Palmie Chic

You may or may not be aware of the cycle chic movement – and here are some examples – such as Copenhagen Cycle Chic, or closer to home Auckland Cycle Chic.

Recently whilst dining with my lovely girlfriend in Palmerston North we watched a particularly impractical pair of high heels walk past the restaurant window with a lady precariously perched upon them, causing my better half to comment something Sex in the City like about “What are they wearing in New York?” and I answered that I don’t think it works that way. Rather I believe people in New York always are asking “What are they wearing in Palmerston North?”

So to answer that question here is a picture that gladdens my heart, taken today, with the zero-emission postal delivery service of Palmerston North and a fashionista in his gummies.

Long live Palmie chic.

The Bike Racks of Palmerston North

One of these bike racks has landed near the Palmy i-Site.They’re all over the Wellington train network too. They must be cheap to install, but does anyone actually like this style of bike rack? Is this the kind of bike racks you get when you don’t ask cyclists what they would like?

 

I like the idea of the Parkiteer cages being installed around the Victorian rail network more.

This was spotted on the corner of George Street and Main Street West. Very nice.

Could the Capital Connection run 3 times a day?

Auckland Trains has been discussing putting rail to Hamilton. It makes a whole lot of sense to have regular rail service between those cities, New Zealand’s biggest, and 4th biggest. The Capital Connection has been doing the same kind of service about the same distance and between smaller cities quite successfully since 1991.

Currently the Capital Connection runs only on weekdays from Palmerston North to Wellington in the morning and in reverse in the evening, but Palmerston North (pop. 75,000) is only 140km from Wellington (pop. 180,000) and it passes through Porirua, Kapiti and the Horowhenua (combined pop. 125,000). It however doesn’t stop at Porirua!!!!

Why does the Capital Connection not stop at Porirua? Even the Wikipedia entry on the Capital Connection shows the train in Porirua. I would use it more if I could get on or off in Porirua. There must be a few people living in Levin and Otaki who work in Porirua who would use the train, and I would hazard a guess maybe even some in Palmie. I’ll send a link to this post to Porirua Mayor, Nick Leggett to see if he agrees.

It is quite a comfortable train to ride on, even if I do have to ride into Wellington, or get off in Waikanae or Paraparaumu to change onto the local train that will stop in Porirua. Here’s a piccie of the train heading north as I was walking to Paekakariki one day.

The Overlander does the trip in reverse, but it is the Auckland to Wellington train and I don’t think Tranzscenic market it as a Palmie to Wellington train at all. It leaves Wellington in the morning at 7.25am, stopping in Levin at 9.05am and Palmerston North at 9.45am. It also will pickup passengers in Porirua and Paraparaumu on the way. In the evening it leaves Palmie at 5pm, arriving in Wellington at 7.25pm. Yet the fare is $31 for a super saver or $54 for a flexi fare. The Capital Connection is $24.50 or $19.80 on a ten trip and there are monthly passes to make it cheaper still.

So branding part of the Overlander trip as Capital Connection and maybe having one of the CC style carriages and charging the same fares (maybe with the scope of stopping additionally at Shannon, Otaki and Waikanae) then there is a second Capital Connection service. At the other end of the line that carriage can come into its own again and similarly provide a Hamilton to Auckland service. 2 birds with one stone, as it were.

And what does the morning Capital Connection train do all day when it is in Wellington? Nothing. It is just stabled. So why not drop the number of carriages by a few, and then make a return run to Palmie and back.Suddenly there are now 3 services in each direction between Wellington and Palmerston North.

A summary timetable would approximately be:

Palmerston North  6.15am  1.00pm  5.00pm  
Shannon           6.38am  1.23pm  5.23pm       
Levin             6.53am  1.38pm  5.40pm
Otaki             7.13am  1.58pm  6.00pm
Waikanae          7.25am  2.10pm  6.12pm
Paraparaumu       7.32am  2.17pm  6.17pm
Porirua           8.03am  2.48pm  7.00pm
Wellington        8.20am  3.05pm  7.25pm

Wellington        7.25am  10.00am  5.15pm  
Porirua           7.42am  10.17am  5.32pm
Paraparaumu       8.20am  10.55am  6.03pm
Waikanae          8.27am  11.02am  6.10pm
Otaki             8.42am  11.17am  6.22pm
Levin             9.05am  11.37am  6.42pm   
Shannon           9.20am  11.52am  6.57pm
Palmerston North  9.45am  12.13pm  7.20pm

All done without any extra infrastructure, or any extra rolling stock, except for maybe an extra carriage on the Overlander. So a thrice daily service for the price of some extra staff, and some diesel.

Apparently back in 1994 extra middle of the day services were tried but were withdrawn because they weren’t being well patronised. It could be different with a 3rd service and it all being well marketed. The midday service to Wellington allows 2 hours and 10 minutes for shopping and running errands. It’d be tempting to ride the train and not drive into Wellington (or more likely not make the trip at all) if you were living in Otaki or Levin.

Did I mention it should stop at Porirua?

Oh and Levin’s plan to build a new station closer to Queen Street could then be well justified.

Bad news out of Palmie

It seems Palmylink is on the political backburner and may not be going ahead. Palmylink was the idea of linking the Square with Massey University’s Turitea Campus by aerial gondola along Fitzherbert Ave and across the Manawatu in Palmerston North.

It seemed to me like such a great idea. It would replace smelly diesel bus services with a silent cableway powered by the windfarms on the hills above the town, freeing up road capacity on Fitzherbert Ave, and pushing back the date when more capacity on bridges across the Manawatu will actually be needed.

With Palmylink joining the main campus with the Square and then being extended to the railway station, and increasing the Capital Connection from one train a day each way to 6, and extending the train service to Feilding along with a continuation of the Palmie City Council’s policies of provisioning quality cycling infrastructure, Palmie could start selling itself as a sustainable city.

C’mon Palmie Councillors be a little bit brave. Adopt cable technologies for urban transport and integrate it with bicycle (and bikeshare?) infrastructure and the Capital Connection and then show yourself off to the world.

A cycle ferry across the Manawatu?

Back in January I went on a nice ride between Shannon and Foxton, and wrote about it on my blog as the Heart of Horowhenua which I also mulled cycle routes between Foxton, Shannon, Levin and Palmerston North. I came up with a plan that crossed the Manawatu River north of Koputaroa. A bridge over a big river is big expense, and unlikely to every get built, but I’ve nicked this picture which is mentioned in the comments of this story on the Fietsberaad website.

It is across a canal between Brugge and Dramme, in Belgium.

This makes a route that takes the back roads through the Horowhenua and Manawatu linking Levin and Palmerston North much cheaper. It can use the backroads, and the levee banks of the river and the Mutaroa Floodway. At the river crossings there is one of these little ferries, which need no staff. There are just 3 wheels to turn, one on each side to get the ferry back when it is on the opposite side, and one on the ferry itself. Lighting could be solar lighting, so they could be used at night, and suddenly there are safe and pleasant, commuter and travel routes through Horowhenua and the Manawatu. They might even breathe a bit of economic life into the region if Wellingtonians and Palmerstonians ventured out for the day or the weekend.

Prime Minister Key’s vision for the national cycleway may have stalled (although, in fairness, there is funding for three of the chosen routes in this years budget, so it’s not completely stalled) but some of us still have the dream of a real signposted national cycleway from Cape Reinga to Bluff.

Something brilliant in Palmerston North

Over on the Gondola Project there is an interesting titbit about a thing called PalmyLink. What they’re calling an aerial ropeway, but otherwise known in New Zealand as a gondola. Also known as Cable Propelled Technology to others. From the Square along Fitzherbert Avenue, over the Manawatu River and up the hill to the University. Brilliant!!!

Look at this: Palmylink – have a look at the website and this video.

I hope it gets built – and extended to the train station and the airport (and the Capital Connection runs more than once a day). And I hope you can put your bike on it. It’ll be the 4th reason why Palmerston North is cool. Being truly clean and green it could be powered by the windfarms.

After all Palmerston North is the south of the North Island’s premier city.

It seems to bypass the Hokowhitu campus though.

http://www.palmylink.org.nz/

A ride through the windfarms

I’d just spent the working week in Palmerston North and it was POETS day, (*iss off early tomorrow’s Saturday) as I knew it would be, so I had the bike at hand for an afternoon ride. On the top of the Tararua Range between the Manawatu and Tararua districts, there is the rather scenic 4-wd road through the windfarms. For more info see this page at Manawatu Trails. I started at the Pahiatua Track Road end and the road to the new Te Rere Hau wind farm with its two bladed turbines is a smooth gravel for 4km, then it turns to churned up 4-wd track (which was fun to ride) then at the Tararua windfarm side the road becomes a smooth gravel again. There’s not too much bad stuff in the middle section, but you wouldn’t want to take your normal car through, nor your 4-wd either (well it’s probably not rough enough for the 4-wd rednecks and they’d probably prefer to be noisy anti-environmentalists somewhere else, and the cyclists will prefer the quiet without them)

Here’s the view of Palmie from Range Road North near the Pahiatua Track junction:

and here is the Tararua District:

There’s a bit of roughness to deal with:

but its not too bad, unless you’ve been squished like a possum:

It does have a few mud patches to negotiate:

and the road is mainly pretty level, being cut into the hills, rather than go up and down them:

If you are listening to a nice piece of music as you are riding along try to time the crescendo for when the main block of turbines of the Tararua wind farm comes into view:

There are the three types of turbine on top of the ridge, the two blade, and the two three blades, one with the enclosed tower, and one with the open. It wasn’t such a windy day up there for me. I imagine when they’re going like the clappers the winds would make for an interesting ride. Some of them were still turning even though it was probably getting down to the lower bounds for when they operate. It was such a clear sunny day I could see Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngaruhoe to the north west well over 100km away.

I didn’t ride much past this point, and when the road started going down hill in a big way heading down to the Manawatu Gorge I turned around and rode it all in reverse.

One of the proposed national cycleway projects that missed out on funding was from the Palmie City Council who wants to extend the riverside trail in Palmerston North to Ashhurst. Somehow if this ridge and the river track were linked into a circuit (not through the Manawatu Gorge, a dangerous route for cyclists) then yet again there is a day’s bike ride that has a bit of tourist potential. There’s a bike hire business and extra Palmie visitor nights in that I’m sure. Or how about some tourism Think Big? How about a gondola up from Woodville with views over the gorge and then up to a visitor centre explaining about all the wind farms, with one tower that visitors can ride to the top in to see the inside of one, and the views, with a developed walking track around the base of some of the towers and people can hire a bike and ride along the ridge.

110,000 homes is a lot of electricity, and who’d want to ride their bike around a coal fired power station?

Manawatu and Rangitikei Links

Update : Here’s a cool site called Manawatu Trails. The site has a collection of Back Country trails, Mountain bike trails and Back Country Tours that allow you to experience the best riding and scenery around the Lower North Island of New Zealand, including Whanganui, Rangitikei, Manawatu, Tararua, Wairarapa and Horowhenua.

If you’ve been riding north out of Wellington on an early approximation of the National Cycleway  and you’ve ridden through the Horowhenua, north of Himatangi (which you can get to on the Foxton Cycleway) there’s the beach ride to Tangimoana and onto Marton, and Mangaweka and Taihape. For maps and descriptions see Rangitikei Cycleways

For the Manawatu here is the Standard’s description of places to ride around Palmerston North and as far south as Levin: Bicycle Bonanza such as along the river in Palmie:

It seems to be the similar info as provided by some Mountain Bikers from Massey University

And likewise from the Manawatu Standard here’s a report on the progress of the Palmie to Feilding cycleway. Fielding is just one back road wth a big hill from Marton.

On the PNCC website there’s a map of Palmie City Bikeways and some of the Walkways can be ridden.

A Pohangina Loop

In my advocacy for the National Cycleway I have said that a route could be chosen that went on non-busy local roads through the boonies and rural back blocks and sign-posted from one end of the country to the other. Then the route could be altered as off-road routes were completed. That way we would have a cycleway by the end of the new year and it could get people riding it and gaining momentum and popularity. The Pohangina Valley Road is the type of road I meant.

I started by unloading the bike off the back of the car at the Ashhurst Domain in the Manawatu. You know you’re in the Manawatu with views like this:

and the Boxing Day traffic was close to nil, probably like most days:

The road continues up the Pohangina Valley. The Pohangina River rises on the west side of the Ruahine Ranges, the hills on your right shoulder as you ride north.  Here’s a view overlooking the river.

The route is largely flat and paved, except for a few kilometres on the western side:

About 10km past Ashhurst there is a bridge over the river, and a loop can be made by riding up to the next bridge. This sign marks the further point of the ride  for a 50 km loop starting and ending at the Ashhurst Domain.

After Ashhurst there is a cafe open weekends in Pohangina village, and an Irish themed cafe/bar 10kms out of Ashhurst, near Raumai. There is camping at Totara Reserve, with powered sites if you need to recharge your bike’s batteries. The campground would be 40km from Palmerston North if you’re heading north.

Northwards it’s a long way through to Taihape, but also using Gentle Annie a low-traffic, lots of hills, lots of adventure route over to Napier could be ridden. It’d take a few days.

3 reasons why Palmerston North is cool.

Here are three reasons why Palmie is way cool:

1. I’d chucked the bike on the back of the car and went up to Palmie and started along the river to the north east of town and had a pleasant ride alongside the Manawatu and then behind the race course once I found the town dump and I decided to go to the Square, so I rode up the Pioneer Highway and they have this off road cycle way and it’s very safe and pleasant, and every time there was a side road you had the option of continuing up to the side road and stopping and giving way to the cars (good for pedestrians) and there was also the option of dropping onto the highway in it’s own marked cycle lane and having the side road traffic have to give way to me (great for bikes). And then past the intersection you get to go up back onto the off road cycle lane. This simple little design pattern is one that should be made use of a whole lot more. Here it is going up after the intersection:

From google maps here’s a screenshot of the situation:

2. But that’s not all. Here on a backstreet where the river cycleway dropped onto the road (when it could have gone on top of the levee, but that is another story), the road has traffic calming, but the chicane is just for cars, and cyclists can go straight through to the left.

3. And back on the Pioneer Highway, when the nice off road bike path finished, and it’s onto the road, there are boxes for cyclists to get in front of the stopped cars, so they know we’re there because they can see us:

Palmie is flat, and it’s a bit of a student town. So if there ever was a scheme to make an example of any NZ city with bike infrastructure and bike riding promotion then this is surely it. They’ve made a good start to it already.