Peacockes cycle lane ends in a hedge after 340 metres — Hamilton City Council calls it 'phase one'

A 340-metre cycle lane on Peacockes Road ends in a hedge. It is painted green, kerbed and signposted. It cost a reported $1.4 million. Hamilton City Council (HCC) has confirmed this is "phase one".

The lane opened on Thursday. By Saturday afternoon residents had counted six cyclists into the hedge at their own velocity. No injuries have been recorded. The hedge, a mix of coprosma and what a council arborist called "the wrong flax", has sustained what HCC calls "cosmetic damage". Residents call it "a bloke-shaped hole".

Denise Fairbrother, 58, who lives opposite, had been getting the washing in. "Heard the brakes. Well, no. There wasn't brakes. Just a lot of lycra going into a bush. Then he came out holding half the hedge and said something about a submission. That was the fourth one before lunch. I don't go out now, I just count from the window. Piss-take, is what it is."

A cyclist who gave his name as Kahu and his age as 23 was spoken to at the scene. He was wearing a nose ring and what he called "ride-appropriate gear". Police would call it inadequate PPE. He said the lane was "actually really good, like genuinely, for the 340 metres, it's just that it then, yeah". He intends to keep using it. Asked why, he said he had "sort of got used to the hedge now" and that it was "softer than the road, to be fair".

An HCC spokesperson said the lane was "complete to the current scope". Phase two, which involves "not ending at a hedge", would proceed once the ring road connection was confirmed. Asked when that would be, the spokesperson said it depended on the ring road. Questions about the ring road were "a separate conversation" being had "at a strategic level". A source at Hamilton Central station confirmed police had attended once. They took a statement from the hedge's owner, being the council, and recorded the hedge as "present".

A sign reading "Cycle lane ends" was installed on Monday. Council placed it "at the end of the cycle lane". That is to say inside the hedge, facing the road.