KEY POINTS:
Northern Express bus operator Ritchies Transport fears narrowing Auckland Harbour Bridge's clip-on lanes to make room for cyclists and walkers may not leave enough clearance for its buses.
But Cycle Action Auckland says narrowing the clip-ons to cater for non-motorised transport would still leave vehicles with more leeway than on the bridge's central lanes.
Group chairman Bevan Woodward said narrowing the clip-on lanes from 3.5m to 3.1m would leave the same width as is available for traffic throughout Spaghetti Junction.
Although the bridge's inner lanes are marginally narrower, at 3.05m, Transit NZ expects to add a sliver of 75mm to 100mm more space when it replaces its moveable concrete median barrier with a thinner structure next summer for almost $10 million.
But Mr Woodward says the clip-ons would have the extra width of 300mm "shoulders" on one side of each lane, even after the erection of 500mm barriers between general traffic, cyclists and pedestrians.
Ritchies Transport director Andrew Ritchie said his drivers needed adequate safety margins on each side of their buses, which were 2.5m wide.
He said overseas manufacturers were moving towards building buses 2.6m wide, and he feared a safety margin of 250mm on one side and 550mm on the other would not be adequate, especially in strong winds.
Mr Ritchie said that although a proposed cycleway on one side of the bridge and a pedestrian path on the other would probably be "nice to have", he would prefer dedicated bus lanes to link the Northern Busway with downtown Auckland.
He noted a trend overseas for cyclists to take "fold-up" bikes aboard buses.
Mr Woodward said he was confident barriers between general traffic and the cycling and pedestrian paths could be engineered to leave enough room for things such as bus mirrors.
"If Transit can use 3.1m lanes for the whole of the central motorway junction, why can't they do it on the bridge?" he said. "This is not only a vital physical link, but a flagship project around what we are doing about climate change."
His group believes cycling and walking paths can be built entirely on the existing bridge for less than $5 million, compared with an estimate by Transit of about $40 million for adding 1.5m cantilevered structures on the outer edge of each clip-on.
Transit has agreed to join North Shore and Auckland cities, and Auckland Regional Council and its transport arm, in a study of all options.
The influential Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee passed a resolution last week for the study to give specific consideration to Cycle Action's proposal.
