Cycleway outside supermarket not a safe option, court told

Wednesday, 21 February 2024

Supermarket giant Foodstuffs says consultation with Wellington City Council over a Thorndon cycleway was a complete waste of time, a judge has been told.

Foodstuffs North Island’s lawyer says a Wellington City Council committee did not properly consider alternatives to putting cycleways across the entries and exits of its Thorndon New World.

Lawyer Stephen Quinn told a judge at the High Court in Wellington on Tuesday that the process the council used to plan cycleways on Molesworth and Murphy streets, passing the supermarket entries and exits, failed to take into account Foodstuffs’ views.

It has asked the judge to review the way the council’s regulatory processes committee came to its decisions last year.

Justice David Johnstone reserved his decision. He said he was not deciding if the council was right or wrong, but whether it followed the correct process.

Quinn told the judge that the supermarket generated the largest traffic of any business on Molesworth St.

While Foodstuffs did not oppose cycleways generally it was concerned about safety when the one proposed for Thorndon passed immediately outside the supermarket driveways on two streets.

The hazard on Molesworth St could have been avoided if the cycleway was moved to the lefthand side of the street. Instead the council failed to consider other reasonable and practicable options.

By the time Foodstuffs and more than 100 other submitters each had their few minutes ‒ Foodstuffs had 10 minutes because it was also making submissions about another site in Wellington ‒ with the council committee the decision was effectively already made, Quinn said.

The council’s lawyer, Nick Whittington, said the left-hand side of the road had safety concerns. The council’s advice was the speed of the traffic on the left hand side was a greater hazard to cyclists than traffic moving slowly around sharp angles in and out of the supermarket.

But Quinn said that did not tally with the existing pedestrian crossing spanning the start of the motorway onramp on the left-hand side.

Foodstuffs was not backing any specific option but there were others which were not considered which could have reduced or removed potential traffic conflict, he said.

Consultation had been a complete waste of time because six months earlier council officers and engineers had recommended only one option ‒ that the cycleway would be on the right-hand side, Quinn said. From then the council was interested only in changes within that option.

Whittington said the council had been willing to make changes but Foodstuffs’ option was not reasonably practicable and it was open to the council to discount it.

As well as giving a five minute submission orally Foodstuffs had made written submissions, he said.

The council adopted the concept of a speedy, quick-build approach. The council’s parking policy was that on key transport routes cyclists, pedestrians and public transport had priority over parking.

The right-hand side was a better option for the cycleway because it avoided conflict with the motorway on and off ramps, bus stops, and also worked on the Murphy-Mulgrave streets side.

It was a transitional cycleway with new kerbing, channelling, and traffic signalling to be considered as part of the “transformational” cycleway project.