Richard Barter, our community liaison hero, was lucky enough to travel to the 2017 Velo-City conference – the annual global summit on cycling, which alternates between Europe and the rest of the world. (His visit was part of the CAN Share the Road Campaign funded by NZTA). This year, the conference was held in the Dutch region of Arnhem-Nijmegen. Richard travelled to the Netherlands via Shanghai, and also spent time in Sweden, Denmark and England before returning home via Buenos Aires. Along the way, he observed the ways people move in cities, and arrived home empowered with thought-provoking images and vision-provoking thoughts… To Nijmegen they came: 1,500 planners and cycling advocates from around the planet, with whom over 250 speakers shared their thoughts and …
Max
TL:DR – Auckland Transport proposes making it legal for people to cycle across Carrington Road on the Northwestern Cycleway. We suggest you support this by giving your feedback here. The crossing where the Northwestern Cycleway meets Carrington Road at Unitec has long been an example of the complicated rules around bikes. Neither fish nor fowl, people on bikes fall into the grey area between ‘vehicles’ and ‘pedestrians’, with many problematic outcomes. When the Northwestern Cycleway was connected through here in the early 2000s, perhaps planners thought the pre-existing pedestrian crossing would suffice, or perhaps they didn’t have any reasonable options in their then very limited legal toolkit. Either way, since then …
Jonny Webster from Bike Te Atatu writes with news of some smart kids exercising their right to ride… A cancelled bus route has inadvertently helped a group of West Auckland students discover the advantages of a commute by bike. The scheduled bus from Te Atatu Peninsula to the Rathgar Road schools in Henderson was plagued by stuck rush hour traffic and slow journey times (in the morning, it took about 45 mins but was almost always held up in traffic, especially with works on Te Atatu Rd, and the evening bus left 30 mins after school finished, and took 40 mins unless the traffic was bad). Then the bus got …
It’s been a long time coming, but on the 4th of August, Auckland Transport at last announced its preferred route for Section 4 of the Glen Innes to Tamaki Shared Path (GI2TD). The immediate response from much of the bike community was ‘…huh?’ The decision-making process had been, as far as the public was concerned, a black box – so, naturally, everyone is eager to know how and why the choice was made. This blog post is a placeholder: we plan to host a public meeting in early September to allow AT to present fully on the plan for Section 4, along with two directly linked projects. The big picture …
Doing the rounds of AT’s website, we found this short but useful bit of new protected cycle lane coming for the Pt Chev community: AT is proposing to install what looks like St Lukes-style separators on Carrington Road, on the southbound section from the Pt Chev town centre and across the motorway bridge, as far south as Sutherland Road (i.e. to the Northwestern Cycleway entry!). Sadly, this quick fix project doesn’t extend any further down Carrington Rd, because the lanes get a lot narrower south of Sutherland Road and then swing out around parked cars outside Gladstone Primary. Despite the obvious limitations, we think this is a good quick improvement …
AT is patting itself on the back for being smart with technology: they’re planning to squeeze an extra lane into a road currently painted for two opposing lanes with long flush medians, by using on-ground lights and overhead gantries to allow cars to drive along the flush median at peak times. Like the ‘zipper’ device on the Harbour Bridge, this reversible middle lane is a technique for accommodating tidal flows of morning and evening traffic. The lucky location for the first trial of this dynamic lane technology, which will run for a year and a half, is the landward end of Whangaparaoa Rd, which runs along the spine of the …
A guest post from David Squirrell, looking at the proposed Whangaparaoa Rd dynamic lane control trial from a local perspective. (For Bike Auckland’s concerns about the project, see here). At a highly charged public meeting recently, the team at Auckland Transport unveiled its plans to trial ‘dynamic lanes’ on the Whangaparaoa Road. The scheme is being billed by AT as a potential solution to Auckland’s increasing traffic congestion problems. To those unfamiliar with this area of town, the two-lane road runs along the ridge of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula serving a series of bays and residential suburbs and ending at Gulf Harbour. Like many major arterial roads in Auckland, Whangaparaoa Rd has …
So, National’s transport policy for Auckland was rushed out early yesterday, to hot takes by the NZ Herald (which ran with the story), Greater Auckland (cautiously positive, especially about the NW busway), and The Spinoff (hilariously critical). While there’s more information to come, what struck us immediately was the absence of any mention of National’s Urban Cycleways Programme and the impact it is having on transport choices in Auckland. We’re mad fans of the way the UCP has transformed the landscape for urban bike travel. So it was noticeable by its absence in the initial reporting of National’s plan for Auckland. To be fair, this may be an artifact of the way National’s …
Remember when Auckland had a paltry $5 million across 3 years to spend on all improvements for walking AND cycling across the entire city? Us neither! Those bad old days seem eons ago – yet it was only in 2015 that the Urban Cycleways Programme (UCP) unlocked extra funding and kickstarted the bike boom, the effects of which we’re just starting to see. Now, Auckland Transport along with the NZ Transport Agency and Auckland Council, is looking a decade into the future with an investment business case for cycling investment 2018-2028. Yesterday, the AT Board formally approved it. The guts: a proposed combined investment of $600million over the next 10 years …
With most of Friday’s action at the northern end of the Waterview Shared Path, it came as a delightful surprise to hear that another spectacular bridge had opened at the southern end, in a quiet and small ceremony. So, after the opening of the bridge connecting Unitec and Waterview, I went for an explore ride out to the other end. (To see how the Southwestern Shared Path connects to Waterview and beyond, check out this map courtesy of NZTA: Waterview/Southwestern Shared Path PDF ) The shared path in between is still under construction, which meant a slightly hairy trip down Great North Road and Blockhouse Bay Road, full of reminders of the need …
‘A wind of change has been blowing through our land for a long time. Today, the change continues – this time, making a connection from one side of the whenua to the other side.’ So said Ngati Whatua kaumatua Matt Maihi at the opening of the new walking and cycling bridge over Te Auaunga/ Oakley Creek. It was extra fitting and wonderful to begin the opening ceremony with the voices of the custodians of the land. The bridge and pathway travel along an easement across Ngati Whatua whenua; and on the Unitec side of the bridge stands a magnificent pou carved by Matt’s son Katz Maihi (who was also responsible …
All eyes are on the Waterview Shared Path – with the Alford St Bridge over Oakley Creek opening today, and the rest of the project due for completion in ‘late winter’ (which we hope means by the end of August). The spectacular new bridge linking Unitec to Waterview at Alford St and Great North Road will form a powerful new connection between the quiet, self-contained suburb and the green and lively campus to its east. Sure, you could always walk from Waterview to Unitec via the Oakley Creek walkway – but it’s not a direct route, difficult if not impossible for those on bikes or other kinds of wheels because …
Of all the questions I’m asked as Chair of Bike Auckland, top of the list is: ‘When, oh, when will we be able to bike and walk over the Auckland Harbour Bridge?’ This is a hot topic not just for those of us on bikes; it’s a fervent wish of most Aucklanders, and everyone who visits our beautiful city. Let’s be clear: this has been a glaring gap in our transport network ever since the bridge was constructed without the promised walking and cycling facilities. It’s a massive wrong, decades overdue for being put right. This isn’t just a missing tourism opportunity, it’s a missing link: as each part of our …
A couple of years ago during the school holidays, we threw together a list of great places to ride with little kids – beyond the driveway, the neighbourhood park, and the local school courtyard. And every school holidays, like clockwork, that blog post leaps to life again! We’ve just posted an updated list of great places to ride with little kids…and started a dedicated Facebook group for chatting about where to ride with kids in Auckland. But would you believe that original list is our most popular blog post Of. All. Time? That’s right. ‘Where to ride with children’ is bigger than ‘what’s up with Skypath’, more popular than ‘how to fix Tamaki Drive’, and more sought after than …
Women in Urbanism Aotearoa is an exciting addition to the urbanist scene. I’ve been privileged to be part of the formation of this new group, which emerged in June with a social gathering to gauge interest. The room was packed with women eager to be part of the wider conversation about gender and cities. Off to a flying start! Women in Urbanism seeks to transform our cities into safe, accessible and equitable urban environments for all people by supporting and amplifying the voices and actions of all self-identifying women and girls. Why is this new group important to Bike Auckland? Because we are both passionate about how people move around, and we strive …
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