CYCLING TO WORK FROM WEST AUCKLAND

Every week there are an increasing number of people cycling around Auckland. A significant group use the cycleway from Te Atatu to the city each day.

Depending on her shift, Tieneke rides along the cycleway any time from 6am to 11.30pm. She told Ponsonby News she never felt unsafe. If she has been on an afternoon shift she rarely encounters pedestrians (who share the track with cyclists) at midnight on her way home. When she sets out for a shift starting soon after 6am there may only be three or four people on the track, but by 8am Tieneke will encounter over 70 cyclists on a fine day. However, cyclists are hardy souls and one rainy morning Tieneke counted 60 riders as she headed for the city.

The west route starts at Te Atatu, and when Ponsonby News checked along the line one morning recently at about 8.30am there were only a handful of riders going each way at the Te Atatu end.

Tieneke joins at the Oakley Creek side of Great North Road near Pt Chevalier, and continues to Upper Queen Street. She then crosses up to Symonds Street, rides on the cycle track to Grafton Bridge and across to the hospital.

Tieneke’s journey is a bit over 8km and takes about 30 minutes, depending on work on tracks or roads on the way.

The many cyclists on this route alone show the increase in cycling and the corresponding reduction in car usage in the inner city.

We assumed Tieneke would have access to good showering facilities on arrival at work, and then a change of clothes. She told us the facilities at her ADHB were totally inadequate. Not enough showers, dirty and in the basement, with broken lockers full of rubbish.

This is clearly an impediment to more people cycling to work. If they can’t have guaranteed facilities for changing and showering, they won’t cycle. Ponsonby News wonders whether other employers are as parsimonious with good changing facilities as the ADHB is. After all, few inner city employers offer free car parks for their staff.

We asked Tieneke what the ratio of male to female cyclists was and their ages. She said up to 60% were male and the age group was probably 35 to 60.

What then are the advantages of cycling to work? Most value the exercise, emphasise the reduced stress if they don’t have to drive on a congested motorway, and enjoy the cheaper cost of cycling.

Tieneke told us that cycling is an environmentally better option and she loves the cost saving too.

Those who cycle around our city are a hardy lot. They are critical of cars that ignore their presence and their right to be on the road, but they praise the new cycleways that council and AT are providing.

There is a need to keep upgrading these cycleways. Some parts need to be better lit and some surfacing needs improving. There are also safety issues, because these paths are for both cycles and for walkers. Sometimes cyclists feel walkers with headphones attached are oblivious to oncoming cyclists, with potentially disastrous consequences.

Overall, cycle ways are one of the futures of a modern city, and improvements and additions to the current stock are to be applauded. (JOHN ELLIOTT)

Pictured above: Pippa Coom at the opening last January of the causeway bridge which is on the NW cycleway.