Letters: Greerton traffic upgrades a disaster

I just thought I'd comment on the Greerton traffic calming disaster (Local News, November 17).

I've driven through it a couple of times and find it difficult to believe the design was accepted by our traffic engineers (do we still have them?) or by Land Transport for subsidy.

Narrowing it to one lane and the inevitable cycle lane is causing plenty of problems - huge lines of waiting cars being the most common.

Our transport manager Martin Parkes commented that the cyclists and pedestrians were "over represented" in safety issues in Greerton.

I'm not sure if that is the case but this is certainly not the solution. I have a puzzle for you Martin.

What if an ambulance was unable to get through the congestion and there was a cyclist and a pedestrian in the back. Would that be a problem?

Dan Russell
Tauranga

Cycleways are part of the fix

Margaret Murray Benge (Letters, November 17) refers to a recent report from Auckland and claims that New Zealand can't afford cycleways.

Perhaps it is the Bernard Orsman article she is referring to, published on November 12 in the NZ Herald.

This article used predicted trip levels that weren't expected until 2026, and then claimed that cycleways are a failure. Unfortunately, it appears the anti-cycling brigade now must fudge facts to get their point across.

The real story is that 329,000 trips were recorded on the Auckland cycle counters last month according to the Auckland Transport website - an increase of more than 17 per cent compared to October 2017. On Upper Queen St, more than 14 per cent of morning traffic is by bicycle.

As safe cycleways get joined up, people use them. This has the benefit of less congestion, freeing up road space for those that need to drive.

Urban cycleways cost a fraction of what building extra road capacity costs, and in Auckland they are proving to be very successful.

Let's not bring the old and unsuccessful template of 50 years of road building that didn't work in Auckland to Tauranga. A multimodal transport network is what will help our congestion woes, not just roads.

James Woods
Welcome Bay