CapSizer

These days I take the M5 interchange / Maitland / Black River bridge route to the southern suburbs, but I used the Paarden Island lane for a long time. On at least two occasions I stormed into the Pudlo warehouse (where the panel beaters used to be) to scream at the manager for obstructing the bike lane, but he was totally indifferent to my rants. At one stage they used the lane as their private building site while putting up a concrete wall. For about a month ... They really didn't care.

There is a big disconnect between the excellent and very progressive new draft policy document, and reality out on the streets. Those tasked with implementing the city's vision seem to simply ignore it, and those with the vision don't seem to have much authority over them.

Agreed, it needs a complete rethink. It was particularly noticeable that when the road was resurfaced and there were no road markings, it actually felt slightly safer than with the painted lane. The city likes to think in terms of class 1 to 4 cycle lanes, but class 3 (painted lanes) and 4 (shared but signposted roadway) routes are meaningless. The painted lanes are simply used as free parking.

The Berkeley Road route has been working for me for the last couple of months, final destination being Rosebank. However, although one can do the sidewalk part without difficulty, it requires patience and politeness. It is a heavily used pedestrian route (there is a school at the bottom end) and you need to be respectful of its purpose. Nevertheless, there is a strong case to be made to the city that it it needs to be dramatically upgraded, because it is not even adequate for the pedestrian traffic. It is poorly lit, very narrow and crosses three high-speed slip roads, which are dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists. Does anybody know how one can start the process of motivation for this to be developed into a proper NMT route?

Another shout out to Schmidt & Van der Meer in Parklands, I have been very happy with the orthotics and advice that I have received from Shane.

As others have said, fine up to Paarden Island, then you are left with a bunch of unsatisfactory choices. One other alternative is to take the MyCity bus from Paarden Island into the City. The catch with that is that although there are many frequent buses during peak hours, they may also be too full to get on with a bike. Outside peak hours the bus works nicely, but you may have to wait a while for one.

Agreed. I was really expecting it to be done properly, but it's far from good. There's a sidewalk, but it's full of obstacles.

Rules don't come into it. Many buses are totally packed during peak hours, so getting on with a bike is simply physically impossible. On the trunk route, at least, another bus will be along soon, so it's simply a case of waiting for one that has space. I have to say, the bus commuters are very tolerant, not seen a dirty look yet.

Have to agree completely with you. Here's the trick with using bikes to get the cars out of the city - If people have to walk, you need nearly everywhere to be within 1 or at most 2 km of a railway station, which is very difficult to achieve. If bikes and safe parking for bikes are available, then you only need everywhere to be within say 5 km of a railway station. Much more achievable. Which is why the Dutch build these huge bike parking facilities at their railway stations. This is dreaming of Utopia, of course, but we can start fixing existing rail facilities now, and start building new facilities and infrastructure. Now.

Definitely agreed on the need for hard engineering, although many cities in the world have done exactly that ... I keep looking at the Google Earth images and consistently fail to come up with a viable alternative route. Having said all that, crazy as it is, I don't find it particularly intimidating, mostly because the traffic goes quite slowly. I went down there by car yesterday, and it is easy to see why. There are so many obstacles and threats (badly parked cars, pedestrians crossing anywhere, street vendors, heavy traffic, bergies, etc.) that there is no temptation to drive fast. It is the clear wide open stroads, which invite drivers to go fast, that I fear.

I would respectfully beg to disagree with that statement. Yes, the layout of the city is awkward and inefficient, but an efficient and comprehensive urban railway system would go a long way towards dealing with that. NMT only works with very good public transit. Biking works with public transit. Yes ... I know. We don't do efficient. But without quality public transit we are inevitably doomed to car hell.

Much has been written on this topic. I am currently reading Dan Piatkowski's "Bicycle City". To be honest, so far he hasn't mentioned anything that I haven't read elsewhere, but I guess it is a good summary. Long story short ... it helps to frame the question as "How do we make the city a place that works for people, rather than for cars." That leads to concepts of livable cities and equitable access. Bikelanes are a big part of making all that happen, but not an end in themselves. Cape Town's current approach is basically just pretending to do the right things.

Good question. If it is not separated with a substantial barrier, I would say no. Looking at Octotel in particular, who believe that the bike lane was provided as free parking for their fleet.

I've been through there several times since the resurfacing. The funny thing is that although it is still the wild west, not having any lines has not made it any worse, which tells us that the original painted bike lane was about as useful as the letter "g" in the word phlegm. Class 3 and 4 bikelanes are not NMT infrastructure, just free parking for cars. Narrowing the painted lanes will make it worse though.

I am hoping that the new road layout will make good provision for cyclists. I have not seen the plans (does anybody here know?) but I am under the impression that the city these days puts in decent space for cyclists wherever new roads are built.