Third Session

It’s very interesting. I went for my third bike ride on Wednesday morning - at around 10am. I say it’s interesting because I found that I had to really make an effort to get myself out of the house and go bike riding. I’m not sure if it’s because I somehow feel a bit embarrassed with the bike I have (not the usual full frame with smaller wheels than most), or that I’m just a bit lazy.. or that I still am not that much into cycling (since I’m not very good at it yet) and I don’t want others to see how much I suck. But I’ve felt that phenomenon the last few times, I can’t deny it. I really need to make an effort to go out cycling, otherwise I wouldn’t do it.

This time, I started from Mt Eden road and found it much easier to start riding (the first two times I walked and waited for quite a while before I actually hopped on my bike). I basically flew past the people waiting at the bus stop (where I normally catch my bus too) and it felt great riding along so freely. 

There were a lot more cars (even trucks too!) than the other times I cycled, but by now I’m more comfortable to ride on the road, and it felt good to have the bus lane to ride in as cars are about to pass, though at the same time I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to be there. I really see the importance of cars allowing 1.5m clearance from cyclists - it may not feel a lot from the car’s point of view (disregarding road widths), but you can feel it on a bicycle! 

This is a road I go along extremely often so I was really surprised with how fast it took me to get to the shops (Mount Eden village). Usually it’s almost 15 mins walk but cycling took me about 3 minutes! Maybe next time I go to the shops I’ll just bike there!

I turned down Grange St because it had a road coming off it (Ashton Road) that was shown on Google Maps to be a “bicycle friendly road”. As you can see in the video below, my bicycle started going a bit too fast downhill and I couldn’t help but sway left and right the faster it got. It felt kinda cool, but at the same time a bit scary because it was almost getting out of control. I don’t know why going too fast would make the bike sway. Perhaps it’s the small wheels, I don’t know. I feel there really is a limit in the speed the bicycle can go due to wheels. (Apologies for the poor video… The iPod wasn’t fixed too well this time so documentation was a bit bumpier!)

I can see how Ashton road’s considered a “bicycle-friendly” road - the image below shows there’s the speed bump for the cars, and a little gap especially for the bike. It’s separated, even though it’s quite narrow, but even a little gesture like that makes me appreciate that the cyclist has been thought about, and I guess it encourages me to keep cycling.

 Coming up to Valley road, I was glad to see such signs as these - not only for pedestrians, but also bikes. Apparently it’s quite busy/dangerous here because cars coming from Ashton Rd onto Valley Rd have to stop. Hence you can see an island to the right of the picture.

 Valley Rd onto Mt Eden Rd is a bit of an uphill so I walked my bicycle up instead. I thought to ride it down Mount Eden again (going downhill) back to my house but when I got up to the T-junction the cars put me off again (same instance as when I got out to Greenlane from Puriri Drive). I didn’t want to even think of turning right onto a road where parked cars take up the whole left lane, meaning that cars or buses driving will need to merge into the right lane because space is so tight.

i ended up turning around to go down the other end of Valley Rd, after realising that there was an actual share bike/footpath by seeing this sign finally… 

 So riding on the footpath was great. It made me feel a lot better than when I was riding on the road because I knew this path was specifically for bikes.However. Along the way there were poles that were planted right in the middle of the cycle-half of the path… which makes me reconsider whether they’ve actually made consideration to the cyclists. Surely pedestrians would have a much easier job avoiding the poles than cyclists going at three or four times their speed.

Another aspect that frustrates me is the discontinuity of cycle lanes. They only last for a few short kilometres so you’re always having to keep stopping and starting. It really makes me think that very little, if any, consideration is given to cyclists in the city. It’s like they’re a last group of commuters to take into consideration, and they’re provided with whatever space is left over, just because. No wonder there’s not a huge cycling culture here in Auckland. With cyclists always having to stop and start due to disconnected lanes, and never knowing where they are meant to be riding on the road, it makes it even harder to start.

You can see my confusion in the video below at about 1:50 while I ponder what I could do next, after enjoying that very short ride in my own lane… and trust me - I’ve had this experience quite a few times on this one trip today.

The next issue is going back through Ashton Rd. I came back to that speed bump to find out that they don’t have a lane for me and my bike to go through!

See the cars on the right, that made me go on the footpath in order to not stop cycling. Times like these I feel like I’m breaking the law (but you are not allowed to cycle on footpaths right?). By this time I was much better at signalling! Better signaling left than right at the moment, but it’s an improvement!

The last leg is riding along Mt Eden road to go back home. I followed the roads I went in order to avoid the busy shops, and the ride was smooth enough. I was always scared of buses coming up from behind me (as someone who takes the bus regularly, I’ve seen how some tail-gate poor cyclists and that freaks me out) but luckily none did. I decided to not upload that video because the iPod unfortunately was too badly connected that it just shook too much. 

One last thing I’d like to add - this experience did make me think of a reading I’ve been doing recently. The book is called “Cycle Space” by Steven Fleming. He ‘argues’ that cyclists create their own “cycle space” in their mind within the city, whether it’s based on their perceptions, subcultures and codes of behaviour. As they cycle through the city, they map out their own portrait of it. They have their own landmarks they refer to and main roads that (can be ones) only they know about. I’ve started to understand what he’s talking about. I had no idea Valley Road had a shared bike/footpath and it was a pleasant discovery. And these (humble) discoveries leave you a very deep impression of parts of the city.