes Cycleways project. To not support this section is a bit of a spit in the face for the community.
We could really use your help to explain to the Local Board and Auckland Transport why this gap in their beautiful new network is a mistake. There is still time! The Ōrākei Local Board (who were only a majority, non-unanimous vote in this case) could yet change their minds with enough pressure, and Auckland Transport do still have the ability to adapt their design and proceed anyway, so it is absolutely worth writing in about!
Bonus points if you add a couple of sentences about what safe, protected cycleways mean to you, and the whole community.
orakeilocalboard@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
ATengagement@at.govt.nz
p.s. Thanks to the joys of the Links to Glen Innes Cycleways project affecting both the Ōrākei Local Board and the Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board, Charmaine has had to do this presentation twice!
Charmaine has previously written a guest blog on the Links to Glen Innes Cycleways project, which you can read here.
