GREATER DUNEDIN ELECTIONEERING ALERT
![cycle hero [www.odopod.com]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/cycle-hero-www-odopod-com.jpg)
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Dunedin City Council – Media Release
Another Busy Year Ahead With Cycleways
This item was published on 10 Apr 2015
Dunedin residents will be able to make the most of safer cycle routes in coming months as the city’s cycleway network continues to expand. Dunedin City Council Infrastructure Services Committee Chair Cr Kate Wilson says cycleways make the streets safer for all road users and hopefully encourage more people to get on bikes.
“For years people have been asking the Council for enhanced cycleways in Dunedin. We have a responsibility to provide networks that give people travel choices, whether that be cycling, walking or taking a bus or car. The more of the network that is completed, the more we can provide for people who want to use cycleways, whether it’s a child cycling to school, an adult cycling recreationally, or anything in between.”
It is also a central government priority to rapidly expand and enhance networks of cycleways around the country, recognising the benefits to health, the economy and the environment. The DCC has received $570,000 from the Government’s Urban Cycleway Fund and the Council has decided the funding will be used to enhance and expand the South Dunedin Cycle Network. The DCC also receives funding from the NZ Transport Agency to build the network.
“Taking advantage of Government funding now is important as we have a limited window of opportunity to capitalise on our position as one of only a few cities with the requisite Strategic Cycle Network Plan. We are a financially constrained Council and the more funding we get from outside sources the less we need from ratepayers.”
In August 2011, the Council adopted the Strategic Cycle Network for Dunedin, which gave the South Dunedin network of routes the highest priority for design and construction. Cr Wilson says 40% of people living in South Dunedin do not have access to a car, which is a key reason for South Dunedin cycle routes being prioritised.
“We understand introducing cycleways to our streets has been a big change for some people, but we’ve got a great opportunity here to improve our city in a very positive way for current and future generations.”
Here’s an outline of what’s happening with South Dunedin cycleways over the next month.
● Portobello Road (between Timaru Street and Portsmouth Drive) – wider consultation on a revised concept plan for this stretch of road.
● Hillside Road/McBride Street – staff are reviewing the proposed cycleway design after meeting with local businesses.
● Neville/Wilkie Streets – a final decision on the type of cycleway for these streets will be made in April. Construction is scheduled to begin in May.
● Harbourside/Roberts Street – the Harbourside Working Group will meet again in mid April.
● Richardson/Coughtrey, Fingall/Tedder, Bellona/New Streets – Construction of these ‘quiet streets’ and dedicated cycleway should be finished in the next couple of weeks.
Residents, businesses and property owners in areas where cycleways are planned will be contacted directly.
█ General information is also available at http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/sdcn and more details will be added as projects are rolled out.
Contact Cr Kate Wilson, Infrastructure Services Committee Chair on 027 443 8134. DCC Link
![cycling getty [blogs.independent.co.uk]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/cycling-getty-blogs-independent-co-uk.jpg)
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Related Posts and Comments:
20.3.15 DCC Shame: First, John Wilson Dr … now Portobello Rd cycleway
11.2.15 Dunedin Cycleways: Pet project staff, ‘entitlement’? #irony
3.12.14 Cycling at Dunedin —boring debate, network spending continues #DUD
22.5.14 DCC Transportation Planning —ANOTHER consultation disaster
6.5.14 Roading network screwed by council staff
14.2.14 DCC: Broadband AND bicycles #fraudband speed
14.1.14 DCC: Hospital area parking changes #cyclelanes
5.1.14 Norman Foster: SkyCycling utopia above London railways #ThinkBig
24.12.13 Daaave’s $47 million Christmas present to Jinty. We’re paying.
4.12.13 Dunedin cycleways: Calvin Oaten greeted by DCC silence
17.11.13 Dunedin cycleways: Calvin Oaten’s alternative route
17.11.13 Cull and MacTavish… “Have you fixed the debt crisis?”
14.11.13 Cycle lane explosions and puncture kits (SPOKES grenades launch)
8.11.13 Dunedin Separated Cycle Lane Proposal [how to make a submission]
29.10.13 DCC (EDU) invents new job! [GigatownDunedin]
19.10.13 Cycle lobby games and media tilts
24.9.13 Mediocrity and lack of critical awareness at DCC [council reports]
8.7.13 Bloody $tupid cycleways and Cull’s electioneering . . . [route maps]
28.3.13 DCC DAP 2013/14: Portobello Harington Point Road Improvements
26.2.13 DCC binge spending alert: Proposed South Dunedin cycle network
22.2.13 DCC: Council meeting agenda and reports for 25 February 2013
31.1.13 Who? 2010 electioneering
21.11.12 Safe cycling -Cr Fliss Butcher
5.11.12 DCC, NZTA: Cycle lanes controversy
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
*Image: (from top) odopod.com – cycle hero; blogs.independent.co.uk – cycling getty [Getty images]
What if? Dunedin... 
Cr Wilson says 40% of people living in South Dunedin do not have access to a car, which is a key reason for South Dunedin cycle routes being prioritised.
And how many of these people are children, Invalids (who wouldn’t use a bicycle), or mobility scooter users?
Cr Wilson says 40% of people living in South Dunedin do not have access to a car, which is a key reason for South Dunedin cycle routes being prioritised.
Statistics N.Z. says 31.7 percent of people in South Dunedin were aged 65 years and over compared with 13.3 percent of Dunedin City and 12.1 percent for all of New Zealand.
Can you see these old fogies sallying forth on their velocipedes down the One Way system hunting bargains at the empty shops in the city? It seems that Kate can. Or maybe she envisages convoys of pensioners converging on the Albatross colony getting their exercise that the Gummint reckons will do us good and the olds all need.
Yup – good on yer Kate. You’re onto something here – hamp.
I prefer to use *seniors* – of which I feel to be one.
My only thrill for the week is walking to New World. So much for my social un-biking calendar.
Elizabeth – you’ve gotta be joking. Old fogies – or in my case – old farts! that’s the way – let’s not muck about!
I like people on their merits not their age. [personal rule of thumb]
Fogies crashed ex Cr Fliss Butcher, or maybe it was farts…. thus she was never heard of again?!
:)
O.K. you have it then – scissors!
Mick, just to add –
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/226331/dcc-wants-celebrate
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/226500/old-farts-comment-draws-apology
http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/227133/butchers-old-farts-breath-fresh-air
Hey Elizabeth – nice clipping. Even feel a bit of nostalgia for Fliss. Good pic of her too.
Love the ‘pics’. Notice most if not all bikes nowadays have either no or very rudimentary mud guards. Set off to work with your feet encased in plastic bags, the water flying up into your face from the front wheel, the same up your ‘jacksey’ from the rear wheel. Get to work soaking wet, nose dripping standing in a pool of dirty water, don’t forget it’s not pristine rain it’s grubby oil and ‘shite’ contaminated street water. Change your clothes (assuming you have a set at work and facilities to do so) then you start work. By morning tea (assuming you still can have that courtesy of Michael Woodhouse) you are shivering with the onset of a cold or flu. Yeah Kate that’s healthy. Somehow I can’t conjure up a picture of hoards of South Dunedin people doing just that. Nor any of Dunedin for that matter. I think they have been mesmerised by the long dry Summer we have experienced, forgetting it’s not always quite like that.
Carefully chosen after many years of biking in my youth in all weathers.
Cycle walkways and more…. NZTA’s $408M spend in Otago
### ODT Online Wed, 1 Jul 2015
Funding a win for residents
By Craig Borley
In what could be called a big victory for little people, funding was confirmed yesterday for the long-planned $19.9 million safety improvements to Portobello and Harington Point roads. […] The work is part of what the NZTA yesterday confirmed would be a $408 million spend in Otago over the next three years through its National Land Transport programme.
● That money will go to initiatives mostly already announced or in place, such as $36 million for the Otago Regional Council’s bus service upgrade, including a new bus hub in Dunedin.
● About $10 million will go to cycling and walking network funding in Dunedin.
Read more
Interesting article here about ‘government-by-nudge’. One way or another, we are seeing the demise of democracy. http://bigthink.com/Mind-Matters/government-by-nudge-is-a-global-phenomenon
Diane; an interesting angle no doubt. We can see it here within our council. ‘Sustainability’ comes to mind as does the ‘anti fossil’ campaign. The ‘cycle’ fervour is another with the ‘biggie’, ‘climate change.’ All mind bending exercises promulgated on the concept of behaviour changing. Scary stuff as it places too much power in too few hands.
I’m wondering if the central and local govt enthusiasm for cycling is linked to enthusiasm for spending rates and tax with ever-increasing enthusiasm on mega-salaries and shiny things, leaving the peasantry increasingly out of pocket for necessities like getting from A to B (work, food bank etc).
Parkinson (C. Northcote) described it best:
Taxes will rise until the customer complains.
And another rule:
“Expenditure rises to meet the funds available.”
So it’s in your hands, many here will note my persistence in
A. Complaining
B. Alerting punters to the overspending on salaries.
That is the only way, make more people aware of these laws.
Elizabeth – I know and respect that some of your contributors have strong views about climate change and as web administrator you are to be respected for your own views. However given the events of 3 June 2015 on South Dunedin in particular and the strange comments of the Mayor in his latest comments in FYI Dunedin July 2015 I simply ask the question are we prepared as a City for what ever Mother Nature will throw at us in the future? I particularly would value your comments on Associate Professor Nancy Bertler’s comments in today’s Weekend Mix. You will see that on p.10 she is quoted as saying “climate change also causes an intensification of storm surges and extreme weather events. Even a 50cm sea level increase which we will see within a few decades (the combined effect of sea level rise and changes in storm surges) will cause 100 year coastal flood events to become an annual event; and an annual event to occur daily, fuelled sufficiently by normal tides.”
To be fair to Mayor Cull he does state that “scientific advice is that more of these events can be expected”.
My concern is that if there is any truth in the above comments then why oh why haven’t the DCC amended their Three Waters Budget accordingly to speed up pipe renewals as part of a major flood control project when the LTP 2015/16 was finally signed off last Monday?They seem to be pinning their hopes on Kaikorai Valley and hoping these “improvements” will flow down to the South Dunedin flat and give much needed relief in the event of another extreme weather event. The same could be said for their “relaxed attitude” to St Clair Seawall. There is only band-aid funding put aside for the next 10 years and if Prof Bertler is only 50% on the mark will Mother Nature wait that long?
Incidently I have come up against the DCC “brick wall” with their absolute refusal to answer my simple question about what has happened to the St Clair Beach Liaision Group that was voted in by public mandate in November 2013. Next step Local Government Official Information Act?
Hi Lyndon
Having lived in the house built closest to the high tide line at Takapuna (Brett Ave) I really have a good appreciation of seaside weather events, both cliff-side and rocky beach. The house was built well before the Harbour Bridge went in, as a weekend guesthouse for a wealthy North Shore family. It survived every enslaught of wind and wave in the true manner of a lighthouse. Fantastic experience in driving storms paired with extreme tides. You can build against a lot of Nature thrown at you. If DCC hadn’t driven itself into an extreme debt position we would be more assured about the physical construction means available to protect our coastline, and indeed lessen South Dunedin’s tendency to flood due to lack of maintenance and upgrade to infrastructure assets and services! Climate change is not important, in my view. Weather events can mostly be designed for in mitigation.
You can lodge an LGOIMA request at any time. Make sure it’s in writing – an email to Sandy Graham is fine, that way you also have a date and time record. That’s important given DCC’s tendency to take longer than the 20 working days required for reply, with some information requests….
However, perhaps that local advocacy group’s role has been overtaken by (professional engineering advice ?) events. Or DCC has given up the ghost completely on St Clair and dunes due to lack of strong practical leadership, and dollars.
Cull should be slung out by his hook.
### ODT Online Thu, 20 Aug 2015
Time to put brakes on cycleway
By Hilary Calvert
OPINION Somehow, the Dunedin City Council has been so beguiled by the gift-horse that is the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) that it seems to have completely forgotten to carry out its proper role of looking after the interests of the citizens of Dunedin in respect of the State Highway 1 cycleway plans.
Read more
Cr Calvert has concisely and intelligently laid out the issues confronting the ratepayers and residents of Dunedin, and our forced obeisance to NZTA via the nightmare, in my opinion, that continues to be Mayor Cull and his hickville grave robbers, the Greater Dunedin councillors.
Another day of driving around St Clair and St Kilda. Another near accident due to idiotic design of the cycleway.
At the Richardson St – Moreau St intersection, the intersection has been made so narrow with concrete islands that opposing right turning traffic on Richardson St don’t have enough room to pass.
So when traffic is waiting at the give ways, and they can’t cut the corner, they are channeled into a head-on collision.
At the same intersection I’ve nearly been hit by cars coming left out of Moreau St and crossing onto the wrong side of Richardson St because the left turn is way too tight.
And I’ve seen people nearly killed getting out of their cars because traffic turning into Moreau St are channeled to within centimetres of parked cars and the people getting out of them, when the gap was previously metres.
I’ve seen over half a dozen near crashes at just this one intersection (and I only go past usually once a day) since the islands were put in. Previously it was fine.
One thing I’ve never seen at the intersection, is a bicycle.
photonz, do you think we just need a private provider of a grader blade (or something) to wipe the DCC improvements off the face of South Dunedin streets ?! Me, I think so. Reverse engineering required.
The ensuing concrete rubble can help bolster coastal defences.
Our renegade Mr (Cr) Hall…. remember, he saved DCC from total inaction not all that long ago by [defiantly/sensibly/practically/was it unilaterally?] bringing in his gear to maintain the coast/line.
Meanwhile CEO Bidrose continues to coffee in work hours at Nova (this morning, 10:30) – propping up a cup ‘at a business meeting’ solves a lot while the ocean cuts back our dune defences. Sorry Sue – you need to restore faith to the nth detail of your diary. Tell the Mayor to look after infrastructure/infrastructure services, not selling us out to his pals from overseas. How GREENIE-SUSTAINABLE is he, is little J MacTavish, if/when South Dunedin unzips to the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, Mosgiel Pool, Central City Plan, Cricket lights, Cycleways COME FIRST (to use an expression).
A grader could fix the problem pretty quickly.
It could take the protrusions out at
– Richardson/Moreau intersection (no bikes there anyway)
– Coughtrey St/Forbury Rd intersection (no bikes there anyway)
– killer concrete blocks in the middle of Coughtrey St (no bikes there anyway)
– and the crossing on Victoria Rd by Royal Crescent (no bikes use it anyway).
If they dumped them at Middle Beach it would be a 1000% improvement on the erosion control they’re currently doing.
I’ve wondered how in pre-machine days our ancestors could build a wooden groyne whose posts last over a century, but with modern materials and machines the DCC sea wall started falling to bits after two years.
I fear for our lives, photonz – hollow politicians wreck our city.
That writing style makes me highly suspicious …..
Not holding out too much hope.
+ mayoralty etc
Very curious how certain Dunedin mayoral aspirants write with precise ODT editorial style: one sentence paragraphs, virtually bullet points, well spaced out, well-informed, no padding, persuasive arguments and good background info.
Of course, I agree with the point being made – the DCC is stampeding towards “construction opportunities” and what they assume is free money to pay for them. The outcomes may perhaps have benefits but they won’t be for the people of Dunedin as a whole.
The Smiths must’ve dumped Dave after all.
I suspect it’s like this: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hedge-your-bets
I’ve now been on the Gold Coast for six weeks. Relatively flat geographically. Cycleways everywhere. Number of cyclists seen – one (1)
She was riding to Griffith University.
The Moral.
Cycleways don’t attract cyclists, they are like Dinosaurs, there aren’t any and they are not multiplying.
It amazes me that there is so little actual science behind this cycleway madness. Here is Kate Wilson quoting some stat about South Dunedin residents’ access to a car. 40% with no access or something like that. That stat may be correct or close to it, but how did she make the quantum leap from that stat to a belief that these people want, or need, to ride bikes. Why not espouse a belief that these people need to be provided with horses and carts? Or hot-air balloons?
Where is the science that shows that these South Dunedin residents want safer cycleways? I’ll tell you where – it doesn’t exist.
A few years ago there was some new Professor appointed at the University who had a fixation – more like a religious belief – in bikes. In fact, at his inaugural Professorial Lecture he bought his bike into the lecture theatre. Turned out to be an electric bike which he used to commute from the Uni and his home in Opoho. Don’t think he is there anymore, but he was one of those driving forces to form loud and squeaky pressure groups that really appealed to Cull and co. Establish a connection between the Greens, fling in a few very dubious statements to show that unless everyone starts riding a bike in South Dunedin then Antarctica will melt within minutes, and all of a sudden there are wild actions to establish cycleways in as many places as you can put them. And a lot more where you can’t.
I happen to believe that there are many excellent places to establish cycleways and they are superb – the rail-trail is but one, but Dunedin needs to start to get real. Accept the fact that while many older people find an adventure of riding the trail over 3 or 4 days is very attractive to them, riding a bike round Dunedin to get the groceries or a lounge suite just doesn’t come into the frame. Moderate the almost religious beliefs of some of the zealots and pay a lot more attention to the things that really matter.
Dunedin has been badly let down by both its governance and management in recent times – often caused by fraudsters of all shapes and sizes – but the biggest thing that seems to be lacking is genuine vision of where the city should position itself to ensure growth and community well-being.
“…Kate Wilson quoting some stat about South Dunedin residents’ access to a car. 40% with no access or something like that.” Indeed, russandbev. Don’t have a car, don’t have a bike. Not having a car does not imply “want a bike, saving up for one, forced to stay indoors year after year until I can afford one”. As I found in the many years when I had no car, one uses other ways of getting to work, shops and social activities. Do people with no car perceive that obtaining a bicycle would cause an improvement in the lives they currently live? Has anyone asked them, or do they only ask fervid tertiary-educated cycle advocates like the one you mention, who was probably – a not uninformed guess – Ben Wooliscroft.
Why aren’t cyclists multiplying? Gurglars, just look at the seats on the current cycles. There’s the answer. Results in what Mayor Cull would term a “lack of testicular fortitude”.
So where is the survey of residents to see who would use a cycleway if one was built?
If councilors spent millions, without first finding out if anyone in the area would actually use it, they should resign.
I have a cyclist friend who lives in St Clair, just a block from the cycleway. He cycles everywhere in town, but doesn’t ever use the South Dunedin part of the cycleway because it doesn’t go where he needs to go – as a keen cyclist, he thinks it’s a waste of money.
On 39 Dunedin news tonight, ODT editor Barry Stewart says DCC will have concrete traffic islands removed from the South Dunedin cycleway(s) within the week.
[devil might be in the detail, keep your eyes peeled photonz]
We’ve mentioned this before at What if?
UBER – Would it work in Dunedin ?
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### NZ Herald Online 3:15 PM Friday Aug 21, 2015
Ridesharing the key to Auckland’s transportation woes
By Oscar Peppitt
OPINION Here at Uber, we know that ridesharing can go a long way towards revolutionising cities that suffer from impaired mobility due to congestion and inefficient public transport. […] Take car ownership for example. More than 90% of Kiwis have access to a car, but without a credible alternative, car ownership is simply the most convenient and cost-effective method of transportation. Especially when taxis are as expensive as they are in New Zealand, and public transport is neither reliable nor convenient unless you live near the city centre. While the Government’s solution is to spend billions on improving Auckland’s heavily congested transport network, ridesharing services could be a more cost effective complement to alleviating congestion and infrastructure strain. […] Ridesharing also complements existing public transit services. It can boost public transport use by providing the option to share a ride to or from the nearest public transport hub, with the remaining leg of the journey completed by bus, boat or rail. In Sydney we’ve already seen ridesharing have a real impact on the lives of those underserved by public transport, with 64.4% of Uber rides beginning or ending in a public transport desert.
Read more
● Oscar Peppitt is the New Zealand General Manager at Uber.
As someone who has only casually followed this issue l am still unclear why the council insists on cycleways on the heavy transport one-way systems through town. It seems somewhat fixated and obstinate to not consider safer back routes going in the same direction.
Peter, it has all been discussed as to why the other routes will not suffice – dollars from NZTA (national highway funding).
Peter, even if you understood the thinking of the NZTA and the DCC you would still be none the wiser. Here is an example in the utterances of Cr Richard Thomson (ODT 22.8.15, ‘Uncertainty creates neuro unit concern’, p3). “If you were looking to apply a service to more than one site, then it’s important that this is given every chance to succeed. If it were to fall over for whatever reason, it would make it more difficult to implement other such models [on alternative routes]. We get it that uncertainty is not what we want, but it would be much worse to come out and make ‘stupid statements’ that we have to retract. I can’t say with absolute certainty anything about anything at the moment. The problem is that when you say that, it’s interpreted potentially as meaning that it might [change] when, in fact, it’s saying I can’t say anything with any certainty about anything.”
Now Peter those are comments were made by Richard Thomson in his capacity as a SDHB deputy commissioner on the vexed subject of the viability of the Neurosurgery. Totally different subject I know but same stupid brain set. And he sure ‘dribbled a bib full’ there. It’s endemic around the council table. It’s called ‘bureaucrat speak’, a skill where you fill up a space with garbage till you believe the recipient is at or near comatose. Seems to work, at least till the sedation wears off by which time it’s nearly always too late.
Douglas Field Published Aug 21, 2015 | Republished Aug 17, 2016
numpty rides again 20 8 15
Comment on cycle-way provision in Dunedin in places where there are few cycles and less common sense exhibited by the politicians.
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SHORT Conversation with Anonymous, yesterday:
Elizabeth: All the rates money going down the drain is doing my head in, I can’t even deal with DCC’s bad design and planning!
Anonymous: You are so right. I went out there this morning …. Spoke to a couple of people there – sheesh – No traffic to speak of – no cyclists at all and the manoeuvres needed to negotiate the intersections are unbelievable. They (the Transportation Planning bods) are totally out of control – the village was virtually deserted (around 10am), a bit of traffic on Victoria Rd and Forbury Rd. Trouble is there are s.f.a. engineers who know the drill there [at DCC] any more – just theoreticians in some aspect of traffic planning – God help us.