This letter to the editor was published in the NZ Herald on Friday 29th November 2024. We republish it here with permission from its writer, Lucy Ruck.
I love riding my bike through Cornwall Park and seeing so many people strolling, jogging, wheeling, picnicking, watching animals and smelling flowers. It’s a precious haven in Auckland and a wonderful destination for visitors near and far.
For locals, it’s a particularly safe location to learn and build confidence on their bikes within a local area severely lacking in protected cycleways.
I find it ridiculous then, that accessing the park without a car isn’t easy and is downright unsafe if you try by bike. From Greenlane train station you can ride along a painted bit of footpath that stops 400 metres short of the Green Lane West entrance – which doesn’t sound far, but it spits you out onto a busy road with the worst bike lane I’ve ever seen: no protection at all, minimal signage, and barely wider than the gutter.
Google Maps always suggests this road to me for riding to Sandringham, and I always take a longer, quieter, winding route while wishing for an express cycleway to “enable me and other Kiwis to get where they want to go quickly and safely”, as the Transport Minister said recently.
Surely he would support funding for a much-improved cycleway along this key cross-town route?
By Lucy Ruck, Oranga.
