Cycleway Ideas for South Auckland

Written by Ben Ross - Talking Auckland

Small but part of a larger scheme

 

I am not sure how the discussion got to cycling yesterday but it did and we ended up talking about more cycleways in the current Long Term Plan that are outside the Isthmus area.

With NZTA actively investigating a cycleway along the Southern Motorway between Manukau City Centre and at least Takanini Interchange for now I thought how could we build on the ad-hoc local road cycling infrastructure in the same area.

Two lines of thought came up:

  1. Dedicated cycleway along the entire length of Great South Road from its beginning in Epsom all the way down to Drury Interchange
  2. Some feeder cycleways into both the Great South Road, and NZTA cycleway but using the Botanical Gardens in Manurewa as the major destination point

 

So why not do both?

Here is the context map with Manukau at the top and Papakura at the bottom:
Context Map of some cycleways in South Auckland
Context Map of some cycleways in South Auckland
  • The Red Line is the cycleway NZTA are investigating to build alongside the Southern Motorway
  • The Yellow Line would be the dedicated Great South Road Cycleway
  • The Blue Lines are East-West Connectors with two linking to the entrances of the Botanical Gardens
  • The Pinkish Lines are the Manukau City Centre cycleways
  • The dash lines is a possible east-west link but would require a motorway over-bridge

 

A close up of the northern end of the focus area

Cycleways in South Auckland northern

While you see the Great South Road and NZTA Motorway cycleway possibilities, I have also focused on quick win East-West cycleway links that would help connect the wider area to the main north-south cycleways (as well as the Botanical Gardens).

Of course over time it is hope Manukau City Centre has more boulevards with dedicated cycleways to make the area more people friendly.

 

A close up of the southern area of the focus section

Cycleways in South Auckland southern

Again we have the east-west blue connectors linking up with the main north-south cycleways. However, these east-west links also connect Manurewa up to its surrounding areas as well.

The purpose of the NZTA Cycleway is different to the Great South Road cycleway with the former set up as an express link especially to the Botanical Gardens, while the latter is more of a catalyst to restoring the Great South Road to some of its former glory (Stuart’s 100 #18 A Great South Rd?).

Now what helps with the Great South Road cycleway is that for the most part in South Auckland it already has cyclelanes and shared paths that act a reasonable foundation. Now for some very quick wins Auckland Transport could remove all slip lanes along the Great South Road to make it more people and cycle friendly. Over time as money allows we can “upgrade” each section of the existing Great South Road cycle infrastructure into separated and dedicated cycle infrastructure. Of course when this happens you start building your east west links as well. Just a note that Weymouth Road already has a separated cycleway along most of its length. So it would be great to connect that up to the link at Manurewa to form one long east west link in that area.

 

So what do you think?

A good start to getting more active transport routes across Auckland or some more ambitious needed?

2 thoughts on “Cycleway Ideas for South Auckland”

  1. Ben, could you clarify where you got the info about the Manukau – Takanini cycleway that NZTA is planning? Aware it has been considered, but not that it is anywhere near the top of the list.

    During the Takanini interchange discussions, NZTA instead proposed to speed up a cycleway between Takanini Interchange and Beach Road / Hingaia area (to the new suburbs to open up down there, presumably). You should be able to find some info online.

Comments are closed.