Cyclists fear becoming ‘road pizza’
Concerns that new safety barriers could kill someone on State Highway 2 have been ignored by the New Zealand Transport Agency, Wairarapa commuters say.
Commuters who bike or scooter to work at several of Wairarapa’s largest employers in the Waingawa industrial area south of Masterton say the roadside barriers have transformed the route into a potential ‘‘death trap’’ since they were installed by the agency last year.
Any slight error by drivers would squash riders against the barrier, cyclist Clive Peters said.
‘‘It’s very dangerous for cyclists . . . you’ve got nowhere to go if anything goes wrong. Road pizza, as simple as that.’’
The distance between the barrier and the white line marking the road edge is only 1.5 metres in places, and is further narrowed by drifts of loose seal and road debris, he said. The danger was increased by the 100kmh speed limit and heavy traffic including logging and fertiliser trucks.
For Peters, cycling from Masterton to work as an IT administrator at the JNL timber mill was a daily ‘‘meditation’’ that helped with the ongoing trauma of having been the ground crew chief on the day of the fatal Carterton balloon crash in 2012.
Now, the trip is far from calming. But what most angers him is that NZTA says a Masterton cyclists’ group approved the barrier project, despite there being no written evidence of this.
Documents released to Peters under the Official Information Act show NZTA claimed it consulted the Masterton Cycling Advisory Group on the barriers. But a representative of the group, Allen, could not recall this.
Allen, who is also the Wairarapa Multisports Club president, shared Peters’ concerns. ‘‘If it had John come up, we certainly would have commented against [the barriers].’’
Pressed by Peters, the NZTA’s senior safety engineer said the ‘‘consultation’’ consisted of a ‘‘short discussion’’ at the end of a meeting of the advisory group, of which there were no records.
But this was acceptable, he said, because the barriers were a ‘‘minor safety project’’ which didn’t require much consultation.
Another regular cyclist through Waingawa, Kirsty McKenzie, said the barriers left cyclists like ‘‘the meat in the sandwich’’.
JNL administration worker Barry Cousins said he stopped riding his Vespa scooter to work once the barriers went in. ‘‘The narrowness of it defeats logic.’’
JNL mill manager Paul Jordan backed the concerns. ‘‘I’ve got a lot of staff that come across that bridge on bicycles and scooters, and the crash barrier has restricted their access . . . there was no consultation.’’
Carterton Mayor John Booth said he could see why cyclists were concerned. NZTA did not speak to his council about the barriers until after they had gone in, he said.
Masterton Mayor Lyn Patterson said many of her constituents cycled to work past the barriers, and she would be taking up their concerns with NZTA. NZTA was asked for comment. See stuff.co.nz for video
Peters has organised a meeting with road users and NZTA officials on Monday at 2pm in the layby on the left of the SH2 Waingawa Bridge, travelling south.