… as soon as we recharge our batteries. Because 2016, eh? What a year! We’ll remember it for soooo many ups and downs, both here and abroad – and also, because it really was a corker year for New Zealand bike advocacy, with so much to be glad of, even as we pledge to keep working hard on your behalf. Like most of you, we’re ready for a good solid break, which means the blog takes a bit of a holiday, too. We’ll see you back in mid-to-late January. First, though, let’s gaze back over the year. With our minds on the beach and Xmas prezzies, we’ll try to keep it short and sweet (though there’s …
Bike Auckland
Feedback is now open on Auckland Transport’s proposed design for where Great North Rd meets Bond St and Grosvenor St. Our verdict: it’s good – and will be even better with a couple of tweaks. Be sure to have your say by Sunday 3 September! Here’s our quick feedback guide… What we like – this will make the intersection safer for people on bikes. What we’d change – make it easier for people on bikes to turn right, especially to Bond Street, by adding a right turn pocket. Other comments – we think there’s space for a proper bus stop bypass. As the next feature-length item in Auckland’s cycle infrastructure line-up edges closer to release, …
Doing the rounds of AT’s website, we found this short but useful bit of new protected cycle lane coming for the Pt Chev community: AT is proposing to install what looks like St Lukes-style separators on Carrington Road, on the southbound section from the Pt Chev town centre and across the motorway bridge, as far south as Sutherland Road (i.e. to the Northwestern Cycleway entry!). Sadly, this quick fix project doesn’t extend any further down Carrington Rd, because the lanes get a lot narrower south of Sutherland Road and then swing out around parked cars outside Gladstone Primary. Despite the obvious limitations, we think this is a good quick improvement …
An exciting announcement today, via the Minister of Transport: Auckland Transport, with the support of NZTA, is moving forward with a feasibility study for a bikeshare scheme for central Auckland! (Christchurch is on the cards too, but naturally our eye is drawn to our city). Says AT’s Kathryn King: By the end of next year we will have completed a number of vital links for people travelling into and around the city centre by bike. This, combined with international evidence that cycle share schemes work when they are done right, mean that now is the perfect time to begin these investigations. The feasibility report is expected around the end of September, …
Fancy a new bike? Or fancy getting back into the bike life… but not sure where to start? Saturday April 1st (no joke!) brings two try-a-bike events that will give you a chance to take something fresh for a spin. One is aimed at families, the other at women getting back into riding, but everyone is warmly welcome to both. First up is Try a Bike Day at Pt Chevalier Primary, from 11-1. There’ll be e-bikes, cargo bikes, and kid bike seats to try out. Plus a bike obstacle course for the kids, and bike giveaway goodies from Bike Auckland and Auckland Transport, including great new maps of the central city bike paths. It’s …
Just us, or… is there a bit of a tone-shift lately in the way bikes are being covered in the news? Matt Heath’s Herald column in praise of Lightpath made us smile on a Monday morning. Admittedly, it’s hard not to break out in a grin when you read a description like this: I know it had to close down for a re-pinking, but boy is it futuristic. I ride that Utopian overpass to work every morning. The lights are so bright and blue. The pinks so pink. The convenience so convenient. You feel like you’re on a Tron Light Cycle. Like you’re in a Battlestar Galactica launch tunnel. Matt’s point is, why quibble about …
The opening of the Roskill Safe Routes late last year was just Act 1 of an impressive plan for a neighbourhood built around safer streets and ecologically rich parks. Now, the widened paths and new crossings that form the Safe Routes will be complemented by a beautiful greenway alongside a lovingly restored waterway. As the rest of the city gets to grips with the power of greenways to transform neighborhoods, this will be a shining example. First, a quick flashback to the official opening of the Roskill Safe Routes in November 2016. The completion of this $4.9m project was a huge win for the Puketapapa Local Board, which had patiently shepherded the vision through several years and a few bumps in the road, bringing together …
Sometimes we go out looking for photo opportunities…and sometimes they come to us. Today was Go By Bike Day. Alas, I missed the chance to grab a coffee at the nearby Unitec pit stop, but clearly it was a fun and busy morning – with some legends going out of their way to ‘collect the set’ by visiting all three pit stops before 9am! As AT’s Walking, Cycling & Road Safety Manager Kathryn King said (per AT’s press release): ‘I could see the difference a year has made to the numbers cycling. Figures we put out from our annual walking and cycling survey in August 2016 showed that in the previous 12 months, 45,000 more Aucklanders have been getting …
The Urban Cycleway Fund has given a huge boost to new bike facilities over the last few years – but its initial 3-year funding period ends in mid 2018. And well before that happens, both Auckland Transport and NZTA will need to have a strong vision of where to go next, and a programme of projects prioritized and ready to go. That’s why, over the last six months, Bike Auckland has been working behind the scenes on the next tranche of Auckland’s bike infrastructure, 2018-2021. With an eye to round numbers – and the “vision thing” – we called it the Auckland Bike Blueprint 2020, and have been sharing it with AT and NZTA to help inform their official plans. If you’ve …
Since opening just over a year ago, Lightpath has inspired cyclists… and photographers. Something about it just calls out to be captured. Here are some beautiful images from Bike Auckland supporter, Mike Borich. We’ve paired them with lines from this fun piece Jolisa Gracewood wrote for Architecture Now magazine back in March…
As 2016 draws to a close we are delighted to share the Christmas wishes we have received from a member of Bike Auckland’s team and a highly effective leader of the NZTA’s Share the Road project. Richard Barter is a quietly spoken, powerfully motivated man, who is the changing hearts and minds of people behind steering wheels of big rigs and buses across NZ. At the same time he’s opening the eyes of people on bikes by giving us practical knowledge about the blind spots of heavy vehicles that make them so hazardous when they pass us, or when we ride beside them. Look out for Richard and his big rig …
Cycleway consultations are coming thick and fast at the moment, and no wonder, because the ‘must be built by mid 2018‘ deadline for the Urban Cycleway Programme is getting closer and closer! The initial key route for the Eastern inner suburbs runs through the eastern part of Parnell, starting at the intersection with Parnell Road, and then running along St Stephen’s Ave, down Gladstone Road past the Rose Gardens, reaching the Quay Street Cycleway via a short section of The Strand. Here’s the project page, and here’s the link for feedback (closes 23 December 2016). And here’s the route up for discussion… This cycleway is intended to serve a number of functions – …
Exactly twelve months ago, our monthly Bike Breakfast moved to its fabulous new home at Scarecrow Kitchen… and that same morning, attendees were treated to the official opening of Te Ara I Whiti, commonly known as Lightpath, followed by the First Hoon down the pink path later that night. Fast forward to this Thursday the 1st of December – we are back with Bike Auckland’s Bike Breakfast at Scarecrow Kitchen from 7:30am… … with the 1st Birthday celebrations for Lightpath to look forward to that same night at 8pm! As always with Bike Breakfast, everyone is welcome – there is no agenda to follow, and you don’t have to arrive on the …
It’s good to catch up with bike news from other cities, especially those also expanding their cycle networks thanks to the Urban Cycleways Fund. Here’s a Wellington round-up from James Burgess (written before this week’s quakes!). NB this update is part of CAN‘s round robin of group updates from around the country, and also appears on the excellent Cycle Aware Wellington blog. We have some good-ish news from Wellington, though not much fresh kermit quite yet… Local elections New mayor Justin Lester was the most bike-friendly of the leading mayoral candidates and has backed us in past consultation on good projects. He has a reputation for pragmatic compromise – so good for getting things over the line, but …
One small step for local connections, one giant leap for an increasingly bikeable city. A new boardwalk and shared path has officially opened in Pt Chevalier, linking Eric Armishaw Reserve (beloved of native birds and kite-surfers, as glimpsed from the motorway causeway) to the local town centre and eventually to Waterview. This is one of the links fought so hard for by locals and granted by the Environment Court as part of the mitigation for the massive Waterview Connection project, which is taking final shape in the gully between two once-connected communities. The original wish was for a bridge between Waterview and Pt Chevalier. In the end, as Margi Watson of the Albert-Eden Local …
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