Commuting cyclist Fred Overmars says a small piece of road safety infrastructure has made a big difference on one of the region’s most intimidating bridges.
Fred regularly rides State Highway 60 between his home in Māpua and Richmond and has long relied on cyclist-activated electronic warning signs at Appleby Bridge to alert motorists when riders are crossing the narrow span.
While he enjoys the Great Taste Trail, Fred says the highway is often the quickest and most practical route between the two towns, and avoids what he describes as rough sections through Moturoa and Rabbit Island.
The electronic sign was installed in 2010 by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and had worked reliably for years.
“I’ve lived here for about 10 years, and I’ve always appreciated it just going backwards and forwards. And then about six months ago, I thought that’s odd. It’s not flashing. And I didn’t really think about it.”
After noticing the sign had stopped working, Fred contacted NZTA.
“I got a really great reply from their rep at Fulton Hogan, she told me what had happened and that they’d had corrosion in the electronics and they’d been aware of it for about six months.”
With no clear plan to fix the issue, and the sign already out of action for a significant period, Fred escalated the matter to Nelson MP Rachel Boyack’s office. The bridge sits on the boundary between the Nelson and West Coast Tasman electorates.
Rachel’s senior MP support advisor, Pania Walton, took up the issue and recently contacted Fred with what he describes as great news.
“She said ‘they’re going to do something about it’, and about a fortnight later we got the sign up.”
The new signs are permanent rather than electronic, and introduce a 40kmh speed limit on the bridge when cyclists are present.
On Friday, Fred, fellow Māpua resident Bruce Gilkison and Richmond residents Chris Wheatley and Paul Martin joined Rachel for a ride across the bridge to mark the change.
“In some ways, I think it’s an improvement, because it’s now got a speed limit on it that wasn’t here before. So, there’s a clear expectation on drivers, if you see a cyclist here, you’ve got to be going 40kmh.
“I’m a fairly fearless rider, but it helps me a lot,” Fred says.
The ride was Rachel’s first time cycling on an open road.
“If I bike out this area, I normally use the Great Taste Trail, and I felt really vulnerable riding out on the 80kmh stretch over the bridge. If I hadn’t been in a large group that was really obvious, I would have felt really vulnerable. It’s very narrow.
She says cyclists are the most vulnerable road users.
“You’re the one that’s going to come off worst. And unfortunately, we’ve seen some terrible examples of that in the region in the last couple of weeks.
“We want people to be able to use their bikes to get around for recreation, and we have people visiting our region who get on bikes. So, safety is really important, and I’m really grateful that Fred has pushed for this, has advocated really hard, and then got in touch with my office when he couldn’t get the authorities to actually take it seriously.”
While welcoming the improvements, Rachel says better cycling infrastructure is still needed at known pinch points.
“While it’s great we do have separated cycleways, like the Great Taste Trail, it’s not always the fastest or most convenient route for people to take, and we should be putting systems in place, particularly in those really unsafe spots.”
The group says a clip-on separated cycleway, similar to the one on the Motueka Bridge, would be an ideal long-term solution for Appleby Bridge.
“That’s an unsafe spot, there’s nowhere for the cyclist to go, there’s no area where you can pull over on the side, you literally cannot pull over,” Rachel says.
