Tamaki Drive goes T2

-- Back in the vehicular firing line

It was a cycle commuter haven – a warm current running parallel to the impatient line of cold hard nose-to-tail steel. The 2km bus/commuter lane between the Tamaki Yacht Club and the perilous Ngapipi Road intersection was a fine place for the rush hour cyclist.

For sure, an ear was kept out for an infrequent Nifty-Fifty and a bus or two, which I must say always treated cyclists with great care.

And what a place, that lane, to safely observe the habits of queue humping drivers: texting so few young female drivers can resist; the middle-aged accountant’s deftly folded newspaper for hands-free steering wheel presentation; and the constant detainment by one’s own rear view mirror reflection. And of course Lipstick. Apply it at 25kmh, no problem.

Driving sins they are, but more threatening to front running drivers than to cyclists minding their own business in the neighbouring lane.

But the 2km burst of rush hour cycling freedom has been snatched away.

The big white T2 tells me the lane is now accepting rush hour cars (for two hours, 7-9 a.m., and only cars carrying at least one passenger) and rabid taxi drivers.

Now what for the work-commuting cyclist? Back in the vehicular firing line, that’s what.

For long stretches there is no shoulder for safe passing.

Cars freshly liberated from their jam will revel in the clear space of T2.

In this lane cars will travel much faster – the press release says “several minutes faster”. All 250 of them every hour.

Please be nice.

Guy King: Tallying up Tamaki Drive cycling sins

-- Not happy: St Heliers/Glendowie Residents' Association member Guy King (pictured).

When a young female driver inexplicably accelerated through a stop sign into the midst of 20 or so Tamaki Drive cyclists, hospitalising four of them, one of whom remains in an induced coma fighting for life, Mr King said he didn’t know who was to blame for the crash.

Presumably, in the rush for a clipboard and one of those scout masterly idiotic clicking counters I suspect he used to capture, document, and then broadcast (albeit in print media) his evidence of Tamaki Drive Cyclist Sins (TDCS), sympathy for injured cyclists was the last thing on his mind.

“I have started counting and the biggest group has been 52 cyclists in one hit, riding three abreast," he said.

I was genuinely impressed by his powers of observation, knowing just how hard it is to accurately tally a marauding three-abreast bunch of cyclists.

Consider that many motorists struggle to see, let alone count, just one cyclist.

But Guy King is no ordinary contender. In the 10 years he’s spent escorting VIP visitors to New Zealand shores, he’s received a number of professional accolades for his professionalism and CARE.

However, as a self-professed former cyclist, it seems his care and professionalism is no longer extended to cyclists, who doubtless impede the progress of his preferred commuting style.

Perhaps during one of his Bentley parades, when cyclists overtook his cavalcade of waving dignitaries and VIPs, he was able to point a radar gun to measure the dangerously high speeds Tamaki Drive cyclists sometimes attain.

I have seen cyclists speeding, he said, frantically thumbing his Dignitary Personal Protection handbook for the right procedure.

Safety and discretion at all times please, Mr King.