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By Max, April 18, 2013

Updated with new data at bottom

“Rainy weather can’t keep a good cyclist down” – I thought, trying hard to convince myself as I rode down Symonds Street last Tuesday, with drenching rain spraying into my face. Since I am not a cycle commuter at the moment (I live too close to work – its literally quicker to walk), I haven’t been cycling in the rain much recently. And its been a few years since this school-kid argued against his father’s modest request to at least, at minimum, stop cycling during icy conditions…

At least I felt quite happy at having found my good rain gear that morning. Even in that downpour, I was snug and dry, and able to arrive at my NZTA meeting with dry dress shirt and trousers, after having pulled off the zippered rain over-trousers.

But the more relevant point would be: How much does rainy weather influence the cycling numbers in Auckland? We know Copenhagen cycles through driving snow, but what about us Kiwis?

Well, first off, we – very roughly speaking – cycle about 25% less in winter than average over the year, and 25% more than average in summer. Those are the patterns when you look at the year-round automatic cycle counter results.

But what about day-to-day changes? And influence of weather directly, rather than seasonally? What happens when it is hosing down hard, like this Tuesday morning? So I went to have a look at the cycle counter data.

April 08 (Mon) Grafton Bridge 752 cycle movements

I used the handy-dandy Grafton Bridge counter to provide a comparison (I considered using Kingsland’s counter, but thought Grafton Bridge provides a better cross-section of cyclists).

I looked at 4 days:

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  April 09 (Tue) Grafton Bridge 907 cycle movements

  April 8 and 9 (Monday and Tuesday last week) – when we still had pretty good weather, and had had months of dry weather behind us

• April 15 and 16 (Monday and Tuesday this week) – while Monday was still tenable, Tuesday, as noted, was rather abysmal

April 15 (Mon) Grafton Bridge 574 cycle movements

So how do the results look like? Pretty telling (see results and curves at the right).

When looking at last week, we can see a real “bumper crop” of cyclists. 907 cyclists on Tuesday? Higher than any day on the bridge in the last December and January period. Monday was also a seriously strong day.

April 16 (Tue) Grafton Bridge 384 cycle movements

But then came the rains. Not only did the cyclist numbers drop off notably from last week’s Monday to this week’s Monday – presumably due to the start of worse weather over the weekend. They also took an even deeper nose-dive between Monday and our rainy Tuesday (and it wasn’t even raining all Tuesday morning – but by then, most commuters had obviously long since made their choice for more than 2 wheels). This week’s Tuesday had only 42% of last Tuesday!

So in the end, while this isn’t a very scientific study (way too few data points, lazy me), I feel confident to say that its seems to show that we just don’t like rain all that much!

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April 15 (Mon) Kingsland 460 cycle movements

UPDATE: One of our cocky commenters (well known to us) below threw down the gauntlet. Representing the Westies coming in along the Northwestern Cycleway, he’s telling the Grafton Bridge folks to “harden up” in the face of a wee bit of rain. Lots of cyclists out west – despite rain – he says!

April 16 (Tue) Kingsland 267 cycle movements

Well, we went back to the counter data, and this time had a look at the Kingsland counter – for the same Monday and Tuesday this week, with the rainy Tuesday. How many “Westies” (including inner-city Westies) gave up as the clouds opened up?

Well, it seems that on Grafton Bridge, between Monday and Tuesday, there was a 33% drop in cyclists. On the Northwestern Cycleway, in that same period, the drop was 42%…

Mmm, Tommo – seems like Westies are actually MORE affected by rain. But at least tall tales still work

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By Max, February 18, 2013

Robot cars are just around the corner!

I have always thought this a bit of an exaggeration, but some discussions I have had, and some science articles I have read recently have started to convince me that there’s a lot more to it than it seemed – unlike those flying cars we are still waiting for after almost a century.

Several car companies apparently have the technological issues pretty much sorted – and Google’s driverless car is just the most visible example, with many car manufacturers having similarly successful projects that have clocked huge amounts of distance outside of the laboratory.

What really got me thinking though was the article’s focus on how much safer these vehicles are already starting to turn out to be compared to human drivers (and how much that is yet to be improved as these technologies become mass-market).

Your risky driver can be everything from an inexperienced youth overestimating his skill, to a drunk, to an agressive moron willing to gun it without any respect for cyclists and pedestrians. In between, you have lots of much less problematic people – who nonetheless have tired days, get distracted by their takeaway cup and don’t see all that well during rain and dark.

They are also at fault in nearly 75% of all cyclist-motorist crashes that cause injury or death to people on bikes (Safer Journeys, MoT, Page 38).

When you combine that, robot cars (or cars that allow the motorist to stay mostly in control, but will directly intervene if he/she drives unsafely) become quite an appealing concept for cyclists. That self-driving (or strongly-assisted) car will simply refuse to overtake cyclists if there isn’t a meter and a half to spare. And no more drivers cutting across your path either! The driver behind you may still grumble at how bloody cyclists always delay him – but more likely he won’t even look up from reading his book or the morning’s news on his e-reader.

Think of a road environment where parents don’t even hesitate to let their kids ride to school (okay, they may just send the Google car to drop them off instead – but at least that choice won’t discourage other parents from letting their kids cycle). Think of cities where pedestrians and cyclists can all use the streets without fear.

Of course even with all those positives, we should not take any of this for granted, or likely to really change our roads within the next couple of years – even if self-driving cars end up being “all that”, they will take decades to fully replace the current fleet. So there are no excuses for not creating safer roads NOW.

Legality issues are also still a big hurdle: If a robot car DOES hurt someone, who is at fault – the “driver”, the car manufacturer, the software programmer? Though ironically, our no-fault accident insurance could actually make implementation in New Zealand easier than elsewhere. Finally, self-driving cars won’t help against obesity, pollution, or a number of other negative effects of car dominance (a motorway will still be a massive barrier to communities, for example).

But hey, this car technology may just be one of those that has as many positives for those who aren’t driving as it does for those who do.

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By Max, February 16, 2013

I hadn’t been to Waiheke for a year – but CAA organises our annual ‘hui’ on Waiheke, in the hospitable home of our chair, Barbara Cuthbert. Half a weekend celebrating the past year, planning for the next, and enjoying the company of others working to make Auckland friendly for cycling.

I won’t talk much about the hui itself – though we hope that you will notice the improvements planned to CAA and for cycling. But I can tell you that it felt like a nice omen when riding up from the Matiatia ferry terminal, I reached the top, and saw the stretch of Oceanview Road north of Mako Street.

Gone was the cycle lane marked right in the door zone (see old photo) – gone was the car parking that made it into a deathtrap waiting to snap shut. Now, a cycle lane stretches all the way past Korora Road (see new photo).

I knew the changes had been made after we raised the issue last year (thank you, AT) – but its nice to have gotten around to finally have a look at it myself. As I have said before, for me personally its these small wins that keep me going in between working for the large ones.

Happy riding all, and also a shout-out to Cycle Action Waiheke. Always nice to visit your patch.

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By Max, February 1, 2013

I got up rather early on Thursday (6am – SO not a morning person) to attend the opening of the Westgate Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge*. So I got on my bike and started out from Pt Chev to ride 15km outwards to Westgate to do my little part, by representing CAA at the ceremony.

There was a huge community turnout, as well as the expected officialdom – these locals have wanted this bridge for a LONG time, and fought hard for it. Something that was brought home by some of the speeches, especially of Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse – reminding us that it took the death of a young boy (racing his friends, who had used a stormwater culvert under the motorway) before the project was approved, and many more years before it finally got built. When almost all community facilities are on the other side of a motorway, something’s gotta give!

The local community can be proud of their new landmark – particularly impressive the sweeping yellow main truss, and the graceful looping half back on itself of the eastern approach ramp to make sure the gradients stayed suitable for cyclists too. I had a chance to speak with the Jasmax architect who designed the bridge (and some of the other stunning walking/cycling bridges we have seen recently around Auckland) and congratulated him on a sterling job.

On the first day, we didn’t have many cyclists yet in the crowd, which is unsurprising, as the community in the area was, until today, severely lacking in any sort of dedicated cycle facilities.

But as I started out back to town (claiming for myself the first cycle commute using the new bridge) I was pretty sure that all the happy spirits couldn’t help but generate a few new cyclists around there as well. Now only to add some links from here southwards, so people can ride to Henderson and beyond, and we’re set.

* Even NZTA’s manager Tommy Parker agreed during his speech that it wasn’t the most flowing name, and said he looked forward to the nickname the local community would bestow on it. “Rollercoaster Bridge” seems like a good choice to me – fun and fitting the form.

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By Max, January 27, 2013

…or, in some cases, pick your delight! Via Strada, an NZ consultancy with heaps of cycling experience, have compiled this neat summary of the various types of cycle facilities.

Know what you are talking about, know what you are wanting when you ask Council for better cycling in Auckland. It’s all here.

->->-> Via Strada AO Poster Lexicon v02

I’ll have some of Nr 2, a lot of Nr 7 please, but hold the Nr 5…

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