Brian Rudman: Fumes, wind and muggerson MP's $25m walk plan

It's that balmy time of year when even sedentary beings like MPs start to think that walking might be a nice way to get to and from work. For other people at least.

And so it is, for those of us who live within a sensible distance of our jobs.

But I find it hard to believe that more than a few fitness freaks would want to take a daily route march across the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Northcote MP and former North Shore Mayor Ann Hartley thinks differently. She believes a bus and cycleway across the bridge would be popular and help reduce congestion.

"If 40 people walked over the bridge, it would take a busload of people off the road," she says.

My guess is that about one busload a day would be her lot. Which is hardly going to make much of a dent in congestion levels.

But it would make a rather large dent in regional coffers. About $25 million, if the estimate of Wayne McDonald, the regional manager of Transit New Zealand, is anything to go by.

Mr McDonald bases his figure on a June 2001 report commissioned by Auckland City from engineering consulting firm Serco on alternative Waitemata Harbour crossings for cyclists.

Serco was very circumspect in its guesstimates, saying it was "very difficult to accurately estimate costs". But it took a stab at $3 million to $5 million for a cycleway on the existing carriageway. It put a cycle clip-on in the $5 million to $10 million range.

An under-bridge option would leave little change out of $20 million, it said. And that was without the added complication of pedestrians.

Serco considered that wind, vehicle fumes and the steep gradient would make the "on-bridge" option unpopular with potential users.

Mr McDonald rejects it as well, saying that blocking off an existing lane to cater for cyclists and walkers would add to congestion, not reduce it.

That leaves the below-deck option. The Serco report singled out problems with personal security as one of the difficulties. People being attacked, that sort of thing.

Since that report, another hazard has been added - electrical radiation. Transpower is about to string six high-voltage power cables underneath the bridge to carry the national grid, which is now taken north on pylons through west Auckland.

If you walk too close to the electrical fields around one of these cables, coming off the other end of the bridge with your polarity reversed would probably be the least of your worries.

My bet is you would be glowing so brightly that you wouldn't need a bike lamp to guide you home.

I've never understood the fascination with walking or cycling across the bridge. Except to say you've done it.

A while back, the Auckland Regional Council ran a shuttle to ferry cyclists back and forth across the bridge. It died from lack of patronage.

Mrs Hartley says many bridges - including Sydney Harbour Bridge - have walkways and they're popular with tourists and locals. Auckland, she says, is "lagging behind" by not keeping up with the Joneses.

I fear she's gilding the lilly. On a calm summer's day or evening, strolling across a bridge in a strange city can be a pleasant diversion. But bridges can also be windswept, noisy and fume-ridden.

Our bridge also has the problem of being a considerable hop, step and jump from population centres at either end.

A week or so back, I decided to take the scenic walk home, along the top of the Viaduct Harbour, through the desolate wasteland at the Victoria Park end of the tank farm area and on to Westhaven Drive. It must have taken near on 30 minutes to reach the steps up to the Shelly Beach Rd off-ramp. For me, it was another 10 minutes or so to home, but for those on Mrs Hartley's planned stroll home, the journey would have hardly begun.

From there it would have been a climb up into the gunnels of the bridge, into a shaded wire cage and then a noisy trudge up and over the harbour.

And once you'd got to the other side, most people would face a considerable march to Northcote or Birkenhead or Takapuna or wherever.

Hardly a daily journey to look forward to. Especially considering alternatives. For example, with the $25 million it would cost to build the walkway, you could buy Sovereign Lady, the luxury 41m boat just built at Hobsonville.

Now if you ran that as a ferry between Auckland and the Shore, I'm sure you'd get more people off the bridge than Mrs Hartley's scheme. You could even hang a few bikes off the back.