Rule change will clear way for walkers to join cyclists on Grafton Gully route

The new Grafton Gully route. Photo / Chris Gorman

Rules are having to be changed so walkers can use Auckland's new Spaghetti Junction-Grafton Gully flagship cycleway.

A motorway designation on land which much of the 1.9km bikeway traverses from Upper Queen St to downtown Auckland is being changed to that of a highway, so walkers can share it, says the Transport Agency.

The 3m-wide bikeway, which cost the agency $15.4 million and to which it is adding a $1 million link to Auckland University, has been used as much by pedestrians as cyclists since Prime Minister John Key opened it in September.

But Auckland Transport director Rabin Rabinran is upset at being scolded by cyclists for walking on it.

"Nothing has changed in cyclists' behaviour and now we are finding there are routes which cyclists don't allow any pedestrians to use," he told his board before staff confirmed to him that pedestrians are not allowed on most of the bikeway, because it runs through a motorway corridor.

An exception is a 300m section on council land north of Grafton Rd.

That joins a dedicated on-road "protected" cycleway along Beach Rd which Auckland Transport will extend next year to Britomart Place.

But Transport Agency highways manager Brett Gliddon wants walkers to share the main bikeway's "huge benefits to the local community in terms of providing safe, easy access into the central city".

Although it has no speed limit, and one pedaller has admitted clocking 61km/h on a steep downhill section, Mr Gliddon said signage was being developed to ensure pedestrians could share it safely under its new designation.

The agency would not encourage the police to prosecute walkers in the interim "as the cycleway is fenced off and poses no risk [from motorway traffic] for either pedestrians or motorists."

Cycle Action Auckland convener Barbara Cuthbert says she is delighted to see pedestrians on the cycleway.

"I'm thrilled Rabin's out there walking and can only apologise [for the scolding]," she said.

"Walkers and cyclists are at the bottom of the feeding chain so we've got to support each other." But she pleaded for walkers to keep left and for both sets of users, who she hoped would increase once the university link is completed by Christmas, to take care.

Walk Auckland co-founder Graeme Easte said pedestrians were overlooked when the law was changed in the 1990s to allow vehicles with "pneumatic tyres" in motorway corridors so bikes could use Auckland's Northwestern Cycleway, which Mr Gliddon indicated would have its designation reviewed.

On yer bike

Grafton Gully bikeway (Transport Agency)
1.9km from Upper Queen St to Churchill St, all but 300 metres on motorway land.
Cost: $15.4 million plus $1 million link to Auckland University by Christmas.

Upper Queen St shared paths (Auckland Council)
Cost: $900,000.

Beach Rd bikeway (Auckland Transport)
Stage one: 800m of protected lanes to Quay St (completed).
Cost: $3.15 million.
Stage two: 500m extension to Britomart Place (to be completed by July).
Cost: $1 million (part of a $3.5 million street upgrade - balance from Auckland Council and targeted business rates).