Alan….its not an alternative private cycleway I was meaning but ANY other private enterprise that will now not evenntuate thanks to the realocation of peoples money to a socialists wet dream.

The RMA must go….no issue…..but people need to start to pause and consider the path not taken when the State steals money from the private sector for nonsense feel good busy projects like this.

State spening like this is not productive….its regressive redistribution.

It is a LOT more productive than wasting money on welfare in these remote communities. That is literally a broken windows fallacy of a different kind as you will see if you visit a town like Moerewa.

Its the broken windows fallacy writ large people….

What do we do? make milk, cycleways, and overpriced housing.

NZ will remain in the bottom half of the OECD, and deservedly so.

Works really well in a little place with nice scenery and a good network of cycle tracks.

“Had to laugh at Goff last night.”

Perhaps you should advise us when you don’t.

And how is that comment relevant to the cycleway thread? Ummm. Errr. Because … Mr Goff’s comments underscore … the need … to de-politicise … projects … of national importance … LIKE THE CYCLEWAY … because only then can … ah … the merits of such projects, and PARTICULARLY the cycleway, be properly debated … meaning that if you tell us that you have stopped laughing at Mr Goff, it must mean that he has stopped politicising these sorts of debates and PARTICULARLY THE CYCLEWAY debate, meaning in turn that you now take him seriously, which then means that he must have something important to say about THE CYCLEWAY. Whew! This is too hard.

Gooner – get a fucking Mountain Bike you whinger:)

I would Brian but the government has just stung me $3K on account of some fanciful climate modelling so I am now unable to afford keeping the atmosphere free of Co2.

That’s probably what I was trying to express in my comments above – the distinction between the requirements for the two different types of people – recreational cyclists and those for whom cycling is a part of daily life.

The Tamaki Drive and Manukau-Manurewa cyclepaths are great for recreational cyclists, families, etc. But commuting cyclists are much better off on the road.

I think a change in attitude for drivers would go a long way to helping cyclists using roads. While cyclists need to obey the road rules like every other road user (and I’ll admit many of us don’t), they also need to be seen as legitimate vehicles, i.e. overtaking rules apply etc.

We have a trailer for our two boys, and that takes up a bit more space than just a bike, but the response from drivers to the trailer is ridiculous; e,g. pulling away from the lights (we were at the front because we’d got there, not because we’d squeezed our way up the left) the driver of the first car back – an older lady with white hair – just held her hand down on the horn as she drove past – glaring and staring and gesticulating as if we were doing something wrong.

This attitude is crazy, and widespread, but I’ll be buggered if I know what we can do to change it.

In fact it will be interesting to see the exact cost-benefit analysis done for each route.

Stuff says:

No cost-benefit analysis had been done, but in Britain every $1 spent on a cycleway produced $18 of benefits.

Personally, speaking as a Wellingtonian cyclist, I’d rather they spend the money on a cycle track on the harbour bridge. I think it would get a lot more use than any of these trails…

especially given a prime function of the project was to be a relatively cheap, easy and quick method of soaking up unemployment.

If John Armstrong buys the idea that a $50 Million project over 3 years was ever going to massively influence unemployment, he’s not half the political comentator he claims to be. Christ just compare it to the cost of beneficiaries to government, and thats just paying to have them do nothing rather than also including raw materials and equipment.

Now National were somewhat foolish to let the cycleway get spun in the “universal saviour” direction by virtue of the fact it was raised during the jobs summit, which was reported as yielding few other new plans. National should have marketed the job summit as a debate to get the internal govt policy settings right for the budget, reform regulation etc as well as bring up new initiatives: There’d be far less pressure on them now to produce something to “fix the country” if they had done so. They might have also been able to justify additional reform in the budget.

Really what the cycleway provides is a new Tourism opportunity for a relatively minor sum of money.

Oh and I wouldn’t cycle on the road as it is too dangerous, neither would I recommend it for children.