After years of conflict and compromise over the proposed cycleway for Dunedin's one-way traffic system, cyclists and business owners alike have greeted the final plan with guarded optimism.
Otago Museum director Dr Ian Griffin said the plan announced yesterday was ‘‘a good enough compromise from our perspective''.
The lanes will be separated from traffic by concrete kerbing and will run along the right-hand side of both the northbound and southbound one-way routes.
Stretching from the Dunedin Botanic Garden in the north to Queens Gardens in the south, the cycle lanes will narrow in places to accommodate high-turnover car parking.
In the initial plans for the cycleway, the museum was going to lose all of its nearby on-street parking spaces, Dr Griffin said.
In the plan released on Tuesday, the museum would ‘‘maintain a fair proportion of parking''.
‘‘I can't speak for the other business owners, but we have to recognise that there was a safety issue for cyclists in the city.
‘‘I think the present scheme, from our perspective, from our part of the route, is a good enough compromise that we can move forward.''
University Bookshop manager Philippa Duffy had a similar response.
‘‘Given the cyclist death in front of the shop in 1998, and high cycle and pedestrian use adjacent to SH1 outside both businesses, well-researched and [well]-implemented plans minimising pedestrian and cyclist dangers are a good thing,'' she said in an email.
Southern District Health Board chief executive Carole Heatly called the announcement ‘‘great news''.
‘‘It means that our community can be safer whilst cycling through our central city area, including our staff who want to cycle to work - who work at the Dunedin Hospital campus,'' she said by email.
‘‘Anything that encourages people to get active and be safe doing so can only be a positive thing.''
A University of Otago spokesman said the institution was ‘‘extremely supportive'' of the planned cycleways.
‘‘The project will greatly enhance access to the campus, and safety, especially for the high percentage of our students and staff who cycle and walk to and from campus,'' he said.
‘‘Virtually all users of the university will benefit, given that the campus is bisected by the state highway and they have to cross these roads multiple times each day.''
Otago Chamber of Commerce chief executive Dougal McGowan still had some concerns about details of the construction of the cycleway, particularly about whether trucks would have sufficient room to carry out driving manoeuvres on narrower roads.
But overall, it was ‘‘a great opportunity''.
‘‘Now the devil is going to be in the detail of what it looks like on the ground.''
Road Transport Forum NZ chief executive Ken Shirley said implementing separated cycleways around the country was ‘‘very important for safety''.
‘‘From our point of view, particularly with the narrow carriageways we have in New Zealand, we have too much activity and too much conflicting activity with all the different users of the carriageway,'' he said.
As long as cyclists used the separated cycleway, its construction would benefit all road users, he said.
Spokes Dunedin chairman Dr Robert Thompson also thought yesterday's approval was ‘‘a good step''.‘‘It's certainly a long time coming,'' he said.
Dr Thompson's ongoing concerns had to do with the width of the cycleway, which Tuesday's announcement indicated might narrow to accommodate parking at some points.
He was worried cyclists might move into the street - as Mr Shirley had been concerned they would - if too much of the cycleway was too narrow and did not allow space for passing.
‘‘We'll have to look more closely at the details ... [but] it's definitely positive that things are moving ahead,'' he said.
