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 …
Bike Auckland
Back when we launched our petition to add bikeways to the light rail project on Dominion Road, we set up a survey to capture your experiences of – and hopes for – this key route through the heart of the isthmus. Many of you took the time to share your thoughts. Thanks to the help of data-viz whiz Mustafa Hasanbulli of Sandfield Associates, we can bring you some very interesting results. 1. Who answered the survey? First things first: this is not a statistically representative sample of all Aucklanders. Rather, it’s an informational survey that captures the thoughts of a range of people interested in cycling and Dominion Road. There …
After two deaths on Oteha Valley Road earlier this year, members of neighbourhood bike burb Bike Albany started a petition for urgent safety improvements. The petition drew a powerful chorus of support: 3000 signatures and the backing of the bereaved families, local schools, the local MP, and the Upper Harbour Local Board. Bike Albany founding member Nicholas Carman reports on how the petition came about, how it was delivered to Auckland Transport – and what happens next. On Thursday 6th December, members of Bike Albany presented the petition ‘Demand for a safe cycleway and pedestrian crossings along Oteha Valley Road’ to Andrew Allen (Executive General Manager Service Delivery) and Randhir …
If you do ONE thing this month for a bike-friendly city, make it this: support the Waitemata Safe Routes before Friday 14 December. It takes less than 5 minutes, is absolutely free, and you’ll be giving the gift of safe streets – to the hundreds of kids who live and bike along these routes, to everyone else in the neighbourhood, and to all of Auckland. This is a HUGE turning point for Auckland – but victory is not yet guaranteed. Your support is vital. To make sure the project actually happens. There’s still loud opposition out there – so make your voice heard! So it’s the best it can be. …
Out of the blue came a photo, and a request. Theo Brandt had discovered a snap from the early 1980s of himself wearing a bike advocacy T-shirt. Theo’s question: if he could find a way to replicate this rad design, would we be able to help him get a fresh version printed up? Little did we know, this would lead us to connecting old friends and highlighting the hard work of a previous generation of cycling advocates. Because it turns out, when it comes to making Auckland better on a bike, truly we stand on the T-shirt shoulders of giants. Long before Bike Auckland, and before Cycle Action Auckland became Bike Auckland… …
‘We won’t melt’ was the catch cry at the second annual Lightpath Festival. While wind and rain warnings were lifted, the weather gods decided to bless Auckland’s official first day of summer with on-and-off showers. Not that this bothered everyone who showed up anyway. As they say, there’s no such thing as bad weather as long as you’re wearing the right gear. Luckily, the air was as warm as the mood, and the undercover Living Room (cheers, Barfoot and Thompson) and Beer Garden (bottoms up, Brothers Beer) provided perfect shelter from the odd shower, as did Mercury Plaza with its wonderful food stalls. You came from all over – including via …
November and December are very busy months for all of us – including Council, Auckland Transport, and thus Bike Auckland. With so much going on, and limited time to take it all in, here’s a quick roundup of what’s happening in the City Centre. Downtown (& Quay Street) Ramped Up Auckland is embarking on an ambitious redevelopment programme for its central waterfront, between Princes Wharf and Commerce Street (just east of the Ferry Terminal). While many of these upgrades have been signalled for a while, Council has called for them to be in place for 2021 – in time for the 36th America’s Cup, the APEC Forum, and Te Matatini. …
It was all smiles and all kinds of bike styles at the opening of the latest link in the bike network on Friday 30 November. The prize: 800m of brand new smooth wide path at the city end of the Northwestern Cycleway, which crucially cuts out the up-and-over on the Newton Rd viaduct and shaves two and a half minutes off the journey. Officially, this is known as the Ian McKinnon Drive Cycleway – although, as several people noted, it really needs a catchier name, probably one without ‘drive’ in it! (One suggestion we quite liked, via Twitter: given it’s at the top end of Dominion Road and the man …
After the sudden closure of the Old Mangere Bridge due to advanced deterioration, now the only way to walk and bike across the harbour – until a new walking-biking bridge is completed around 2021 – is via the underpass on SH20 under the New Mangere Bridge. Yes, you read that right: while we’re eagerly awaiting Skypath across the Auckland Harbour Bridge, our other harbour has had two crossings for many years. But while the old bridge was popular and widely used, the underpass always felt like its poor cousin – dingy, whiffy, covered in graffiti and not very welcoming. That’s why we’re delighted to report that the NZ Transport Agency has …
When a few weeks ago we expressed our concerns about Auckland Transport disestablishing their specialist walking & cycling team, AT’s CEO Shane Ellison responded that cycling was “no longer in ‘start-up’ phase”, and that it was time to spread the bike skills around the whole organisation and make active transport part of core business activities. A laudable goal – but what is the reality? What are we to make of it when Auckland Transport, year after year, project after project, continues to trade off the safety of people on bikes for minor improvements to the safety of pedestrians? Pinch points – by design Pinch points, places where the road suddenly narrows, are …
As part of Auckland Transport’s new and highly welcome push for safety, Dairy Flat Highway is getting some serious attention. As well as reduced speeds, new right turn bays, centre median safety barriers, side barriers and intersection upgrades, the plan includes a two-lane roundabout at the notorious intersection of Dairy Flat Highway and the Coatesville-Riverhead Highway. The improvements come not a moment too soon: this stretch of road has seen nine deaths and 55 serious injuries in the last decade, and this intersection in particular saw eight crashes in 2017 alone. However, we have serious concerns that the design of the proposed roundabout will compromise safety for people on bikes. And we have …
UPDATE: Keen to give this project the go-ahead? Head here for our Quick Feedback Guide! or, if you have more time and/or are curious Scroll down for our detailed design thoughts Feedback is now open on the revamped designs for Grey Lynn, which include not only neighbourhood bikeways, but great stuff for pedestrians, more trees, and quality landscaping. Here’s Auckland Transport’s project page with full info and detailed plans – and the consultation brochure. Feedback is now open until Friday 14 December. We’ll be back with more nuanced observations, but for now we’ll keep it simple. This is beautiful, smart, proud design. It puts pedestrians first, creates safe and connected bikeways …
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 …
Processing...