Connecting cycleways necessary improvement

Council considered further plans for a cycleway along Aberdeen Road at Future Tairawhiti recently.

A presentation by Environment and Regulation Group Manager, Kevin Strongman explained to Council why a cycleway along this route would be a necessary improvement to transport infrastructure.

Mr Strongman said “The route down Aberdeen Road will provide a spine for the cycleway network and provides a safe and direct route to most of the city’s schools.”

One of the primary concerns with moving ahead with this project is that funding will have to be brought forward. Currently there is no more funding allocated in this year’s budget, even though there is around $10m allocated over the next 10 years.

Mr Strongman expressed the need for a city to Campion College part of the cycle network, which is subsidized by New Zealand Transport Association, to get moving, because the Urban Cycleway Programme (UCP) on the East side of town was already underway.

Government funding from NZTA and UCP have committed $3.5m to develop a cycle network from Wainui (State highway 35) that connects residents on the East side of the city to the Gladstone Road Bridge. This funding was allocated under the condition that Council committed a portion of the funding too ($800k).

Mr Strongman made it clear how important completing the cycleway routes concurrently is, “We want to deliver a completed cycleway route from one end of the City to the other, if we don’t bring development forward, we run the risk of a half complete cycleway that won’t deliver kids to schools”

Although Council has agreed to investigate further development of this cycleway, there is still a lot of research to be done.

“We are currently looking at a number of ways to deliver the right cycleway treatment. We are closely following what other Councils have done, and are noting what works best” said Mr Strongman

There were several forms of treatment that were presented to Council as possible solutions, which included a bi-directional cycle lane which puts cycle traffic on a single side of the road, with two lanes painted inside a double wide strip.

A detailed report presenting viable options for treatment, and implications for the budget will be brought to Council later this year.

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