A number of you have reported various difficulties moving through the St Lukes/ Great North Road area while the big intersection redesign is happening (including that unfortunate Not Very Good Thursday over Easter). We’ve been keeping an eye, visiting the site and talking with Ian Moffat, the St Lukes project manager, and Sarah Price from the SH16 Causeway Alliance to make things as safe as possible for people on bikes.
We appreciate their attention to detail and the difficulty of working inside the existing rules and structures, and are continuing to follow up all the time.
On the north side of the motorway: the main issue is accessing the cycleway
Cyclists heading eastbound on Great North Rd (from Pt Chev) towards the city-bound cycleway find it difficult to cross the bridge. There’s no cycle lane or stop-box at the intersection outside Motat, no cycle lane or shared path over the east side of the bridge, and awkward access to the traffic island on the southeast side of the bridge.
Two options
1. It is possible (and entirely legal) to travel with traffic across the bridge, if you’re a very confident and fast rider. But it’s not easy: there’s through-traffic to the left of you, and no space to filter to the front of the right-turn line at the lights. Unfortunately, we’re told the lanes are too narrow to install a cycle lane or stop box there yet (NB they are part of the final design), so cyclists must currently take their chances in the queue.
Once across the bridge, cyclists have to choose between swiftly accessing the traffic island to safely transfer to the cycleway, or merging with motorway offramp traffic before somehow getting onto the pavement further down St Lukes Rd and doing a U-turn back to the cycleway. Obviously, not ideal conditions.
2. As an alternative: signs on Great North Rd will direct people on bikes to detour to the pavement on the north side of Great North Road well before the intersection. Then you can cross with the lights outside Motat, travel on the western side of the bridge, and cross at the signalised crossing to get to the cycleway.
Two things to note:
a) the Great North Road footpath, although very wide in places, is officially a footpath – so technically cyclists must dismount (in practice, in our observation, schoolkids use the paths as a default shared path, which is a tacit comment on how dangerous that junction feels to ordinary cyclists). The new bridge footpath IS a shared path, if not yet signed as such. At all times, give the usual care for pedestrians, especially for the period when there’s not yet a second shared path on the east side.
b) take care crossing at the unsignalised zebra crossings, especially the eastbound through-traffic on Great North Rd (the first lane outside Motat). There are painted zebra stripes and signage warning drivers to watch for pedestrians and cyclists, but you’ll be emerging from a gap in the fence, so be sure to look twice.
Once onto the first traffic island, the way to the bridge is relatively clear. In our observation, cars at the slip lane on the south side are more likely to stop for the marked crossing, because visibility is better.
In sum, this detour is not perfect – but it’s the safest option for the moment.
On the south side of the motorway, there are multiple issues, with less satisfactory fixes.
2. The crossing at the slip lane for westbound motorway traffic from St Luke’s Rd.
This crossing is unmarked and unsignalised (which was also the case before works started). There will eventually be a zebra crossing here giving priority to cyclists and pedestrians – but according to work rules, no markings can be installed until the work is finished. And in the meantime, we’re told no warning sign for drivers can be installed, as it’s not officially a crossing yet. Catch 22.
Regular users of the path know what to expect, but it’s concerning to see cyclists and pedestrians (schoolkids among them) and the occasional wheelchair user taking their chances here, especially as it’s not clear to approaching motorists that they’re crossing a major pedestrian/cycle route. Adding to the issue: the posted speed limit is 30mph, but most drivers appear to exceed that as they head downhill onto to the motorway.
We’d like this remedied urgently, and are working with AT and the NZTA on it.
3. Compounding the issue: there is still no street lighting in this southwest area of the interchange. We consider this quite risky, especially at this time of year when the evening commute happens in darkness, as it means that drivers may fail to see pedestrians and cyclists – and on dark nights, pedestrians may not be seen by cyclists and vice versa. Not good – yet all the street lights have been removed by the works, and nothing temporary installed!
4. The situation isn’t helped by a general disregard for the cycle lane amongst drivers on St Lukes Rd from as far back as the Garden Centre – this certainly doesn’t encourage drivers to be aware of the entrance to the cycleway. Again, we are talking to AT about how best to enforce this.
Um, @AklTransport, are you enforcing the cycle lane on St Lukes Rd heading towards NW motorway interchange? pic.twitter.com/xpMdDcUhOB
— Rhys Jones ?? #FreePalestine (@rg_jones) May 5, 2015
5. In one piece of unequivocally good news, the lights that were out at the beginning of the cycleway at Chamberlain Park, rendering it dark and dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians alike, are being repaired. As of this writing, however, the new LED bulbs haven’t arrived. We’re waiting for an update on this situation.
FYI, this is the official shape of things, for now and for after the work is completed:
The current temporary St Lukes Road cycleway crossing details when approaching from west to east, are;• A stopping area for cyclists as they wait to go across the St Lukes Road westbound onramp.• The western island is 3.7m at widest point x 12.9 metres in length.• Cyclist and pedestrian lights for crossing St Lukes Road• The eastern island is 3.5m in width x 4.4m in length.• A zebra crossing across the St Lukes Road westbound offramp from the eastern island to the cyclewayThis set up will be in place for approximately 6 months until the old St Lukes overbridge is deconstructed and the new bridge built in its place.
The final configuration for the cycleway crossing will include (from west to east);• A new zebra crossing across the St Lukes Road westbound onramp to the western island, providing priority to pedestrians and cyclists.• The western island will be 8m wide x 12m long (useable space).• Cyclist and pedestrian lights for crossing St Lukes Road.• The eastern island will be 8m wide x 15m long (useable space).• A zebra crossing across the St Lukes Road westbound offramp from the eastern island to the cycleway• At each crossing point there will be hold bars on the left hand side for cyclists to use while waiting to cross.
