HUTT ROAD CYCLE TRACK

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 120, 24 May 1939, Page 13

HUTT ROAD CYCLE TRACK

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—The letter by "Cyclist" in ' the"Evening Post" on Friday night comes at the right time. Cyclists do not seem to have been considered at all in the construction of the new road. It would have been far better for everybody concerned if the authorities had incorporated the cycle track in the roadway now being formed, thus giving the Capital City a traffic road second to none in the Southern Hemisphere. As it is, the present cycle track will probably remain in its present disgraceful condition until it will simply become a sort of glorified gutter for the refuse thrown out by passing cars. If cycle tracks are to serve any useful purpose at all, and they don't, they should be built on both sides of the road. The present arrangement is a very dangerous one, as can be seen every time that a cyclist leaving Wellington wishes to get on the track, for the simple reason that he has to wait until the road is practically empty before it is safe for him to proceed. I have never seen a motorist give a cyclist a safe entry on to the Hutt Road cycle track yet.

Had the cycle track been availed of iin the construction of the new road, it jwould have been possible to set aside la strip of six or nine feet at each side [of the road for the exclusive use of j cyclists and other slow-moving traffic. Your correspondent is concerned, and rightly so, for the hundreds of cyclists from other centres and Australia who will be visiting us for the Centennial celebrations. But there is the larger body of local cyclists who are practically debarred from enjoying a cycle run on the Hutt Road. Cycling is a popular pastime all over' New Zealand, with the one exception of Wei-, lington City. No encouragement whatever is given to cyclists in Wellington. We have heard quite a lot recently about physical fitness and all that kind of thing. In my opinion, there is no better exercise than cycling for keeping the body in perfect healtn, and this is an aspect of the matter that could well be considered by the Hon. Mr. Parry and others interested in physical fitness. I cannot recall that cycling, as a pastime, has ever been mentioned by the promoters of the physical fitness movement.,, The British Government recognises the value of cycling to the community, and pnly last year appointed a national organiser for cycling to still further popularise the pastime in the United Kingdom. Cycling, however, will never be very popular in Wellington so long as cyclists are compelled to leave me roadway for the supposed "protection of the cycle track. As I have already pointed out, the proceeding is a very dangerous-one, the-track itself is dangerous, especially at night time, and there is further danger on reaching Petone, when the cyclist has to leave the track and take his proper place on the roadway.—l am, etc..

ALFRED E. MILNE, Cyclists' Touring Club,