We wish to draw attention to the failure to implement the principal cycle network and related concerns about cyclist safety on the CBD ring road.

A key policy of the Bike Plan is

Action 6.1 provides for Principal Cycle Routes to be developed which will include signage, roading marking, etc. The Bike Plan states that "Marked cycle lanes and paths will be gazetted to provide legal status for the protection of cyclists."

Data-gathering was undertaken in 2000 and 2001 by Opinions Marketing Research and in November 2002 the principal cycle route network was adopted as part of the Transportation Management Plan.

A 5-year implementation plan and budget for the development of the cycle network and some work was proposed by the Council's Cycling Advisory Group in early 2003, with the plan to be implemented from 2003-2007 but the plan has never been finalised.

To our knowledge there are no alternative routes to the CBD ring road that have dedicated options for cyclists. Even in December 2003, very little had been done to implement the principal cycle network. We wrote to Mr Tong to ask for information about the alternative routes and dedicated options. We received no reply and so we also wrote a letter to the paper asking for the information (published 16 December). That generated no response until Thursday March 11 when the Transportation Officer told us that the dedicated options consist of the following:

As is clear from this list there is nothing that offers cyclists an alternative route to the ring road (with dedicated treatments) for cyclists to travel from one side of the CBD to other sides. Cyclists are expected to go through the Square yet none of the usual treatments (cycle sensors, cycle lanes, cycle paths off-road, advance stop boxes) is proposed to ensure cyclists have safe, direct and comfortable passage within the area bounded by the CBD ring road.

Our position has always been that cyclists will want to use the ring road and need to be catered for. The nature of the CBD ring road is very different from the kind of arterial road on which it would be important to discourage cyclists (arterials that provide bypasses to urban areas, through mainly light industrial areas that cyclists do not regularly visit or live).

In the absence of suitable alternative routes to the ring road that are coherent and connected to origins and destinations of cycle trips, cycle lanes must be provided. At the very least, cyclists must be catered for in the traffic lanes on the ring road (with appropriate widths for kerb side lanes and appropriate design features treatments such as advance stop boxes). Similar arterials in other cities have these features (see, for example, Hamilton, Christchurch, New Plymouth).

We would remind Council that in your response to our Draft Annual Plan submission last year you confirmed "The Ferguson Street widening will have traffic lanes able to cater for cycles."

What is most disappointing to us about the 11 March communication that we received is the failure to understand what a cycle network comprises. A Planning Guide available from the Land Transport Safety Authority sets out best practice. It emphasises that cycle networks should demonstrate the following criteria: comfortable, coherent, safe, direct and attractive. Various treatments are recommended for cycle networks, such as those mentioned above.

Councillors will recall that the Order Paper version of the TMP did not include the Principal Cycle Network. PNCC's own Transportation Management Plan that has just been made available to us after 15 months of requests for the final adopted version has on p 34 the following statement "In deriving the principal cycle network the "Principal Network Rules" used by Christchurch City Council have been used, namely:

• all elements and links in the principal cycle network shall connect to other links or recognised major cycle destinations.
• no domestic residence in the urban concentration of the city shall be more than 1.5km from an element of the principal cycle Network."

A few isolated intersection treatments such as those proposed by the officers or even the lines on a map do not constitute the principal cycle network. The features need to be connected and the network needs to be signposted.

The Transit NZ draft Cycling Design Guide that has been developed to accompany Austroads 14 as the guide to engineering design to ensure adequate provision for cyclists, makes it clear that streets that are so important for connectivity, and which have the volume of vehicles that the CBD ring road does, should have cycle lanes.

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