Council 'aware of parking danger'

Photo / Steven McNicholl

Council officials were urged four years ago to remove car-parking at a traffic "pinch point" where a cyclist was killed on Auckland's Tamaki Drive on Wednesday, says a cycling advocate.

Former Cycle Action Auckland chairman Bevan Woodward yesterday said his group recommended removing some parking spaces around the bend from Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World in a report commissioned by Auckland City Council staff in 2006, but they did nothing about it.

He said the spot, where British visitor Jane Mary Bishop was run over by a truck, was the worst pinch point in a 50km cycling route which the council paid his group to audit.

"It was an accident waiting to happen. If the council continues to give cycling safety such low priority we'd better get used to seeing more deaths on our roads."

Mr Woodward said his group's main recommendation was to move parking from the end of a raised median strip which the council installed in 2005 for the safety of drivers and pedestrians.

He said only two or three parks needed to be removed. The median strip ends beyond the beginning of a parking zone, limiting room available for traffic to squeeze through the resulting gap.

Mr Woodward warned former council transport general manager Stephen Rainbow in a letter in 2006 that road changes gave no consideration to cyclists.

Dr Rainbow, now working for the Auckland Transport agency, said yesterday he could not recall the letter or any safety audit commissioned from the cycling group.

"Hopefully it will be actioned now, I couldn't agree more - it's absolutely tragic, the loss of life yesterday."

Mr Woodward said he was surprised Dr Rainbow did not recall the letter as he delivered it to him by hand.

Orakei Community Board chairwoman Desley Simpson said she shared Mr Woodward's concern that his group's parking recommendation had not been actioned. "Why hasn't it been implemented for heaven's sake - it could be done tomorrow," she said.

She urged Auckland Transport not to wait even until next week to act, saying: "The safety of everyone is paramount."

But Cycling Action Auckland spokeswoman Barbara Cuthbert said that, although the group welcomed $455,000 of safety improvements made by the council in Tamaki Drive since four cyclists were injured by a car last year, the former Eastern Bays Community Board had strongly opposed any loss of parking.

Former Auckland City transport chairman Ken Baguley confirmed his working party recommendations were watered down and disclosed the community board had opposed a no-parking clearway introduced between Mechanics Bay and Ngapipi Rd from 6am to 9am on Saturdays and Sundays for the safety of sports cyclists riding in bunches.

Auckland Transport did not include removing car parks in a list issued last night of more cycling safety improvements it was considering for Tamaki Drive.

But road corridor operations manager Andrew Allen said those included widening the footpath to the seaward side of Tamaki Drive by possibly building a boardwalk "to accommodate both cyclists and pedestrians off road."

The agency was also considering installing traffic signals at the Tamaki Drive/Ngapipi Rd intersection, where 13 people have been injured in five years.

Auckland Council transport committee chairman Mike Lee said he supported the cycling group's recommendations to remove parking and provide "drop kerbs" to allow cyclists easier transfers between riding on the road and using the shared footpath.