The decision is out, and the preparations are under way. Auckland Transport won consent for the new layout at Ngapipi Road / Tamaki Drive, and have announced they will start construction work as early as April. That’s fast, especially considering how long it’s taken to get to this stage! As you’ll know from previous articles (2013, 2015, 2016), the current intersection is one of the worst for cyclists in Auckland. It also ranks as one of the Top 10 unsafe intersections in the country, and it isn’t winning any medals either when it comes to drivers or, especially, pedestrians. So it’s long overdue for a fix. The initial new layout proposed late last year …
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TL:DR: the Waitemata Local Board has won significant improvements to the quality and safety of the Quay Street/Tamaki Drive cycleway at the Ports, to tie into Bike AKL’s win from 2017. As an advocacy group working ‘inside the tent’ with Auckland Transport on improvements for safer cycling, we often hear great news about bike projects before they’re ready to go public. So, when we were recently shown plans for a ‘missing piece’ of the Quay Street / Tamaki Drive bikeway, our first instinct was to tell you all the good news … but we kept our silence while the project was still under wraps. Happily, now that the Local Board has made …
One of the many upgrades happening along Tamaki Drive at the moment is a quick project to improve safety at the intersection with Watene Crescent, in Okahu Bay next to the Orakei Domain. Auckland Transport plans to install bicycle activated ‘smart studs’ here (small bright lights set into the road, as seen elsewhere in the city) with accompanying warning signs, to alert drivers to the presence of people on bikes. Of course, this is just one small but crucial interim safety fix along what is Auckland’s (and maybe New Zealand’s) busiest bike route. We really hope to see delivery of better safety on this stretch of Tamaki Drive – flashing warning signs …
Having ended 2017 with a story about cycleway opposition in Grey Lynn, we hoped to start the New Year with more positive news – and indeed, works finally began a couple of days ago on the next section of the Quay St cycleway. As you know, Tamaki Drive into the city is Auckland’s busiest bike route (which may make it New Zealand’s busiest?) – with 43,000 trips in November, and growing. But currently the 1000+ Aucklanders who bike along this route daily are forced to choose between braving the roadway (busy with port traffic, buses, and cars), or sharing the footpath with pedestrians. The existing Quay St cycleway – a two-way …
Everyone who rides a bike in Auckland knows that we’re still far away from best practice bike infrastructure – even if things are slowly getting better. But for all the places where there are no bikeways at al, sometimes what’s even more dismaying are the situations where the legacy of previous, limited bike infrastructure actually risks making things worse. Take for example the ultra-skinny bike lanes on Greenlane West (see image at right), or the end of the westbound cycle lane arriving in Mission Bay on Tamaki Drive. For those who don’t know Mission Bay, this cycle lane was installed as one of a few quick improvements after a spate of …
If you managed to make it to last Thursday evening’s event, you will already have heard the headline news: Tamaki Drive’s future cycleway design between Solent Street and Ngapipi Rd has gotten a major boost in quality. In a stunning turnaround, after a consultation in which we (and many of over 600 submitters!) expressed grave concerns about the orginal design, Auckland Transport has decided that the changes proposed by Bike Auckland make sense. AT essentially adopted Bike AKL’s Quality Option. YOU DID IT! We’ll be able to go into more depth soon,* but for now, here are the highlights – hold on to your handlebars… As we strongly pushed for, …
A bunch of major cycling improvements are about to converge on Auckland’s busiest and most beautiful bike route, Tamaki Drive. How will they all fit together? Come along on Thursday 7 September and find out! Event details and RSVP here. Bike Auckland has invited project managers from Auckland Transport and the NZ Transport Agency along to present the big interlocking projects that will transform this route: • the new Tamaki Drive Cycle Route from Ngapipi Rd to The Strand (this is the one we pushed strongly for a rethink on… watch this space!) • widening the Ngapipi Bridge to make room for cycling and improve passage for pedestrians • and the …
It’s been a long time coming, but on the 4th of August, Auckland Transport at last announced its preferred route for Section 4 of the Glen Innes to Tamaki Shared Path (GI2TD). The immediate response from much of the bike community was ‘…huh?’ The decision-making process had been, as far as the public was concerned, a black box – so, naturally, everyone is eager to know how and why the choice was made. This blog post is a placeholder: we plan to host a public meeting in early September to allow AT to present fully on the plan for Section 4, along with two directly linked projects. The big picture …
Feedback closes Sunday 18 June – be a good bunch, and spread the word to support Bike AKL’s Quality Option fora north-side cycleway on Tamaki Drive! This is NZ’s busiest bike route, and in the top ten favourite rides. Why compromise? Last week, we wrote about how Auckland Transport’s current proposal for cycle facilities on Tamaki Drive isn’t just disappointing, it’s downright dangerous. We rushed into print when AT went to the public with their design despite our grave misgivings, to offer an urgent alternative. Our Interim Option solved the key safety issue by widening the traffic lanes nearest the curb to make space for on-road cyclists. It worked… but it was barely adequate. You know what? …
![Why Bike AKL can't support the design for the Tamaki Drive Cycle Route [Updated]](https://www.bikeauckland.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Tamaki-Lanes-2-e1495427109899-300x137.jpg "Why Bike AKL can't support the design for the Tamaki Drive Cycle Route [Updated]")
AT has just opened consultation for new cycleway works on Tamaki Drive, from The Strand to Ngapipi Road – to create a link for people on bikes from the (in-progress) Glen Innes to Tamaki Drive cycleway, to the Quay St cycleway. As such, it’s a crucial connection. However, for reasons we explain below – and to our own disappointment – we cannot support the proposed design, because it puts a significant proportion of Tamaki Drive bike travellers at serious risk, while not really raising standards for the new riders. Especially when there is an alternative that is safer. TL; DR: The proposed design isn’t great – and will be actively dangerous for a large group of existing …
Tamaki Drive’s famous cycleway turns 41 today. Despite showing its age a bit, it’s our jewel in the crown, and part of Auckland’s busiest bike route. To celebrate its birthday, we’d like to share some wonderful never-before-seen photos of opening day that recently came our way. The photos arrived in an email to Skypath champion Bevan Woodward from David Lewis, who signed himself “Birkenhead Resident and Passionate Skypath Believer”. As you’ll discover below, David has a very special connection to those early Auckland bike visionaries, who not only believed in miracles but managed to accomplish one. David’s words were so resonant we’ve included his message in full, along with the magical photos of the early believers. Do you recognize anyone? We’d love to …
The new design for Ngapipi / Tamaki Drive is now much better than the original signals design. Here’s hoping it did well in the consent hearing this week! With the safety issues for people on bikes at Ngapipi Drive known for so long, it was good to finally see AT’s proposed new layout proceeding to consultation & hearing. But it is fair to say that there is still a lot of controversy about changing this intersection. First off, there are some who (still) argue that nothing needs to be done at all; or at most, that the intersection only needs minor changes. The broken bones of many victims disagree, and we say …
Time is running out to comment on plans for one of Auckland’s cycling hot-spots, the Tamaki Drive/Ngapipi Rd intersection. Feedback closes Friday September 23rd. We encourage you to add your own support – or constructive criticism! – to the AT design. What’s at stake here? Re-read our earlier blog post to help you make an application on the Resource Consent for the intersection redesign. Consider our own 6 improvement suggestions, and what you feel needs changing, and submit! In addition, there’s one other related issue you might like to comment on, as it’s creating a lot of discussion in the community. This is regarding AT’s future decision about how to connect the …
Auckland Transport is currently consulting on the proposed traffic signals at Ngapipi Road / Tamaki Drive. This is one of the worst historical black spots for people on bikes in Auckland. It’s also a major intersection on our busiest cycle route, with some ~1,000 riders a day even in the middle of winter. First, let’s recap the many objectives – and constraints – the design has to contend with. It needs to: Improve safety and convenience for people on bikes. Especially – but not only – those turning here, and those heading directly to town who currently have to merge westbound with fast traffic from Ngapipi. Improve safety and convenience for pedestrians. Currently, there are barely any pedestrian crossing …
A few months ago, we made a video showing how bad things were for people on bikes at the Ngapipi Road slip lane onto Tamaki Drive. We also described interim safety measures Auckland Transport was planning – road markings, rumble strips, specially triggered electronic signs and flashing light studs on the road. As part of this project, AT undertook before-and-after speed measurements to see whether the interim fixes worked. And did they? Yes – to a degree. Speed was measured at two locations. Site 1 was on the approach to the intersection, some 40-50m away. Site 2 was in the area where citybound cyclists have to merge with (or ride across) traffic coming out of Ngapipi Rd – …
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