October Public Meeting

Public Meeting follow-up, 21 October 2015

Wednesday night representatives from the Onslow Tarbabies, Wellington Masters, Valley Cranks, PNP, UHC Councillor Angela McLeod and myself met to discuss what we could do, as a group, to improve the situation throughout the Valley in regards to the issues that were raised at the Public Meeting held on 8 October 2015.

A number of actions were identified, these were:

Investigate what happens with the traffic management plan’s (TMP) once they are lodged with the UHCC event organisers.
That we put in place lines of communication through the community to ensure there are multiple channels by which residents can find out when an event/race will be occurring. This will be done in conjunction with the clubs via email/facebook/website along with continuing mailbox drops for the larger organised races. See BMRA Traffic Watch.
The clubs will be encouraging their members to follow these guidelines:
– Ride single file when climbing and descending Blue Mountains Rd, Wallaceville and Mangaroa.
– Keep left when climbing and signal to vehicles when it is safe for them to overtake you.
– Ride single file through the narrow gorge section or where there is no centre white line.
– Never ride more than 2 abreast
– Teach riders at the back of your bunch to call “Car Up” and signal the car to pass when safe.
– Don’t discard your rubbish
– Toilet stops to be made out of sight. Silverstream Park has a public toilet.
Friction between road users. A number of examples of angry behavior were discussed, these incidents appear to be shared between cyclists and motorists fairly equally. The group felt this was best addressed in the first instance by encouraging more communication between the local residents, businesses and the cycling community. The first step is to set up the communication channels described above and to ask everyone to be patient and respectful of others using the road. If your talking to your motorist friends, please let them know we are concerned about road safety through the valley and ask them to be considerate of other road users should they be heading this way.

While not everyone will be satisfied with the guidelines (residents or cyclists), the representatives from the cycle clubs are serious about communicating the these guidelines to their members, enforcing them and spreading the word throughout the cycling community. It should be noted that the clubs are only able to take actions against club members, not casual cyclists. As for the issue of toileting there will be no quick (or inexpensive) fix to this issue, hence the request for stops to be made out of sight. We will continue to work on a solution to this issue.

We are all very aware that our roads are no longer entirely suitable for the number of motorists, cyclists, runners, horses, stock and very large trucks and tractors traveling along them and that cycling isn’t going to go away – particularly through the increasingly popular Blue Mountains/Whitemans Valley circuit. We ask all road users to be mindful of others and of the safety issues that face us all.

It appears the UHCC guidelines for running events have been updated over the last 3-4 weeks. These guidelines are more comprehensive and if followed will lead to a greater understanding of how many leisure events and races actually occur throughout the Valley. Information for those organising events in Upper Hutt. (Page 2!)

If you see dangerous or inappropriate behavior please report this to the police.

Stay safe and be patient on the road.

– Anne Rainey, BMRA Committee