Comments (5)

By admin, May 24, 2012

Hot off the press, we hear from Bevan Woodward (AHB Pathways Trustee and cycling campaigner) that the Auckland Harbour Bridge walk- and cycleway has been included in the Long Term Plan of Auckland Council as a “zero budget” line item!

As the name says, this means that currently, there is no funding associated with it. However, this allows the project to fomally proceed to the next steps, and sends a positive message to the private capital funders that the Council sees a toll as a workable way forward.

Related to this, Waterfront Auckland have apparently also received a $9 million budget to construct a big part of the Waterfront Boulevard. The new section of the waterfront walk- and cycleway is to run from Wynyard Quarter to… the south end of the Harbour Bridge!

We will give you more detail once we have it, but these two messages were just too positive to not hand on right away.

Comments (7)

By jenan, March 21, 2012

Transport funding for the next 10 years is up for grabs now in the Auckland Council and Auckland Transport long term funding plans. Cycle Action is submitting on behalf of our members on a raft of issues and projects. The deadline for submissions is 4pm this Friday, 23rd March.

You can read the plans on the Council website or in the limited time available, make your voice heard on a few key issues. We regard these to be –

• The level of funding allocated to walking and cycling is only 0.8% of the overall transport capital expenditure. This is out of kilter with the proportion of trips already made by walking and cycling now. It is also contrary to Auckland’s goals to provide wider and healthier transport choices, and reduce reliance on cars. Our submission requests an increase to 5% to complete key cycling networks, improve walking and cycling safety and compensate for past years of under- investment in these modes.
• Completing a range of cycling projects which will help change Auckland for cycling. These include the Harbour Bridge cycleway, bringing the North Western Cycleway to the Waterfront, making long overdue improvements to Tamaki Drive. You are welcome to support these, or if there is a local project you want to bring the attention of your Local Board – support it as well.
• Investing in the Regional Cycle Network – the backbone of major cycle routes across Auckland which connect transport nodes, employment and shopping areas. These are the priority routes that need to be fully connected. In the short term it is reasonable to ask for pinch points and hazards, which make cycling unsafe, to be removed.

You can make a submission by clicking here.  The vital sections of the form to focus on are 1.2 and 8.1 (both in the same online form) – ask for increased funds for walking and cycling in BOTH these form sections – you can also use both sections, but especially 8.1, to also expand on projects you favour and ask for improved connectivity and safety on the Regional Cycling Network.

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By Max, March 12, 2012

Currently, Auckland Council is calling for submissions on another set of key documents – the 10 year Long Term Plan (which, at the core, is a budget plan – where and what your rates $$$ are to be spent on between 2012 and 2022), and the 3 year Regional Land Transport Programme (which is a more fine grained transport plan feeding for the 2012-2015).

From our initial analysis, there’s some good things for cycling in both documents, but they aren’t really game changers.

In fact, in some ways, they remain decidedly “business as usual” – way too many new roading projects, to start with, sucking up all the available money. CAA is pushing to change this, for example with our recent presentation to Council’s Transport Committee. It is therefore important that you add your voice to the call for more cycling.

The upside to cycling having a history of limited funding is that there is actually quite a bit of scope – even a minor increase of funding can dramatically change what is actually going to be changed on the ground. So voice your call for a better cycling city.

Key comments you can and should make are:

• Some real transformational cycling projects are in the plan like the Waterfront Cycleway, and the Walk- and Cycleway over the Harbour Bridge. Make these happen, instead of them remaining aspirational “would it not be nice” projects!
• The plan is much lighter on mentioning specific cycle projects elsewhere in the region. This is where the Regional Cycle Network comes in. Without a strong focus on completing the RCN (and funding, it always comes down to funding!), your local part of the city is unlikely to see enough change for the better in the next 10 years.
• So ask Council to be serious about completing the RCN – rather than just spend the bare minimum every year as per the Ministry of Transport’s walking & cycling co-funding rates, still set at at 0.7% of the transport budget. Ask them for leadership, rather than following an outdated transport vision of “everyone drives anyway”. Ask them for at least 2% of your transport rates to go to walking and cycling (even that would triple the current money!).
• Check the local board agreements for your own Council area (which are part of the Long Term Plan) – see what your local board is trying to do for cycling, and support them, and call for more!

Submissions can be made online here. We have done a lot for cycling with shoestring budgets in the last few years. Imagine what could happen with real leadership!

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By MarkR, March 8, 2012

There’s a lot going on with transport  around town. Auckland Council and Auckland Transport wants to know what you think.

Draft Long-term Plan meetings and roadshow 

Come along to a local board event or visit an information stand in your local shopping mall, market or town centre. You can find out more about some of the key regional and local projects and initiatives proposed, as well as proposed changes to our rates system. Click here to find when and where Local Board meetings are being held and when the roadshow will be rolling into your neighbourhood. note the Mayor will be attending Botany Downs secondary college on 13 March (7pm) and the Sunderland Lounge, Marine Parade, Hobsonville Point on 20 March (6-8pm).

Electric Trains for Auckland

Auckland Transport would like to invite Cycle Action Auckland members to the first cycle focus group session for the new EMU’s. This session is intended to focus on short listing cycle storage and restraint options. The aim is to look at the many options available and short list/agree those that warrant physical trial when Auckland Transport have the full size carriage/saloon mock-up here in June later this year. There won’t be any final decisions yet but Auckland Transport wants to start shortlisting preferred solutions.

NOW UPDATED We had a productive meeting with Auckland Transport’s rail experts. It was sobering, but also interesting, how many constraints go into designing a train to fit all users adequately, and we realise how hard these folks will be pushed to please everyone.

That said, a couple of high-level suggestions were agreed on, for example that “hanging racks” for bikes were likely not the way to go (train aisles too narrow, difficulties of racking heavier bikes up, especially in a moving train etc…) and that the official racks (unlike the overflow areas) should allow bicycles to be stored without requiring them to all be leaned against each other in a heap (which would make it very difficult to get one out if you want to get off earlier than the other cyclists). The downside of such decisions is of course that this may reduce the number of “official” bike spaces in the trains – though as noted, unless the train is really full, there will always be the overflow areas.

Another interesting element was that the train interiors will be very modular, i.e. designed so that interior setups can be swapped for different layouts in the future – not on a whim of course, but much easier than usual for trains. So if taking your bike on the train takes off, there is always the opportunity to discuss getting more dedicated bike carrying capacity.

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By admin, October 25, 2011

There will be lots of good things for cycling in the coming Auckland Plan. That is, there will be a lot of good things UNLESS the “sensible people” manage to convince our politicians that the status quo is best. Prove them wrong!

If you don’t have the time to read up on the plan yourself, you can spend just five minutes writing an email to make your voice heard. Submit on the Auckland Plan (theaucklandplan@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz) with your name, your address, and whether or not you would like to speak at the hearing (or use the online submission form).

Then consider saying:

• Support the Regional Cycle Network: With more funding. With more off-road cycleways. With more bold, quality projects.
• Support the City Rail Tunnel: Because it will transform our city from the suburbs to the core – and change the “cars only” mentality that is holding us back.
• Support better parking regulations: Reduce minimum car parking for people and developers who don’t want it – and make bike parking required in all new developments.
• Support the fight against sprawl: The “Rural-Urban Boundary” is needed for targeted infrastructure investment – because we want an Auckland that can grow, without growing out of control.

In the same email you can also support key moves of the City Centre Masterplan (which is a component of the big Auckland Plan). We think the most important things are:

• Support two-waying of Nelson and Hobson Streets. With off-road cycleways protected from car traffic!
• Support new cycling links from the inner suburbs, such as turning the old Nelson Street off-ramp into a linear parkway!
• Support more shared spaces, “green links”, laneways and boulevards – everything that will make our city centre more friendly to people!

In the same email you can also support key moves of the draft  Waterfront Plan (which is a component of the big Auckland Plan). We think the most important things are:

• Support the walk- and cycleway proposed along the whole of the waterfront. Off-road all the way please!
• Support a cycling bridge link over Fanshawe Street at Victoria Park – because if we want to cycle to Wynyard Quarter, we prefer not to dodge heavy bus and car traffic!
• Support a walk- and cycleway over the Auckland Harbour Bridge – for a great transport choice from the North Shore, and a major new visitor attraction for the waterfront!

Cycle Action will fight for all these things, and for a lot more. But we need your support, so Council knows we aren’t a lone voice. Tell them the kind of Auckland you want to see!