Love your bike? Love to party? We’ve got the event for you: Lightpath Festival 2018. This year’s edition of the festival, our annual celebration of Te Ara I Whiti, kicks off at 5pm on Saturday, 1 December. It will be the bike party of the year: music, food, games, freebies, performance art, a pop-up bike lane, a Lightpath parade, craft beer, free bike trials and more, all on and around the jewel in Auckland’s cycling crown. It’s family-friendly and it’s free. Here’s what to expect: • Join in on your favourite dance numbers with the YMCA Auckland-City Y Gold dance group performing at the main stage at 5:30pm. • Roll or walk …
Bike Auckland
With light rail now planned for Dominion Road, and NZTA coming forth with timely new updates, people are starting to get their heads around what a major boulevard truly optimised for public transport round the clock might look like. For our part, we naturally picture it as including world-class bikeways. There’s space, bike use is growing, it’s a way to leverage your public transport investment, and really, in 2018, why wouldn’t you? In a Herald article back in July, the manager of the Dominion Road Business Association had a slightly different take: [Gary] Holmes said light rail down Dominion Rd will only work if it is about urban regeneration, rather than …
You never really forget what a close pass feels like. You’re tootling happily along on your bike and then, without warning, a motor vehicle roars past, sometimes close enough to touch. Even when it’s not that close, the noise and the air pressure fluctuations of a close pass are enough to get your heart racing. In an instant they can turn a joyful activity into a thing of terror. They’re intimidating and they discourage people from ever getting on a bike. And, in New Zealand, they’re completely legal. If Patrick Morgan gets his way, that will change. Patrick is Cycling Action Network’s project manager and he’s the closest thing we …
Around the world, a bike bus (or ‘cycle train’) is an increasingly common phenomenon. As seen in Ireland and Italy, it’s basically a ‘walking school bus’ on wheels: a way for young children to ride to school safely while developing future independence. And now, the bike train is pulling into Auckland. Local parent Matt Fordham and Pt Chevalier School’s Sustainability Champion Keren Rego were motivated to start the Pt Chev Cycle Train by a sense of frustration that little kids want to bike to school but the streets aren’t safe enough – and a sense of optimism that there would be strong demand. Below, Matt explains how the initiative has become an express …
Let’s be honest – those of us who already ride bikes and understand the freedom they offer can be a bit dismissive when we hear other people say ‘Aucklanders will never get out of their cars’. We wax lyrical about all the advantages of biking, whether statistical (health gains! longer life expectancy! cleaner air!) or the personal (the fun! the freedom! the wind in our hair!). We’re puzzled by those who just don’t get it, and who steadfastly insist that they and their neighbours will never leave the car at home. But then you see what’s faced by people living in places like East Auckland – and suddenly it’s not …
As part of a citywide push for safer streets, Auckland Transport is consulting on a 30kmh neighbourhood in Te Atatu South, just south of SH16. See project page here, and a map of the area under discussion here. This is great news: speed limits set the vibe for neighbourhoods. Not only will a 30kmh zone save lives by putting local wellbeing before rat-running, and people and pets over cars – it’s also the key to friendlier streets, quieter traffic and cleaner air. And, by encouraging more kids to walk and bike to school, it creates a healthier community for eveyone. This alone will be life-changing for Te Atatu South. But wait, there’s more! We …
After two tragic fatalities on Oteha Valley Road earlier this year, Auckland Transport is proposing to signalise the intersection of Oteha Valley Road and Harrowglen Drive in Northcross, including signal-controlled pedestrian crossings. [See design here] Add your voice before Monday 12 November! Join Bike Auckland in urging AT to lift its game and deliver meaningful safety for people walking and biking on Oteha Valley Road. Click the button to give your feedback along the lines we suggest below. Please redesign this intersection in the light of the 2014 Corridor Management Plan for Oteha Valley Road and a comprehensive plan for walking and cycling safety along this corridor. Please remove the slip lane into …
Next time you ride your treasured treadlie to an event, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a friendly someone at the entrance to take it off your hands, park it securely, keep an eye on it and then hand it back when you’re ready to leave, at no cost to you? Well, now there will be. Bike Auckland is launching a Bike Valet service this weekend at the eBike Expo. Expect to see it at festivals, concerts, sports fixtures, expos and all sorts of other public events this summer and beyond. Bike Valet replaces a service formerly offered by Auckland Transport, which supports the new offering. It can be …
East Auckland’s new busway, AMETI, will be like a river through a desert, bringing top-notch cycleways and vastly improved public transport to a car-dependent part of the city. We’re delighted! We strongly encourage you to support this project and ask for better bike feeder links on local streets, so even more people can actually use it. Use this link to jump to the feedback section and have your say before Friday 16 November. And to learn more about this great project, simply read on… When you look at AMETI (the “Auckland Manukau Eastern Transport Initiative”), the first thing that strikes you is the scale. This is a project of massive proportions. A $1.4b rapid transit …
Bikes and social drinking are good friends. Example: the group rides in American cities that terminate at a craft brew-pub. Or the Bavarian beer brewed for die Radler, or cyclists. It’s known to this day as a radler. Now Auckland’s bike community has its own example. Bike Brew – a summer beer in the tradition of the original radler, brewed right here in Auckland in a collaboration between Bike Auckland and alt-brewers Brothers Beer. The beer itself pays homage to Germany’s radler which, the story has it, was first created by a Bavarian innkeeper in the 1920s. Threatened with his pub being drunk dry by hordes of thirsty cyclists, he …
Auckland Transport’s upcoming restructure is in the news (Cycling unit pays price for Auckland Transport dysfunction; Auckland Council’s transport agency rolls out major restructure). Updated 6 November: read our op-ed at The Spinoff, where we lay out the questions this raises. We’re not alone in registering strong concern, and we’ll be watching developments closely. Here’s our statement. MEDIA RELEASE: 2 November 2018 Auckland Transport’s Walking and Cycling Programme Under Threat Proposed restructure risks major loss of expertise and experience at a critical moment in Auckland’s transport planning evolution, says city’s cycling advocacy organisation. Bike Auckland, the nonprofit advocacy organisation for people on bikes, is deeply concerned by reports that Auckland Transport …
Cities: sometimes they barely inch forward… and other times they proceed by leaps and bounds. And sometimes, when a place is catching up with what its people need, it’s leaning into the future, dragging its heels, and being blown inexorably forward – all at once. Consider this transformational triple-whammy: Searches on Trade Me for e-bikes shot up by 40% in seven days. New fuel tax, spring weather, seeing your friend on one – who knows? It’s happening. And with already roughly 40,000 e-bikes on our streets, the electric vehicle revolution is already here. Enter the shared e-scooters: a whole new species of nimble transport. Neither fully at home on the …
When were you last greeted by cheers, waves and friendly toots from car drivers when out on your bike? For 507 happy souls, that was last Friday evening, at the 2018 edition of Auckland’s Bike Rave. A noisy, glamorous, joyful party on wheels, it was a sunset group ride to celebrate all that is good about cycling in Auckland. And Auckland, it seemed, was happy to celebrate back. At just about every intersection the ravers crossed, drivers and pedestrians made their own cheerful racket in support. Used to all the on-road love? Not really. Enjoy it? You bet! Just as heart warming was the sheer diversity of this year’s ravers. …
As if overnight, a bike hub has popped up in the Northcote town centre. Where did it spring from? Well, back in July, Panuku and the Northcote Business Association had a thought: with the Northcote Safe Cycle Route being built right past the door, how could they actively invite more people on bikes to visit the town centre? Panuku, in turn, approached the vigorous volunteers in our local bike burb, Bike Kaipatiki, with a tempting offer. Could Bike Kaipatiki take over an empty shop front and turn it into a pop-up bike hub? Could they ever! BK has run regular bike tune-up stands at local parks and a bike market at …
One of the particular delights of Biketober – the community-created festival of springtime bike fun! – is seeing our Bike Burbs run events in their neighbourhoods and beyond. Below, we highlight a few fabulous examples to show how Auckland’s communities are getting energised around bikes. Check out the full calendar of Biketober events here. Bike Onehunga created two fun weekend rides exploring hidden features of their part of town. First came Paula’s history ride: people came from as far afield as Whangaparaoa to tour the township’s historic buildings and locations – including the spectacular Carnegie Library (now a cafe) and the impressive blockhouse in Jellicoe Park. The following weekend, Mike led an adventure …
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