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By admin, May 22, 2013

For those who are curious, but haven’t been out that way recently, here are a few photos of the Grafton Gully Cycleway’s first stage (between Grafton Road, at the Business School, and Alten Road / Stanley Street).

Works to come also include cycleway changes to the Alten Road signals at the bottom. And of course, there’s 4 other stages to complete the whole route, plus AT’s Beach Road work… in the short run, Stage 1 especially may be much more popular with pedestrians than cyclists, so we have been keen to ensure it is wide enough for both.

NZTA in cooperation with CAA have in recent months also put a lot of thought into how to make the gradients as smooth as possible to ease your climb up the gully. We won’t be able to avoid steeper bits totally, but it gives us some confidence that the future rise from the sea-level to the Northwestern Cycleway at Ian McKinnon Drive will be over a much greater length than if one went the currently preferred* route of Anzac Avenue and Symonds Street. So hopefully, this will also make the ride up the hill overall less of a struggle.

*Well, preferred from a gradient point of view. Lots of people, especially those new to cycling, prefer not to ride in the heavy bus traffic on that route… – which is kinda the point of the whole Grafton Gully route!

Its exciting to see progress, but the coolest stuff is still to come, as we near Grafton Bridge and the top over the next year…

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By admin, May 10, 2013

Hello all riding on the Northwestern Cycleway – and between Pt Chevalier and Waterview on the “spur cycleway” along Great North Road.

Due to construction in the centre area of the Pt Chevalier Interchange, the footpath / cycleway there (shown in red at the right) will be closed until 2017. This means that the walk/cycleway through Unitec may get busier.

There have been some complaints in the past about cyclists riding past pedestrians in this area at unsafe (or simply startling) speeds. It would be good if everyone could look out for each other. Smiles work too.

To help, CAA has in recent months asked for a variety of safety measures in the area, running from fixing a variety of broken streetlights to adding additional signage and warning markings on roads and cycleways. Recently AT and the Well-Connected Alliance on our request also installed temporary “flexi-post” markers to get drivers to slow down / stay a bit further away from the narrowest part of the shared path along Great North Road.

[All images from the Well-Connected Alliance's Waterview Construction Newsletter]

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By admin, March 11, 2013

A quick update for those riding the Northwestern Cycleway between Te Atatu and Point Chev every day – there is a new presentation online here about the upcoming causeway & Te Atatu works.

Some highlights from the presentation and some CAA-NZTA discussions since:

• From Page 14 you can see plans of the route design, including the future underpass at Patiki Road, Page 14 (and image above) which should turn out to be a pretty nice example of how to do it right.
• The new Te Atatu bus interchange is planned on the northern side of the interchange. While that will certainly not impress some of the directly adjacent neighbours there, it has the unintended consequence of making the west-east cycle underpass much less problematic, whose western end could have conflicted with one of the potential locations.
• Works on the causeway are now intended to start middle of this year. Some of the first works you will see from near the cycleway may be access construction near the Whau Bridge. Also expect some construction site accesses near Point Chev. More info to come.

If you have any questions about the causeway project, you can contact Kevin Stevens, project consultation manager, who has already worked together well with CAA to keep us in the loop.

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By admin, March 1, 2013

CAA doesn’t actually build any cycleways – we support others who do. And one of our core values is linking groups – departments, funders, local authorities and community organisations – to encourage them to see the mutual benefits of a great cycle network.

Many of the community groups in particular already have great visions for their particular area – and increasingly, nobody needs to tell them the value of cycling. One of those great groups we recently got into contact with is the Whau River Catchment Trust / Friends of the Whau. They are a group based, unsurprisingly, around improving the natural environment – and people’s appreciation of – the Whau River in West Auckland.

The Whau is the great estuary / river wending its way towards the Waitemata between what used to be Auckland City and Waitakere City. Like much of Auckland’s waterways and coastlines, it has a lot of modification and damage to its tributiary streams and the coastline itself. While most of it is held in public land, it is very hard to access and enjoy – almost impossible so without a boat. The trust, and their ‘Friends of the Whau’ volunteer arm, have made it their goal to improve the natural health of the area, and enable people to enjoy it.

And boy, one of the projects that they have created has really caught our attention:

The Whau West Greenway

Based on the Greenways philosophy – walk & cycleways connecting our parks and open spaces in a safe and people-friendly manner – they have created a scheme that would result in a path along the western coastline of the Whau from Olympic Park in eastern New Lynn up to SH16 in Te Atatu.

Think “Twin Streams along the Coast”, following the shore for about 15 km.

Of course we couldn’t but offer our whole-hearted support. We are happy to report that in our first meeting, we hit it off well with their people, and are already discussing ways to help them push the first pilot projects for the Greenways scheme. In fact, there may even be a chance to extend it further north, and not let the idea stop at the motorway – why not let Te Atatu Pensinula enjoy that link along the coast as well?

Projects like Whau West Greenways will take time to become reality – but unlike on our roads, where every cycleway seems to be a battle, a “zero-sum” game (at least in some people’s minds), on these projects, we all get to win right from the start.

From locals who can suddenly appreciate (and care for) the environment in their “back yard”, to school children and commuters getting a new way to avoid driving, to a new route for recreational outings by foot or bike on a pleasant days.

We look forward to another great idea for Auckland becoming true. And if you want to help, you now know where to go!

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By admin, February 9, 2013

The plans for changes to Mount Wellington Highway outside of the Sylvia Park shopping centre have now been finalised. We engaged with Auckland Transport about these plans before, and its good to see that both on-road cycle lanes and shared paths are now confirmed to make this currently absolutely horrid section of road much more suitable for cyclists.

• Cycle lanes on Mt Wellington Highway on-road from Aranui Road through to just south of the motorway
• Western-side shared path from Aranui Road to Sylvia Park Road (i.e. even further south than the cycle lanes)
• Eastern-side shared paths for some short sections outside of Sylvia Park, where new office buildings are planned

The changes will also make the SEART cycleway westwards towards Mt Smart and Onehunga easier to get to, and will include a bus-only back route along the rail line.

Subject to land purchase, construction is hoped to start this year, and run up to 2015.