We’ve rolled our midwinter June-July round-up into one bulletin, because winter is traditionally a slow time of year for road projects, with shorter days and gluggy conditions. But there’s been no slowdown in the number of people on bikes! Even in the depths of winter, Aucklanders are flocking to cycling as everyday transport, with year on year ridership up 8.9% in June. As always, the strongest growth is on weekdays, and on protected and connected bike routes. Proof positive that 1) if you build it, they will come, and 2) we won’t melt. Now, on with the updates… SKYPATH 2.0 With the project now in the hands of the NZ Transport …
Bike Auckland
If you have the luck to live or bike through the Puketapapa Local Board area, you will already know that foresighted investment over the last decades has created a network of local neighbourhood walking and cycling paths that many other suburbs around Auckland still only aspire to. In addition to the main spine of the bikeway along SH20, there is a somewhat less direct – but even more pleasant – parallel network through several reserves and local streets in the Mount Roskill Area, including through Mount Roskill War Memorial Park. For Mt Roskill War Memorial Park, Council is currently consulting on a new future plan. The plan includes: Developing a …
Just as the Karangahape Road enhancement project gets rolling, one of its most prominent advocates is heading out the back door. Ludo Campbell-Reid, Auckland’s Design Champion since 2006, is taking his transformative approach to city design to Melbourne’s Wyndham Council. Before he left, he talked to Ross Inglis about why K Road matters. Excerpts from a wide-ranging interview: The role of the Auckland Design Office, the unit of Auckland Council led by Ludo, in enhancing K Road: We get involved in projects at many different stages. A project may be already three years old when it reaches us; you can’t always choose your moment. So you have to grab whatever …
A quick heads up for all the Lightpath riders: NZTA is planning a number of changes to where the “snaky bridge” part of Lightpath joins onto Canada Street (at the southern end of Lightpath). There have been several severe incidents at this location – with riders colliding with others, including some cases with serious injuries requiring hospital care. There’s a number of factors that have played into the incidents and regular near misses here – lack of forward visibility due to fences around the curves, an utility shed blocking line of sight, rider speeds being too high to for the conditions, and a bollard* in the way. The proposed changes …
Auckland Transport is proposing to make an intersection safer in Mangere, where Buckland Road meets Wickman Way. Not only has this spot seen some bad crashes, it’s also very hostile on a daily basis for people walking and cycling, as well as driving. In case you needed three more reasons to support this project: the fix comes at the request of one of several nearby schools whose students struggle to cross the road safely. It’s also very near to Teau “Mr Tee” Aiturau‘s Mangere BikeFIT HQ, the thriving hub of bike activity in Mangere. And it’s right in the middle of a popular bike route from Mangere Centre Park to Walter Massey Park. …
This powerful guest post by Emma McInnes of Women in Urbanism delves into a difficult topic: the lingering trauma from even a minor bike crash. Like previous first-person posts on the subject, we hope it strikes a chord – and inspires an even louder call for safer streets. My first bike crash in central Auckland happened on Symonds Street. I was biking downhill towards the university. A driver coming out of a side road, turning left, didn’t look right, and ran over top of me. I was literally peeled off the road by a stranger, who carried me to the footpath to get me out of the traffic. I remember being too scared to …
May was a month that brought one big story, a whole lot of handy little local links, and some twiddling of thumbs as we wait for solid updates on key projects to make biking better around the city. Read on to find out which projects have moved ahead, which are about to leap back to life, and which we’re still giving a very hard stare… MAKING PROGRESS… Skypath 2.0 The big story of May was the NZ Transport Agency’s announcement of its preferred design for the Auckland Harbour Bridge shared path. This fulfils a promise by the government to take on and fund the project, giving certainty at last. …
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