Roads Board might pay for cycle lanes

Press, 27 September 1978, Page 29

Roads Board might pay for cycle lanes

Wellington reporter Facilities provided for the exclusive use of cyclists, where cycle traffic volumes warrant and it can be shown that the cost will not exceed the provision of cycle lanes on the existing street system, may in future be paid for by the National Roads Board. The board has agreed in principle to subsidise such facilities, but the matter will be referred to the County and Municipal Associations for comment before making a final decision. With the recent resur-

gence in the use of cycles, the board received a number of proposals for the establishment of cycle lanes on existing roads and streets, as well as cycleways for. the exclusive use of cyclists. In 1965, the board accepted that the segregation of cyclists from the faster moving traffic by marking separate lanes for them was justified on rural State highways on safety grounds. On urban sections of State highways, the board considered there seemed to be no specific provision for cycle lanes, on the grounds that the speed differential be-

tween cyclists and vehicular ■ traffic was less than on the open road. i In the case of local , authority roads and streets, ; cycle tracks can be subsidised where they form part ■ of the road. No distinction is ' made between rural and ■ urban roads. ; “From the viewpoint of ; safety, it is clearly preferable to separate cyclists physically from vehicles, but : present policies make no ■ allowance for this to be > done unless the costs are : budgetted outside the Nat- : ional Roads Fund,” said the - Chief Highways Engineer , (Mr E. J. Burt). “In some cases it will actually be cheaper to construct separate cycleways than to widen the existing road to cater for them. “Where this happens it would be logical for the new facility to qualify for subsidy,” he said.