#GreaterDunedinNOTsustainable
#DaveCullNOTsustainable
#KateWilsonNOTsustainable
#JintyMacTavishNOTsustainable
#CouncilStaffManagersNOTsustainable
![Cycling [screenshot at YT].jpg](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/cycling-screenshot-at-yt2.jpg?w=500)
No photograph of Kate in lycra could be found. The Mayor and MacTavish were both camel shackled when our photographer called (say no more).
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### ODT Online Thu, 22 Oct 2015
Dunedin cycleway cost blowout
By Craig Borley
Building Dunedin’s cycleways could cost “three to four times” more per metre than first thought. That news was delivered to the Dunedin City Council’s infrastructure services committee this morning by the council’s infrastructure and networks general manager Ruth Stokes
The committee voted to continue with the rollout of the network, ensuring the design and finish were of the more expensive, higher quality option.
█ Council Reports available at What if? via (12.10.15)https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/dcc-cycleways-now-tied-to-more-urban-design-spend-after-rehash-numero/#comment-66330
Sandy Graham advises there is one amended page (item 6 ph 6.8) – a map was altered for clarity. The website copy will be updated with the amended page.
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
*Image: [screenshot] youtube.com – Cycling Training Program – Crashing on a bike
What if? Dunedin... 
“Report NOT AVAILABLE at DCC website”
No? Never mind, Radio NZ National was quick off the mark with a news item. Yes, Greater Dunedin and DCC have definitely raised the profile of our city. Congratu- – –
…on second thoughts………..
Then I checked odt online and they’d got the main story up too.
Details will follow eventually, though it may take LGOIMA requests to prise them out of the dead from the neck up geniuses involved in this fiasco.
Council Reports available at What if? via https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/dcc-cycleways-now-tied-to-more-urban-design-spend-after-rehash-numero/#comment-66330 (12.10.15)
– as published by DCC on 8.10.15 (for ISC meeting on 13.10.15).
Sandy Graham advises there is one amended page (item 6 ph 6.8) – a map was altered for clarity. The website copy will be updated with the amended page.
### radionz.conz Updated at 1:39 pm today
Radio NZ News
Dunedin council back pedals on cycle project
Dunedin City Council has decided to scale back its botched South Dunedin cycle network, after Councillors said it was badly thought out and badly executed. The decision was made at a heated council meeting at the town hall.
After a public backlash, Dunedin council spent $320,000 ripping up traffic islands, reinstating quiet streets to two ways and removing road markings. It was all meant to make South Dunedin one of the most cycle friendly places in the country.
Councillors today poured scorn on the work, saying it was badly thought out and badly executed, done on the cheap and without listening to local residents.The majority backed a plan to scale back the network to focus on a much smaller number of high quality, separated cycleways in mainly coastal links.
RNZ Link
Related post and comments including today’s
DCC cycleway$ now tied to more ‘urban de$ign’ $pend, after reha$h numero….. (22.8.15)
Auckland City council has just agreed to build a horrendously expensive cycleway around Tamaki Drive. The cycling spokesperson stated that this civic amenity would bring tourists from everywhere to cycle on the new cycleway.
From my extensive experience studying cycleways in Oceania (which demonstrates a complete lack of use by more than single digits at best daily) I would extrapolate that the Auckland cycleway will be lucky to bring one person to ride on their new planned track.
The reality is that the cyclists are too busy avoiding their own cycleways to consider an expensive trip to a rainy city to cycle their hoped for supposed attractions.
Stick to privately organised businesses like Kelly Tarletons, they work.
It is clear that expensive edifices that cannot charge and expensive cycleways that do not bring tourists are a complete waste of money, even where they are well built. In Dunedin where they are a fiasco, there should be a mass exodus of the cycleway planners, approvalists and particularly proponents over Lawyers Head, ideally on a bike.
Dunedin could charge to watch the lemming bike ride.
It would be the modern equivalent of the mediaeval stocks.
The ‘cycleway’ fad spreading around the world is akin to the ‘Climate Change’ thing. Both are run by knuckle headed ‘fruitcakes’ who have infiltrated the halls of power. Meddlers, improvers and do-gooders hell bent on organising people’s lives for them regardless of those people’s wishes.
Also reported on page 8 of yesterday’s ODT.
### techinsider.io Oct. 20, 2015, 5:29 PM
Oslo just declared that it will become the first major city to ban cars
By Leanna Garfield
Cars are no longer welcome in downtown Oslo. Oslo plans to ban all cars from its city centre by 2019, Reuters reports. It will also build more than 35 miles of bike lanes by 2019 and invest heavily in public transport.
Oslo’s car ban is the largest of its kind, says Paul Steely White, the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, an organization that supported New York City’s Citi Bikes and advocates for car-free cities.
Read more
It’s quite clear that for tourism we need more highways than cycle lanes. For a start we would have the potential to attract all of the poor buggers from Oslo that will have sore bums and will be heartily sick of cycling in the rain and snow of Norway.
However, there are four huge advantages in no cars in Dunedin.
1. The dog catchers will either have to forgo catching dogs in their expensive underused vehicles or walk or cycle to the outskirts of the city (Middlemarch) to catch dogs.
2. The staff will all have to ride a bike or walk to work (again from as far away as Middlemarch).
3. The councillors will all have to walk or ride a bike to meetings as will council employees. That should get rid of a large number of them incapable of either practice and thus reduce staff numbers and DCC debt in the only way possible at this time, and reduce Social interference to a minimum.
And finally a real beauty.
4. No 152+ cars in the car pool to steal. Now that is a saving.
I just made it to this 9.00 am meeting of the Infrastructure Services Committee. Cr Vandervis disagreed with the contention in the report to the committee that all members (stakeholders) of the South Dunedin Cycleways Liaison Group had been consulted and had agreed to the proposed route. Demonstrated that he had an email from an AA rep saying they hadn’t been. Cr Calvert persisted on wanting clarification on this. It was all a bit tense because the unspoken issue was whether anyone was lying about proper consultation at least amongst stakeholder reps having taken place. Chair Cr Wilson adjourned the meeting to get legal advice. While staff tried to hunt down the minutes, no, oops, NOTES, from the Liaison Group which is NOT a legal meeting of the council and so NOT public and does NOT keep actual minutes! These turned up about 10.30 am just before the meeting was due to end. I bet they wouldn’t have been available to members of the public beforehand, even if they had to make an official information request.
Then there was lots of discussion about whether this stakeholder group had been consulted on route only (if at all) or route and design. (This is still all about the South Dunedin cycleway – more after that about the PROPOSED central city one which is likely to go along State Highway One.)
It’s really interesting to see how Cr Calvert and Cr Vandervis, although I’m sure acting entirely independently, actually function synergistically and make considerable and persistent efforts to uphold proper process. I can remember observing plenty of past council meetings where there was much shuffling and eye-rolling as Cr Vandervis spoke with the overall feeling in the room clearly being that he didn’t get it. When in my opinion, he was way, way ahead of the majority of councillors and it was THEM who didn’t get it. Now Cr Calvert, obviously astute, persistent and well capable of thinking independently is coming out with very similar points, the other councillors seem to be listening more and jumping to conclusions less. Cr MacTavish, although without a doubt very sincere and passionate about what she personally believes in, makes a serious error about her job at the council table. She is there to represent the ratepayers, not herself. When she speaks, it’s all about pushing for the outcomes that she wants. A bit of pausing to consider process and ensure that all points of view have been fairly represented and given a fair hearing might be in order. I’m impressed with both Cr Hawkins and Cr Whiley, who both seem to have brains, have done their homework on the issues and express themselves clearly. Cr Benson-Pope understands correct process and makes sure it is used (Yes, I have something good to say about him!) Really, what we have now is a HUGE improvement on the old ‘asleep at the wheel’ lot we had about ten years ago. We might get even better around the council table with all the wards gone. And the more the councillors all argue and spark off one another, the better the outcomes are likely to be – despite Mayor Cull’s belief in peace and harmony at any price – preferably by agreeing with him!
Thanks again Diane for informed overview of the happenings at ISC. I hear Cr Calvert is especially on the ball at non public council meetings although I have no knowledge of what content passes in those meetings.
The second agenda item which didn’t take half as long was about the central city cycle way. Let’s run through that again. The PROPOSED central city cycleway – which may go along State Highway One. The DCC has an op out clause with no reason needed to be given. Which is good to hear. So it’s not necessarily a done deal. And it doesn’t have to go along a state highway to get central government funding. So I think this project can really be considered to be at an investigatory stage now as far as the Dunedin City Council (councillors) are concerned. If a vote was taken tomorrow, IMO the proper response from councillors would be that they need more specific and precise information before a decision can reasonably be made – and they would also need to properly, inclusively and non-cynically consult. I would hate to see decisions made on the basis of whether a councillor personally believes cycleways in general and in theory are a good thing. The decision facing Dunedin is whether the particular cycleway which will be proposed will work well enough here and be worth the money. I think one important message from the South Dunedin cycleway debacle has got through to councillors – that cycleways are extremely difficult to do well. This is the more important story – the one about the proposed central city cycleway – and the details – of who will pay for what, Council or NZ Transport Authority, and whether it has to be on a state highway to get central government funding or not – are all a lot more complex than I first believed. No doubt the ODT is researching the story and will come up with something fairly soon.
The point emerging from all of this Diane, seems to be that the matter of cycling is a personal activity best left to common sense and prudence. Other than dedicated off street ways such as the north west harbour walking/cycling track, freedom of choice is the democratic way. If people want to cycle with all traffic, that ought be an informed decision for them to make bearing in mind all risks. It is not a cost that the citizens at large should have to bear. This all seems to stem from the desires of a very few in council aided and abetted by vested interests from outside. In a word ‘minority rule’ hi-jacking the system. Thoroughly bad governance.
Agree. Cr Vandervis made the point very strongly that the proposed cycle ways are not cost effective. He also made the interesting observation that transport modes are changing so rapidly (segways, electric vehicles) that the proposed Dunedin cycle ways may be both redundant and obsolete virtually as soon as they are built. Chair Kate Wilson quickly jumped on to this bandwagon, talking of ‘multi-modal’ transport or some such jargon, as if to demonstrate she was up the play. But then she asserted that the cycleways would be good for all these various personal transport modes. Oh no. Overseas, when cycleways have been used by cyclists, skateboarders, dog walkers, joggers, kids with scooters etc their very success has been their downfall. Mixed use is really, really dangerous when there are no traffic conventions for vehicles (often completely silent and hard to see) travelling at vastly different speeds in a shared space. And that’s supposing users are being responsible and considerate – and not drunk – which is often not the case!
Diane
Mixed use is indeed dangerous when vehicles are silent and travelling at various speeds as I have frequently observed on the very popular shared pathway in the West Harbour area. My personal belief is that this particular track is excellent but the dangers you point to here are inherent.
Perhaps the solution would be to make footpaths wider and make it a rule that “steam gives way to sail” – cyclists give way to pedestrians EVEN if they have to STOP!!! Yes, unthinkable interference in their Rights, right? Tough.
Cars have to stop to give way. Pedestrians have to stop (and look and listen, though that’s only the old-fashioned ones who were taught as children the safe way to cross the road) and strictly speaking having phones and music plugged directly into the brain doesn’t qualify as a reason to act invincible, not even when wearing undies outside street wear.
Wider non-car & truck lanes would make more sense. For the sake of safety cycles and mobility scooters need to be identifiable. Not by imposing a registration cost because we know where that would go – higher and higher because for govt/councils it’s free money. But a fee for NOT having a clearly visible rego plate would make up for that, and encourage safety surveillance by police, meter maids and the general public with cameras.
Rego plates could pick up bad riders and people who think the glow of their cycling halos are a substitute for lights.
Cars and those trucks that go from straight-ahead lane across turning lane because they are too big for town, are not suitable road-mates for cyclists. Cyclists are small (narrow) often dimly visible yet fast moving road users. They over-estimate their visibility (and immunity from mortality) especially when they get council-added confirmation that they’re In The Right.
Most streets around town have few pedestrians. Take a break from seeing if you can see a cyclist and try the same with pedestrians everywhere except the shopping centres of town and South Dunedin. Suburbs?
Cyclists are big on demands for motorists to show respect and take care. Can anyone doubt they will be as eager to do likewise, sharing widened footpaths with even more vulnerable users?
Way too sensible Hype! Not cost effective, in as much as no cost at all. Bugger that, where goes my job prestige if I’m not overseeing a big budget (the bigger the better)? This is a beat up of outrageous proportions by staff, a minority of cyclist/citizens and the lycra industry of which Mayor Cull and Cr Kate Wilson are major sponsors.
Hype, there’s a purely mechanical issue here. Bicycle brakes are extremely inefficient, even when in good nick. And even then, the rider must apply them correctly for the circumstances and situation. If you are going at any degree of speed on a bike, you simply CANNOT stop suddenly. Your best bet is to steer towards some safe space. But often, there isn’t one.
My feeling is that you want to travel at any degree of speed on a bike (and modern bicycle technology easily makes it possible to go as fast as a motorcycle) then you should be on the road, obeying the Road Code.
Received from Douglas Field
### dunedimntv.co.nz Thu, 22 Oct 2015
Bungled cycle network gets redesign
Parts of the bungled South Dunedin cycle network are being redesigned, in an attempt by the city council to appease residents.
Ch39 Link
39 Dunedin Television Published on Oct 21, 2015
Bungled cycle network gets redesign
### ODT Online Fri, 23 Oct 2015
Cycleway budget blowout on cards
A massive budget blowout could be in store if Dunedin is to get the complete cycle network it was promised, it has been revealed. Future cycleway builds in the city were likely to cost ”three to four times” more per metre than first thought, meaning lucrative Government grants might not be available for much of the network.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/360462/cycleway-budget-blow-out-cards
Received from Douglas Field
Douglas Field delves deeper into the play space
Relevant to cycle lane advocacy IMO. Statistics for some untimely deaths are taken SO much more seriously than others.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/12973669/Less-hysteria-and-more-perspective-needed-over-firearms :
“…….There is no doubt that each and every untimely death is a tragedy, whatever the cause. The grief of losing a loved one before their time is unimaginable. And it happens in New Zealand around 1,800 times a year.
That’s around five untimely deaths every day – each and every one a heart-rending catastrophe for friends and family. Irrespective of the cause, every untimely death is an equally terrible loss – a life snuffed out before their time, their full potential unrealised.
And yet, to judge by media coverage, some tragedies are more equal than others. And some causes of untimely death much more deserving of the pundits’ indignation………….
……Looking at the mortality statistics for 2011 (the most recent year available), there were a total of 1,853 untimely deaths (i.e. deaths other than from illness, and excluding those who died in the Christchurch earthquake that year). Of these, a grand total of three were caused by the negligent use of firearms, and a further four were murdered with a gun. That is 0.38 per cent of all untimely deaths.
For everyone who died that year from the negligent or criminal use of firearms, there were more than 260 who died before their time from other causes.
To add further perspective, let’s put firearms-related deaths alongside some other causes with a similar death rate: falling out of bed (32 deaths), falling off their chair (21 deaths), suffocated or strangled by their own bedsheets (23 deaths), choking on food (24 deaths), killed by animals (six deaths).
Each of these deaths is heartbreak for those touched by it; but if we want to minimise the total number of untimely deaths in New Zealand, then focussing on firearms is simply not fishing where the fish are. The big killers remain transport accidents (353 deaths in 2011), suicides (493 deaths), and the mundane tripping and falling (495 deaths)………”
It’s a brave attempt at cutting through (1) sensationalism around some untimely deaths and (2) kneejerk “remedies” to make the world safe, no matter what it costs in money, inconvenience and restriction of freedoms.
At 39 Dunedin Television tonight, ODT editor Barry Stewart said tomorrow’s newspaper features DCC’s next cycleway debacle – the separated lanes on Cumberland St (SH1) – and the redesign for Portobello Road…..
STAY CALM
Well, I opened today’s ODT to see headlined that “$8m cycleways get go-ahead.” This of course is on NZTA the body charged with the oversight of State Highways. Only small alterations had been made to the plans, including “SLIGHT” changes to parking. “WHAT!!” 278 car parks lost in the CBD is “SLIGHT ?”.
Moving to page 4 we see where Dunedin City Council infrastructure services committee chairwomen Cr Kate Wilson is positively ‘orgasmic’ at the announcement. She says that while car parking issues were a potential negative, converting Frederick St car park to a multi-storey facility was also “on our radar”. No mention of projected costs (in $millions) nor that it’s the DCC’s expense.
When the dust settles, and if the trips don’t reach the 1500 per day projected then this will be seen as the greatest cock up since Pearl Harbour.
Anything run by Cr Lycra Wilson is a cockup already. She’s in charge of infrastructure and NOTHING has happened to prevent further flooding at South Dunedin, of that I’m sure although I await reply from group manager transport Ian McCabe to my LGOIMA request, to back my claim. I could be surprised except that local residents aren’t seeing any works to drains and mudtanks not even in the dead of night. Not a whimper.
She’s also in charge of all unsealed roads not getting adequately (re)formed before grading of potholes. And seal extensions – what are they ??
Seal extensions are the new fascinators being worn this week on Allen’s beach.
I feel a moratorium coming on.
dreads for rasta marine mammals?
more likely people on unsealed roads who want marine mammals, or possibly tar
very good, Mike :D
Never a good time.
### ODT Online Wed, 3 Feb 2016
Route redesign cost could pass $500,000
By Vaughan Elder
….The new design, by firm Boffa Miskell, cost about $70,000 and the cost of installation was expected to come to “greater than half a million” dollars, but would only become clear after tenders came in.
Read more
JC…. this from Cull, “Finally, we are talking about getting value and not just focusing on cost.”
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### ODT Online Wed, 3 Feb 2016
Green light for $8m cycleways
By Craig Borley
Construction could begin this year on Dunedin’s $8 million separated cycleways along the city’s one-way system. The New Zealand Transport Agency, which will fund the work, has signed off on a detailed business case setting out the need and basic design of the cycleways. They will be separated from traffic by concrete kerbing and will run along the right-hand side of both the northbound and southbound one-way routes.
Read more
You’re right, I hear you say, cramming lanes for 50max trucks will still mow cyclists. Bring on the blood and gore. [why aren’t we using the right side footpath as the cycle lane, allowing more room for effective physical separation ?]
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█ NZTA Dunedin Urban Cycleways Programme
Because 2 or 3 vehicles at that intersection is such a real thing. Let alone “sharing” the road with buses and trucks. Those crafty folk at NZTA must have taken more time editing out the vehicles than creating the “loose” depiction of the cycle path. I like the wee touch of green light though. A good day of traveling around this city is getting at least three consecutive green lights. Someone’s getting an “incentive” to install traffic lights in Dunedin.
Might take a sensationalist photograph of the reality of that intersection in peak hour.
How can one get good value (see Cull’s remarks), when there is no value in cyclelanes for anyone except Fulton Hogan, for whom it represents unbelievable value. The stupidity and naivety of the cycleway design around Queens Gardens, the botchup in South Dunedin and the absolute inanity of a cycleway along State Highway 1 going north and south, just proves conclusively that this council represents a group of the very lowest intellect.
From my observation, the only certainty produced from this cyclelane brain explosion is that there will be more deaths per cyclist mile in Dunedin than previously when personal responsibility was the required protection.
What a retro old dear you are, Gurglars! Harking back to “previously when personal responsibility was the required protection”! Councillors and DCC staff enforce freedom from personal responsibility for themselves, so it’s only fair that they extend that far and wide – except when they decide to protect us from the collapse of Planet Earth via investment decisions etc etc etc. They’re today’s people, Gurglars – and they truly sincerely care. No matter what it costs……
global reach
Exhibit A [Dunedin SH1 cycleway test casualty]
![Run over Chicken [Justin Sneddon - flicker.com -stormcab3836015729]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/run-over-chicken-justin-sneddon-flicker-com-stormcab3836015729.jpg?w=500&h=337)
Justin Sneddon – Run over Chicken [flickr.com – stormcab/3836015729]
I made this model at Bournemouth Arts Institute when I was doing a model-making course. The film department wanted a run over chicken made for a comedy film, so my tutor asked me if I wanted to do it and I said yes. I cut some chunks of blue foam out, then covered them in super sculpy. I then went out to farms and collected as many loose white feathers as I could, and spent a couple of hours sticky them through the sculpy into the foam. It went down quite a storm.
[click to enlarge]
Portobello Road Cycleway Developed Design – Boffa Miskell 22.1.16
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Dunedin City Council – Media Release
Portobello Road service lane redesign
This item was published on 02 Feb 2016
Layout of the planned redesign of Portobello Road between Portsmouth Drive and Timaru Street has been altered to address safety concerns with the service lane at the western end of the road.
In March 2015, affected residents, property owners and businesses on Portobello Road were informed of the planned redesign of the roadway between Portsmouth Drive and Timaru Street. Changes will include one traffic lane in each direction separated by a flush median strip to enable turning in and out of industrial premises, landscaping for the full road length, vegetation clearance to provide a 1.2m footpath on the east side, resurfacing of the cycleway and footpath on the east side, and removal of the concrete median.
DCC Network Development and Operations Manager Michael Harrison says, “At the time, the redesign did not affect the road layout of properties alongside the service lane at the western end of Portobello Road. Since then, a routine safety audit has highlighted concerns about the redesign’s effect on the service lane.”
The safety audit noted the following risks:
● Vehicles exiting the service lane would be required to merge with westbound traffic on Portobello Road. Give way signs close to the Timaru Street intersection could make it unclear who has to give way.
● A rubbish truck doing a U turn into the service lane would need to veer left to give it room to turn. This is a safety issue for following vehicles.
● In the current redesign, cyclists crossing Portobello Road to the east of the BP station would need to stop within the cycleway itself before proceeding to the mid-road crossing point. Stopping within the cycleway may block the path of cyclists continuing on the cycleway.
Mr Harrison says that to address these safety risks, a new design has been prepared for the section of Portobello Road adjacent to the service lane. Affected residents, property owners, businesses and stakeholders have been informed and supplied with copies of the new design.
This new design will have the following key effects:
1.There will no longer be a service lane outside the affected properties.
2.More on-street parking will be available. There will be formalised parking outside two properties where there is currently parking on the footpath.
3.There will be a new shared pedestrian/cyclist path outside the properties which residents will be required to give way to when entering and exiting garages and driveways, and be aware of when stepping out on foot.
4.Residents exiting their driveway will now be able to turn in either direction onto Portobello Road, whereas now they can only turn west.
5.There will be two new landscaped strips. One will be right outside residents’ houses, planted with grass, low shrubs and kowhai trees. The other will be a grass verge on the other side of the shared path ‑ this is where residents will need to put their wheelie bins.
6.On-street parking will lie 5.5m further from the front boundary of the affected properties than it does now.
7.There will be a new pocket park opposite the Timaru St intersection.
Mr Harrison says vehicle access to the properties along the service lane will be maintained.
Work on the new Portobello Road layout between Portsmouth Drive and Timaru Street is expected to start in the next couple of months.
█ Download: Portobello Road landscape and urban design developed design report
NB: The plans accompanying this media release include both the new redesign of the service lane adjacent to the western end of Portobello Road and the unchanged redesign of the remainder of Portobello Road up to Portsmouth Drive.
Contact Michael Harrison Network Development and Operations Manager on 477 4000.
DCC Link
### dunedintv.co.nz Wed, 3 Feb 2016
$500k change for Portobello Rd
A section of Portobello Road is being made safer, after risks were identified through an audit. The work’s expected to cost more than half a million dollars and should be completed in winter. But with the project up for tender, some details have yet to be ironed out.
Ch39 Video
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### dunedintv.co.nz Wed, 3 Feb 2016
Cyclists to be separated on SH1
Up to $10m will be spent on making the city’s one-way system safer for cyclists. The New Zealand Transport Agency has announced plans to establish separate raised cycle lanes from North Dunedin through the central city. And fingers are crossed that will keep all road users out of harm’s way.
Ch39 Video
### ODT Online Thu, 4 Feb 2016
Affected parties’ optimism guarded
By Carla Green
After years of conflict and compromise over the proposed cycleway for Dunedin’s one-way traffic system, cyclists and business owners alike have greeted the final plan with guarded optimism. […] Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan still had some concerns about details of the construction of the cycleway, particularly about whether trucks would have sufficient room to carry out driving manoeuvres on narrower roads.
Read more
Remember Jim Harland and Graeme Hall, former employees and budget meisters for deconstruction of the Dunedin City Council.
Their next magnum opus for Dunedin. What can I say.
### ODT Online Thu, 4 Feb 2016
Harbour cycleway snag; cost blowout
By Craig Borley
A massive cost blowout has hit the proposed cycle and footpath to Port Chalmers, forcing its designers back to the drawing board. The project, which would have a path between St Leonards and Port Chalmers built separate from vehicle traffic, was expected to cost $6 million and be completed within three years. But ongoing detailed design work had shown the route, as proposed, would cost more than double that figure. That meant the cycleway, in its present design, would not be funded.
Read more
I’d be interested to know if Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan has a heavy traffic licence. In fact one would wonder if it ever occurred to the planners to comprehensively canvas the bigger vehicle drivers such as log truck and trailers, milk tankers and trailers. Heavy machinery escorted transport drivers, and just the typical every day heavy trucks we see all day and every day negotiating their way along the SH1 corridors. If they have and the respondents were happy with the proposals it would be astonishing.
Calvin, clearly nobody checked trucks, why bother when you can simulate them in a computer program?
First block heading south on SH1 from the Gardens – truck with L-wheels over the middle line. Inconsiderate bugger, I thought. Then I noticed R-wheels as close to the other edge as possible. Truck too wide for road OR road too narrow for truck.
Purpose of road – traffic including trucks. Not the gigantic McRaes trucks only slightly smaller than the Town Hall – this one was a normal truck, no “oversize load”, just the ordinary kind of truck that uses our roads every day. If the State Highways are narrowed to the point where trucks cannot use them, isn’t that a big fat FAIL, bringing to mind that phrase in the Consumer Guarantees Act about goods having to be fit for purpose? Yes I know the CGA as such doesn’t apply, but the standard should.
What does apply is the foremost reason for “state highways” in this country.
The New Zealand Transport Agency states – my emphasis (bold):
Classifying our state highways helps us set the long-term strategic direction for our state highway network, It guides our investment decisions for the ongoing management and future development of the network. The government’s top priority for land transport is to help boost New Zealand’s economy by moving people and freight more safely and efficiently. The more we know about how our main roads are used, the more effective we’ll be at achieving this. It’s also a single approach which will give us more clarity across the whole state highway network, and will help make sure that these highways best serve the needs of all road users.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/planning-and-investment/planning/planning-for-state-highways/
There should be no pinch points (as you describe, Hype) in the state highway system for medium to large heavy vehicles.
Another link:
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roads-and-rail/research-and-data/state-highway-frequently-asked-questions/#state-highways
Comment at ODT Online:
‘New paradigm’ of media manipulation
Submitted by JimmyJones on Wed, 03/02/2016 – 8:27pm.
The new paradigm isn’t bicycles, it’s spin-doctors. They prefer that we call them marketing and communications staff. In this case we have the well funded spin-doctors from both the DCC and NZTA contributing to this campaign to convince the public that: bicycles are the new paradigm, that this news is “absolutely fantastic”, that “People want it” and that resistance is futile. The spin-doctors are becoming increasingly effective at hijacking news stories for the benefit of their industry/company/government department/city council.
Read more
I think the DCC should stop investing in any companies that use vehicles cars or trucks that use oil derivatives. That’s only a step from banning any vehicles from Dunedin. That should enable cyclists to travel safely wherever they want to go. It also should stuff the stadium as if only walkers and bike riders attend, even the DCC could not justify it with eleven watching an All Blacks game.
Barry Stewart on Dunedin TV tonight said the Automobile Association (AA) has pulled out of the SH1 cycleway Liaison Group.
Clouds forming.
Read all about it in tomorrow’s ODT.
All’s well at Dave’s place which houses a bulldozer.
### ODT Online Fri, 5 Feb 2016
AA pulls out of cycle liaison group
By Vaughan Elder
The Dunedin City Council’s beleaguered cycleway network has been dealt another blow after the Automobile Association pulled out of a liaison group, citing concerns over a lack of consultation. AA Otago district council member Hudson Biggs said it informed Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull of its decision yesterday.
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There seems to have been a bit of this recently: “Mr Cull did not return calls requesting comment.”
Perhaps he’s having phone trouble. I’ve got a VOIP phone which can get pretty temperamental at times.
### ODT Online Sat, 6 Feb 2016
Editorial: Progress on cycleways
OPINION The guarded optimism about the proposed separated cycleways for Dunedin’s one-way streets north of Queens Gardens is encouraging. […] Some businesses, partially consoled by the reinstatement of many parks compared with an earlier plan, still maintain concerns about the loss of parking spaces, now put at 278.
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Anyway, whether it’s ideal or not isn’t the point. People decide that for their own reasons cycling is or isn’t something they want to do. For some it’s about the hills and the weather, doesn’t matter, it’s their decision and their business.
The point is, Dunedin people by a very large majority do not want to use bicycles for commuting. Some enjoy the occasional bike ride – as Lee Vandervis pointed out in ODT the harbour cycleways and other recreational cycle trails are popular – but that is no reason for assuming we the people of Dunedin are waiting with the eager impatience of kiddies before Christmas for Santa Cull to give us cycle lanes.
Admittedly there is a shrewd carrot and stick aspect to the cycle scheme: narrow vehicle lanes – it’s important that faster cyclists be able to pass slow ones, cars vans and trucks can creep along behind a road maintenance machine or one of those jumpy drivers who not only drives slowly but jabs at the brakes at nearly every intersection and sometimes randomly / spooked by the Voices, between them. And taking away parking spaces, so that having reached town-university-hospital area you have to go nearly as far away as you started, to find a place to stop. Perhaps this will work – well, for those who have to go to the hospital and university, fortunately (for the individual, not for the city) most reasons for going to the CBD can be done elsewhere including online.
Here is something to take the smile off your dial Hype
Found this hidden in the bowels of a 2GP consultation document.
“District Plan is trying to get away from car dependency – need fewer requirements for car parking although it could be still provided if desired.”
Nanny knows best, Sally. It’s for our own good, not to fulfil their ambitions to turn our city into their Ugreentopia, pity about the drains but they can’t do everything.
IOW ratepayers be buggered, democracy Our (the best) Way is you vote, you pay, we do what we like for, or to, you.
ODT 6.2.16 (page 34)
Instead of cycleways, the DCC should bring back horse troughs. Build them and the horses will come! Instead of older nags finishing their ploughing and racing at Gore, they could all come to Dunedin. That would bring ostlers, Cobb and Co., highwaymen, saddlers, Lady Godiva, charioteers, Wells Fargo, Uncle Tom Cobley and all.
10,000 new jobs immediatement.
Two birds with one stone as it would get people out of those pesky cars.
Jinty could ride into Dunedin for events for the cruise ships– side saddle of course. Dave could ride in like Napoleon with a three cornered hat.
Perhaps they could come together, a sort of nag de deux.
If DCC cares about cyclist so much then why for f*ck’s sake they don’t develop and open Caversham and Chain Hill tunnels
### ODT Online Thu, 10 Mar 2016
Finishing SH88 cycleway best option
By Hilary Calvert [Councillor]
OPINION ….The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) seems to have fooled itself into believing selected bits of its own rhetoric about cycleways, while not taking notice of the contrasts between how it views SH1 and how it views SH88. […] All the upside reasons the NZTA has for cycle lanes down SH1 apply to SH88 in spades, plus some extra ones such as the tourism advantages.
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https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/change-road-rules-blamed-collision
“…Residents’ repeated calls for the council to change the intersection back to the way it was had fallen on deaf ears, but yesterday’s accident showed there would be serious consequences it continued to ignore their concerns, Mr Andrews said.
“Someone is going to get killed one day.”
He could see the intersection from his bedroom window and estimated that every 20 minutes three or four cars drove straight through Market St without slowing down to give way….”
And now DCC logic comes to the fore:
“A council spokesman said in a statement the council was always conscious of issues regarding the health and safety of Dunedin residents and concerned to hear about the accident.
“We only have second-hand information about this incident at this time, but we will be evaluating the information we receive about it so we can take the best course of action for the safety of our residents and road users.”
DEFINE second-hand information.
GIVE REASONS for choice of that definition and its relevance if any.
DEFINE first-hand information.
REDUCED TO GUESSING: means, DCC staff member in vehicle with dashcam, surrounded by other DCC staff members equipped with video cameras, has a crash or near miss in that location?
SUGGESTION: stop farting around and put things right. You were wrong, people who live and observe the situation are right, suck it up.