One day Transport NZ might listen..

[crazycanuck]

Grrr...One day I'd love to be able to bike over the Auckland Harbour Bridge! I know how sloooowww NZTA is in changing any of the road systems in NZ, they just recently finished the "bridge to nowhere"

*sigh* Auckland cyclists on the Harbour Bridge (not in 30-40yrs as mentioned in the article) is still a dream a long long way off in a galaxy far far away.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10574283

[MillieNZ]

Not that I was involved yesterday.............. but I was talking to a friend on Saturday who was going on Sunday morning................ apparently this cycle/walk across the bridge had been organised and that the Bridge Transport had agreed and that lanes would be closed to cars...................Only Sunday morning, the bridge transport then decided that they wouldn't allow any cyclist/walkers on the bridge, needless to say the crowd gather were abit peeved and decided that they would still cross the bridge.......... cars were stopped on the motorway for 1 hour 30 mins much to a lot of the car drivers disgust..............

I can't help thinking that it was really stupid of the bridge transport to have changed their minds...... had they closed off two lanes, cyclists and walkers could have made their point and the car drivers would have been able to use the bridge as well and not made them even more irrate towards cyclists .........

JMHO...... for what it worth....

N

[Pip]

I agree Millie NZ. If officialdom had allowed the protest to happen in a regulated fashion then things wouldn't have had to go all outlaw, and traffic wouldn't have been held up for over an hour. I wish I could have ridden over the bridge, but seeing as I live in Wellington these days it would have been a hike to get up there ...

Unfortunately the protestors managed to annoy a large number of motorists, so although they made their point they also potentially earned themselves some enemies.

[Kiwi Stoker]

There's a number of conflicting stories here.
According to the organisers they weren't going to cross the bridge. They didn't have permission and they didn't have safety/traffic management in place (like the Marathon does). The protest was to simply get people to the park to show how many people would use the bridge.

I can see both sides of the issue (cost, safety and numbers using the bridge vs access without having to ride the long way/use the ferry). To be honest I would rather see that money used to create more off-road cycle ways around Auckland (like up the Southern motorway for instance) which I think would be used more- the cycleway along the North Western motorway is a total success. Its a matter of best use of money for the best benefit. I'm glad our cycle club decided to NOT make it an offical ride for our members- it sounded totally dangerous and yes I think they haven't done much for the cause- they look a bit mad now.

[MillieNZ]

Hey Kiwistoker

I've subsquentially heard different story too, seems like a lot of miscommunication !

I watched the debate on Close Up on Monday and have to wonder given Paul Henry's agressiveness towards the matter, if he was held up on the motorway on sunday too

BTW do you ride with the Manukau Vets ?

[crazycanuck]

I guess I didn't read the article that well

In a way i'm happy they held up traffic on the Harbour Bridge..Auckland's a pretty poorly designed city in my view & I think motorists deserve something like this once in a while.

When we lived in Auckland, there didn't seem to be any attempt at improving public transport( do NOT get me started on the trains AGGGHGH..they couldn't even give a general indication if the trains would ever arrive!!!!)!

If we ever moved back to NZ, there'd be no freakin way i'd ever ride on the Auckland roads!!! I hated riding on Mt Albert Road UGH. Riding on the shore wasn't too bad...

It would be all mtn biking!!!