If you frequently cycle along Tamaki Drive you might already have forgotten what we’ve gained as a result of the new-look Ngapipi Road intersection completed in July, and the Quay Street Cycleway extension which opened just last month. A reminder, then. The Quay Street Cycleway, already one of the city’s most popular routes, was extended by 800 metres towards the east, adding a dedicated bi-directional, protected lane from Plumer Street to just short of The Strand. Further along the waterfront, the Ngapipi Road intersection – until recently one of the country’s top 10 crash black spots, got a $9million safety upgrade. It acquired traffic lights, signalised pedestrian/bike crossings (in anticipation …
Bike Auckland
In March 2018, a trial project popped up on Federal St in the central city. With the CRL works happening on Albert Street, little old Federal St offered a parallel through-route for walking and for biking – except that it was a one-way street So the Auckland Design Office and AT added a contra-flow bike lane using planters and rubber ‘armadillos’, as well as colourful paint at intersections, and a new pedestrian crossing on Wyndham St. After six months, AT invited public feedback, and a review was undertaken (by Mackie Research) which gathered data to compare with a baseline study from June/ July 2016. Both the feedback report and the …
Auckland Transport has recently opened the door to discussing ‘tactical’ upgrades – quick and affordable fixes to instantly improve road safety. Which is good, because we have some ideas! For example, you’ll have noticed that as double-decker buses move around the city, shop verandahs and trees have been protected using simple hit-sticks and bumpers. Call us crazy, but we happen to think people on bikes are just as deserving of quick-fix safety measures as trees and verandahs. Of course, raised and/or fully separated bikeways remain the Holy Grail: protected and connected bike lanes save lives – not just for people on bikes – and are a key part of any respectable …
If we had a dollar for every time we’ve been told that removing traffic lanes and car parking to make way for cycle lanes will kill local businesses, we could just about fund the lanes ourselves. It’s a classic barbecue assertion. And, like any other dodgy assertion, it withers in the face of the data. Where to go for that data? One place is Toronto, which studied the economic impact of a protected cycleway in Bloor Street, a major east-west corridor. The Bloor Street story goes back to late ‘70s, when advocates first started lobbying for bike lanes on the street. It wasn’t until 2016 that a pilot lane was …
As in the poem by Carl Sandburg about fog, it seems safety ‘comes on little cat feet’… After AT’s excoriating safety report, we’re starting to see little local upgrades that make things better for people on bikes and on foot. Here’s a bouquet of safety projects in Papatoetoe that deserve your support. Help us create a positive feedback loop for quick, responsive safety fixes by AT! Firstly, a stretch of protected bike lane and a new bike crossing signal where Station Road, Wyllie Road, and Shirley Road come together near the train station (see project page). Feedback closes Monday 9 July! Click the button below to go to straight to …
Advanced stop boxes: they’re a paint-only, bare minimum kind of bike infrastructure, and not in any way best practice for protecting people on bikes at intersections, which are hot spots for crashes. But at many intersections all over Auckland, they’re literally all we have in the way of any support for (ever so slightly) safer cycling. We use them because we’re there, even if it puts us between a rock (or a bus, or a truck, or an impatient driver) and a hard place. Matt Hancock wrote to us with his experiences of using ASBs, and questions about maintenance and enforcement of the markings. His story, below – and an update …
The Grey Lynn cycleway routes – plus the related safety upgrades, including new crossings and traffic calming – have been paused for review since Christmas, and many readers will be wondering what’s going on. You can keep track of Auckland Transport’s official updates on this page, and you can also sign up for email updates by writing to bruce.thomas@at.govt.nz The review process The main thing to know is that AT has engaged urban design consultants Boffa Miskell to lead a technical review of the Waitemata Safe Routes programme. The review is in two parts – Richmond Road (including the West Lynn shops) and the Old Mill Road, Surrey Crescent and Garnet Road …
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