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By BarbC, May 5, 2013

“And here I am in New York where there is a waiting list to get a carpark removed from outside your café and replaced with a bike corral...”

This is the first FB item from one of our super- generous, Cycle Action Associates, Greg Wood – who is in New York to take part in the famous 5 Boro’s cycle event. It’s not race – it’s 30,000 people on bikes cruising around closed off streets in 5 borough making up central NY. Greg is there with his sister, Gemma Gracewood who lives in New York. He has been sponsored by Hawaiian Airlines, Cycle Action Associate Bruce Copeland of Sandfields and others, including Cycle Action.

Greg is only away for a week as he’s needed back in Auckland for his day job – as an advertising creative –  and his other activities as a cyclist, cycle activist,  Auckland -Westmere resident, father of three and husband. He ‘ll be writing a couple of blog items to have us all salivating.

Watch this space…… And have fun for all of us today, Greg. 

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By admin, April 12, 2013

By Pippa Coom

In early March I travelled on a private trip to Melbourne with the Velociteers who performed at the Melbourne Bike Fest. I took the opportunity to check out why Melbourne is considered to be one of the world’s most liveable cities. The first thing that struck me was the number of people using bikes for transport, especially young women.

Melbourne suffers from similar issues to Auckland with car-centric city design, excessive speeds and road congestion. However unlike Auckland there is connected bike infrastructure that makes cycling pleasant and safe. It wasn’t perfect but there has clearly been investment in a whole variety of different approaches to encourage cycling – painted green cycle lanes, shared paths, contra-flows, traffic calming, intersection treatments and separated or “Copenhagen” lanes (see the photo below of a lane under construction along the route of an existing painted lane).

The Melbourne public bike hire scheme introduced in 2010 has also increased the visibility of cycling. Over the four days I was there I used the service for all my trips. I found it to be convenient, cheap (registration is $2.40 per day with the first half hour free ) and took me to where I wanted to go around the city centre. I was able to make the compulsory helmet requirement work by taking over my own helmet and being willing to carry it around between trips (not an option that suits everyone – although helmets are for sale for only $5).

However experiencing the Melbourne bikes also convinced me that in Auckland we should not make a public bike hire scheme a priority until we can offer connected and safe routes.

I totally support the aim of public bikes being available for transport in Auckland and will continue to work for this (it is a priority in our Local Board Plan) but I don’t think a publicly funded scheme can be justified in the short term when the infrastructure doesn’t exist to send locals and visitors on short A to B type trips around a variety of locations in the city centre and fringe.

Ideally a public bike hire scheme should be funded as well as investment in cycling infrastructure and we shouldn’t have to wait for either but as we have to prioritise right now (from a very limited walking and cycling budget) I don’t think a Melbourne type scheme is top of my list for Auckland Transport to deliver.

[Pippa Coom is a former CAA Committee Member and is the current Deputy Chair of the Waitemata Local Board]

Editor’s Note: The comment about the public bike hire is an interesting one – because it comes back to the chicken-vs-egg question that we often discuss in CAA – are more cyclists needed to get more cycle infrastructure, or do we need more cycle infrastructure to get more cyclists? Will promotion work when the groundwork on the road hasn’t been done yet?

On the other hand, overseas schemes where the city went all-in (such as Paris, or London) have been credited with creating a lot of new cyclists, sometimes even in the absence of other new infrastructure. What do you think? [Note that Pippa's comments above regarding the Bike Hire scheme have been updated with more context since the initial version of the post.]

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By admin, March 20, 2013

With London having just announced a whopping 900 million pounds for cycling infrastructure (400 million in the next 3 years alone), several CAA staff have announced we might as well go where the riding is good, and expressed interest in moving to London.

But we are not sure whether they will take cycle advocates from a city that feels that “bus lanes are cycle infrastructure” when they are proposing things like this:

What are they proposing? Well, lots of everything known to be good for cycling: cycle paths separated from pedestrians and cars on main routes, traffic calming in quieter back streets, whole neighborhoods converted to emulate Netherlands’ cycle-friendly suburbs. They are even proposing to reduce traffic lanes on a motorway to provide space for a cycleway!

We also suggest you have a look through this brochure with some more nice visuals. And a wonderful quote: “Timid, half-hearted improvements are out – we will do things at least adequately, or not at all.” We wish we could push THAT through on more Auckland projects.

London may have a larger population than Auckland – 8 million in the urban zones that the cycling spend will be done in – but we would be quite happy to see an eighth of that kind of money spent here. The only projects were we see such quality cycle infrastructure proposed for so far are (occasionally) the larger roading projects like AMETI.

So when will we get a similar (funded!) plan for Auckland?

[Oh, and in case you were wondering why CAA in the end decided to stay put in Auckland? Because we love Auckland - and like a challenge!]

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By admin, March 8, 2013

By John Mauro

As a new Auckland resident, it was a thrill to ride down to the Waitemata Greenways event a few weeks ago. An opportunity to learn about how Greenways work and give feedback on the Waitemata Local Board’s initiative, the event was well attended, informative and energizing.

Like Greenways are supposed to do once they’re built, the event made me feel comfortable, safe and welcome  (please be sure to give your feedback today—survey closes on 11 March!)

Greenways aren’t necessarily a new concept, but it’s a concept whose time at the forefront has come. Cities around the world install Greenways, more recently cities like Portland and Seattle, with tremendous success, rebranded them from “bicycle boulevards” to “neighbourhood greenways.”  The infrastructure matters, for certain, but the rebranding truly helps.

Anyone reading this post probably understands why greenways are a good idea: done well they slow down traffic and reduce car volumes on already low-volume streets. They connect neighbourhoods with safe facilities for all types of bike riders. And their green features make them an even greater pleasure to ride on.

But, as I’ve written and said elsewhere before, it’s not just about bikes. Keep your ear to the ground and you’ll hear other great descriptions of greenways, like:

• Family friendly
• Safe for kids
• Cheap for taxpayers – with excellent return on investment
• Great, vibrant and green streetscapes
• Traffic calming and noise reducing
• Less cut-through traffic and dangerous close-calls
• Easy to walk, short trips (no need for my car and for parking)
• Encourages new bike riders who wear normal clothes!

We should all be telling the compelling story of greenways so that all of Auckland can hear, since all citizens stand to benefit -regardless of if you ride a bicycle or not.

But it’s more than just good PR. It’s of paramount importance to get the greenway network right. That means both ensuring that the network truly connects where people want to go (while considering things like topography) and also means well-constructed infrastructure that doesn’t skimp on safety and good design. Bike priority signals, adequate paint and signage, smart crossings of main arterials and other important ingredients are part of the mix of how to get greenways right – and people riding them.

I have attached a few photos from a Portland visit I did some time back.

Many of the first Greenways projects around Auckland concentrate on routes in parks and reserves -  possibly based on the frustrations people have in Auckland riding on the road, and in getting good cycle infrastructure built on these roads. So while we should all celebrate and advocate for greenways, let’s not forget that we have several other important tools available to make bicycling in Auckland an excellent and enjoyable experience. Greenways can’t replace urgently needed infrastructure on arterials—like protected bike lanes and cycle tracks.

For now, remember to submit your thoughts to the Waitemata Local Board and talk up Greenways in your neighbourhood. Let’s look forward to the ways that they’ll help us connect safely and conveniently to where we want to go and to connect to each other as citizens and neighbors of an increasingly liveable and bikeable city.

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By Max, December 19, 2012

This diagram looks like what a few ravers might create with glow sticks in a club, but it actually shows the usage patterns of 10 million bike trips taken on London’s bike hire system.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had something similar for Auckland? I guess if we had a public bike system (again) first… – but some other cities have done similar geospatial analysis with the help of people volunteering to use tracking apps on their smartphones while riding, so it could be done here too, even if we don’t have “Boris Bikes“.