Kaiapoi Cycleway Response

A few weeks a go I published a blog about what’s happening with the Kaiapoi cycleway, following an article in stuff.

Yesterday I had an email response from one of the residents expanding on the issues from his point of view, which I’ve published in full below:

Chris,

A response to your Kaiapoi cycle way craziness. You appear to be factually incorrect on a number of issues. The street designs are still being worked through and the construction has NOT started. Take a step back if you will, 35 years in fact, as at this time we purchased our house in Peraki St. At this stage the road was undergoing a massive reconstructing, why, because cars sped down our street and created safety issues. The designers of the day decided to narrow the road, to 9.9 meters, from 13/14 mtrs and made the road windy, ie not straight. And did this work, short answer no. Lots of cars used, and still do, Peraki st as a shortcut to Ohoka Rd and to the motorway. To avoid the busy Williams st. In hindsight, they should have left the road straight and put a cycle way down it like the little river link shown in a photo on your site completely separate from the road. I want a separate cycle way as a solution involving cyclists and pedestrians sharing. Back to your letter, the cycle way has NOT been finalised and adopted, and construction has NOT started, hence our latest consultative process. As an aside, at Peraki/Vickery St residents meeting some mths ago at which more than 100 residents attended, more than 90% of them rejected Peraki/Vic greenway. Your 258 people in your letter were discussing cycle ways in the district as a whole, not Peraki/Vic specifically. Even myself, I do not object to cycleways per se, as long as they are done safely. However, when it comes to Per/Vic specifically , it is wrong ,for a number of reasons

1. Peraki St is narrow to the point of being dangerous. Road..9.9mtrs 2 parked cars opp each other  4mtrs, leaves 5.9 mtrs,..2 cycleways 1.6mtrs(3.2mtrs) leaves 2.7mtrs,only room for ONE car, and this on a road still used as a shortcut to Ohoka road at speed. And also Peraki st is used as thoroughfare for emergency services(fire/ambulance) who don’t want to be using a one way street in an emergency. My suggestion of using the east side of Peraki st as a shared cycle/pedestrian path ,incorporating the existing footpath was rejected. There is plenty of room to do it off road, trees need to go, but they can be replanted. To say a handful of residence (no, 90% opposed) are getting upset about a few speed humps is a gross misjudgment on your part. We want the cars slowed and have been waiting 35 yrs for something to be done, so my question to you is, why not ask Mr Barnes to adopt the speed humps, without all the fluffery the roading engineers seem to put with them, keep it simple, quiet road humps and see if that slows the traffic. If it does, problem solved and then put in the cycle way. Also what has to be factored in is the school back entrance where a lot of cars, and I mean a lot, park and angle park on Peraki Street and the cycleway runs directly behind them. Very risky and totally unsafe. so, in finishing, there is currently a cycleway on Williams st, both sides, also on Otaki, only three blocks away is a straight full width road 13.8mtrs with a cycleway on it, so the question to be asked is can the roading engineer justify $800.000 being spent in Peraki/Vickery sts for cyclists who have other options already. Refer to photos as a demonstration of how narrow this street is!!

Trevor

What are your thoughts about this street? What do you think should be done here (if anything)?