Auckland Transport’s Business [to] Report: March

Auckland Transport is a very large organisation. That has some advantages and disadvantages, but mostly, it is simply a fact – a very large organisation, with a lot of projects going on all across Auckland.

So it is not surprising that even people working at AT are interested in reading their own monthly business report to see what some of the other departments are doing (like painting City Link buses with a cool new designs to celebrate the Year of the Dragon – see at the right).

CAA of course is also keenly interested, and so we bring you the cycle-relevant news that can be gleaned from the whole length of the report:

• Tamaki Drive – a number of “minor safety programme” works are likely to go to public consultation in the coming weeks. The changes are then to be constructed in the coming months / during winter. This programme (which despite the “minor” term, will contain some quite significant works) was developed with significant input by CAA. There will likely be a blog post on this soon, and once the works are provided for public consultation, we will also ask for your feedback.

• Since mid February, more than 72 requests related to cycling were registered by the AT call centre, a great increase over normal levels (you all have been busy – good on you!). AT notes that many of these related to “hazard identification by cyclists of the existing roading network“. We will discuss these projects with AT – as they could marry in well with CAA’s current emphasis on pinch-point removal, and a pilot project to improve a range of on-road cycle routes with “quick win” changes.

• Their “Cycling’s the Go this Summer” program delivered 30 cycle events during February has an additional 25 events planned for March.

• They delivered cycle training to over 1100 participants in February including school based students and adult training courses – such as novice bike riders and Bunch Riding skills. Auckland Transport also helped launch a cycle track and bikes in schools program at Nga Iwi School, Mangere – we blogged about this a few weeks ago.

• After a long period during which we hadn’t heard anything about this, a public bike hire feasibility and business case is now to be tendered in March /April. As soon as we know what exactly this entails, we will let you know more.

• Auckland Transport is continuing work on their future Code of Practice, which will include standards for cycle parking. Which reminds us – here’s to hoping that in a year or so when the Unitary Plan comes in we will finally have mandatory bicycle parking for new developments. Beats the already existing mandatory car parking!

• Google is apparently interested in helping Aucklanders plan their cycle journeys! Staff from the Cycling and Walking and Information Technology teams at AT are meeting with them to explore working opportunities. Now just to make sure that both the good and the bad sections of road make it into the journey planner tool…

• Somewhat more disappointing is that data from the continuous cycle monitoring count sites still isn’t available, despite being loosely promised to finally go public (at least in paper report format) in March. These counters were installed sometime in 2010…

• Design is continuing on the projects in AMETI Panmure and AMETI Sylvia Park, both of which will include significant cycle facilities – so we are keenly following this process.

• Dominion Road design is also ongoing, though they have not quite finalised their preferred option. Sadly, we have already been made aware that there will be no cycle facilities on Dominion Road itself. On the positive side, they are proposing alternate cycle routes through the residential areas to the west and east. We will continue to engage with Auckland Transport to ensure these routes are as high-quality as possible

• For the Te Atatu Road design, Auckland Transport has completed their preferred option design after input from stakeholders. With the good input we were able to provide during the consultation phase, and the very substantial pro-cycling sentiment among the submitters, we look forward to see a great design here.

• On Te Pai/Pomaria Road in former Waitakere City, construction of an off road cycleway for the full length of Te Pai Place (500m) and full length on road for Pomaria Road (625m each side) is going to tender (i.e. one of the last steps before construction starts).

• The Tiverton-Wolverton road upgrades, including the cycle facilities planned to go with this project, are going through the last steps before a contractor is chosen to build them. CAA is looking forward to get an update soon about the detailed design, and how this has been modified to incorporate some discussions we had with AT last year.

So there’s a few things going on, and a couple of construction projects gearing up to start – from Tamaki Drive to Tiverton-Wolverton – which should bring us better conditions for cycling. So come back here every now and again (and/or on our Facebook page) to hear what we are doing to advocate for a better cycle city!