Paul Steely-White video

A couple of weeks ago our friends at Cycle action Auckland managed to bring Paul Steely-White to the city to talk about transport.

Paul Steely-White is an internationally known author and lecturer on bicycling, walking and transportation reform. He recently appeared in The Human Scale international documentary. Under Paul’s leadership, Transportation Alternatives has released groundbreaking studies on urban planning issues and pioneered a host of new advocacy strategies such as citizen-led traffic enforcement, crowd-sourced parking studies and the transformation of car parking spaces to public parks. Previously, Paul worked as regional director for the New York based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

There was actually a decent amount of coverage of his trip including even this piece in the herald.

Auckland is being challenged to follow top American cities in creating hundreds of kilometres of cycle lanes.

Visiting alternative transport chief Paul Steely White confessed to feeling out of place riding in inner Auckland yesterday, unprotected by the types of cycle lanes he says are helping to “humanise” his native New York and other US cities.

“Right now, riding around Auckland, you feel like you’re an alien riding on your bike – like you’re encroaching into what is otherwise very obvious car space,” he said.

Mr Steely White, 43, is executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a non-profit organisation of about 30 staff and 100,000 supporters.

It has campaigned successfully to add about 600km of bikeways in the past five years to streets and parks as an extension of New York’s public transit network, and to ban cars from Times Square and much of Central Park.

Mr Steely White denies being anti-car, saying the group simply aims for better balance on streets it believes should be for everybody.

He was encouraged to see dozens of fellow cyclists yesterday, which he takes as a sign of a large “latent demand” for dedicated bike lanes.

But they were being forced to take “heroic risks”, he said. “It reminded me of New York 10 years ago, when to be a cyclist you had to be aggressive and super-confident. But you shouldn’t have to feel like an interloper on your own streets.”

Mayor Len Brown acknowledges “more progress is required” on Auckland’s walking and cycling network, while his leading election challenger, former New Yorker John Palino, promises to push for a continuous cycle lane from North Shore to Pakuranga via St Heliers.

Mr Steely White is rejoicing at a “race to the top” by American cities trying to outdo each other in building more bike lanes in the belief this will improve life for high-tech workers, many of them less enamoured than their parents of car culture.

One of the events that Paul spoke at was one of the councils Auckland Conversation talks. They recorded the talk and have posted it online. At 87 minutes it isn’t short but well worth a watch.

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