Cycleway in gorge favoured
A cycling expert says a dedicated walkway and cycleway beside the new Manawatu¯ Hawke’s Bay highway will get fewer users than one built for recreational cycling.
He thinks turning the mothballed Manawatu¯ Gorge highway into a cycleway would be the best option, getting seven times as many users as one beside the highway.
The figures from Jonathan Kennett, the New Zealand Transport Agency’s walking and cycling expert, come as transport officials, cycling advocates and other groups get ready to plead their case to commissioners.
Three weeks of public hearings into the proposed Manawatu¯ Gorge replacement route begin in Palmerston North today, with the transport agency the first to give evidence.
State Highway 3 through the gorge has been closed since April 2017 due to a slip blocking the road. Contractors tried to clear the road, but were pulled out when the agency discovered a large hillside was at risk of falling.
Officials have a preferred option on a new highway between Manawatu¯ and Hawke’s Bay but the biggest bone of contention has been the lack of a dedicated cycling and walking trail beside the road.
Draft designs show a half-lane-wide strip along each side of the four-lane highway for cycling.
A lobby group, Build The Path, mobilised hundreds to petition the agency for a path similar to the one beside the Ka¯ piti Expressway.
The lack of a path has also caught the eye of commissioners, who, according to documents filed before the hearings, asked the agency to explain its views on cycling.
In evidence submitted since, Kennett, the agency’s walking and cycling senior project manager, said building a path as a recreational route, rather than one for commuting, was the way to go.
He estimated 10 people a day would commute by bicycle between Palmerston North and Woodville, although that number could grow with the increasing popularity of e-bikes.
However, the Manawatu¯ Gorge tracks and Manawatu¯ River were becoming increasingly popular for runners and recreation. Locals he spoke to said the tracks were already busy, so another scenic route would future-proof the area, he said.
Turning the Saddle Rd or Pahı¯atua Track into cycling routes was less than ideal, as they were steep roads that were probably too hard for the average cyclist.
According to his estimates, a path near the highway would get 19,400 users a year. A recreational trail away from the highway would get 77,400.
But Kennett estimated there would be 136,600 users a year if the gorge highway could be repurposed.
It would be faster than the Saddle Rd and Pahı¯atua Track, and hardcore cyclists who used those roads for hill climbing could use the gorge to get home.