Cyclists’ safety

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33675, 26 October 1974, Page 16

Cyclists’ safety

Sir, — As a cyclist I ; appreciate your recent edi- ' torial on the need for consid- ’ eration of bicycles in city transportation planning. I ' suggest that the safety of ‘ cyclists crossing Harper Avenue during rush-hour traffic could be substantially 1 improved at very small cost. 1 Where the Hagley Park ■ cycletrack comes out at Helmores Lane, the raised ! median strip of Harper Avenue is not easy to negotiate rapidly on a bicycle — and 1 rapid one must be to get across in the small gaps in four lanes of fast-moving rush-hour traffic. Could not some two metres of the median strip be lowered to road level to make this crossing far safer for cyclists? — Yours, etc,, D. M. CARVER. September 28, 1974. [The City Engineer (Mr P. G. Scoular) replies: “As I your correspondent says, the raised median cannot be easily negotiated on a bicycle. However to lower the median might encourage ■ motor cyclists and others to ■ cross at this point and experience in other places indicates that this could be dangerous. The width of the median is hardly adequate to provide a safe refuge. A cycle and pedestrian subway under Harper Avenue was 1 earlier proposed and has ’ been designed. Should 1 adequate finance become ‘ available the council will ' certainly reconsider its con- ’ struction.”]