The Star: February 08, 2024

The Star Thursday February 8 2024
14
LETTERS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Simpler solutions than re-routing
Readers respond to
last week’s article on
a bid to re-route the
Coastal Pathway
The idea of relocating the
Coastal Pathway is fraught with
unintended consequences. It
would require either extensive
land acquisition from coastal
landowners, or construction of a
pathway out in the Estuary itself,
either by reclaiming more land
or constructing a viaduct.
A simpler, cheaper solution
would be to widen the path
through Redcliffs village and
past Barnett Park by eliminating
on-street parking (and potentially
incorporating the eastbound
cycle lane) and relocating the
bus stop from its spot in front of
The Spur cafe. (Or pushing it out
into the traffic lane as it has been
elsewhere along Main Rd.) This
grants path users an extra 2.5-
4m of path to share.
For those immediately about
to whinge about the loss of street
parking I must remind them that
the parking around and under
the abandoned New World is
still open to the public 24/7, as is
the car park in Barnett Park and
behind The Spur. Heaven forbid
you have to walk an extra 30m to
get to the fish and chip shop.
I consider this solution to be
obvious, expedient, and inexpensive.
As such, it’ll never be done.
-Samuel Zelter
I would like to point out that
the land in front of these properties
is the King’s chain. The route
that is available at present is dangerous
to say the least. The bikes
at present run in front of various
shops and a busy medical centre.
As a resident that walks this
area I feel we need to rectify the
route of the walk/cycleway.
-Jenny Stokes (abridged)
I am speaking as a 30-year
resident who just loves living
here but also speaking as a 4-5
day a week cyclist.
Personally I believe one of
the issues is that some cyclists
use the pathway to Sumner as a
training track, which it is not.
CYCLEWAY:
The Coastal
Pathway
runs past the
Redcliffs shops
to avoid private
property. There
are calls for it
to be rerouted
along the
water’s edge.
Serious cyclists have had and still
have a perfectly safe bike lane on
the road to ride as hard as they
like on their training runs.
My simple solution is at The
Spur cafe car park entrance all
cyclists dismount and walk a
mere 100 paces till past the fish
and chip shop where the path is
wide and easily shared. There the
cyclist could remount and amble
along to Sumner as is the intention.
Travelling from Sumner
then the operation is reversed.
Everybody is safer (at) no cost.
Dismount, walk the 100 paces,
have a chat, smell the roses or the
Estuary – whatever, but just grow
up and share for goodness sake.
The dismount areas can be
well signposted at both ends with
painting on the path. To cut costs
I’ll even do the painting for free.
-John Higginson (abridged)
As part of a group of keen
cyclists who bike regularly from
the city to Scarborough and
back, I find no issues with riding
on the Main Rd Redcliffs shops
for such a short distance.
This section of Coastal
Pathway has a shared footpath
for slower bikers and those
with kids and permanent road
marking and cycle lane on the
road itself for faster bikes. So,
two separate options that can be
taken.
Over the years we have never
had a safety issue, although we
mainly use this route in the
weekend, so can’t comment for
during the week.
We always stop at The Spur
cafe for a coffee so diverting
the Pathway along the edge of
the Estuary would have a direct
effect on business, for the cafe
and other shops that provide
refreshments and ice-creams.
This would be a total waste
of money to even consider this
alternative route, when there are
already two safe options to pass
through these shops on the Main
Rd.
-Dave Cook (abridged)
The Re-route Coastal Pathway
group states they’re concerned
about people coming out of
shops, walking into cyclists.
So for an approx 25m strip
they consider dangerous, they
are seeking to create a second
pathway, hundreds of metres
long, that would cost tens of
millions of dollars.
As (city council planning
and delivery manager) Jacob
Bradbury noted, issues relating
to consents, constructability
and property ownership have
been previously considered and
ruled out the feasibility of such
projects.
Contrary to popular belief,
deeds land or King’s chain
doesn’t extend along the whole
proposed re-route. It is not
possible to walk the length even
at low tide – without entering
private property, so much of
the path would need to be built
in the estuary with water on
both sides! The environmental
impacts would be devastating.
Cyclists going too fast are an
issue along the whole pathway
(actually to a lesser extent
around the shops where the busy
cafe is well set back behind trees,
lamp post, outdoor furniture).
If it is really cyclists hitting
people they are worried about,
better to address this issue
directly and more immediately
eg more visible signage,
introducing cycle speed limits,
and moving fast cyclists to the
road.
-Alex Blue
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