Welcome to the first Friday in July; a bit of a midwinter breather with school holidays and Matariki around the corner. Here’s our latest roundup of some of the stories that caught our eye this week – with a strong focus on good vibes, to help get us through the darkest bit of the year.
Today’s header image shows a rainbow above the Ōrakei Basin boardwalk.
The Week in Greater Auckland
- On Monday, we looked at the latest report on Liberating a Lane for active modes on the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and how it can be done without impacting traffic.
- On Wednesday, Matt wrote about the report from the inquiry on inter-regional rail.
- On Thursday, Matt covered the inexplicable moves (or rather, lack of moves) by the government which effectively encourage illegal parking.
Good reads
Induced demand
We all know what it is and why it doesn’t work (‘cos one more lane just adds another lane of traffic). But induced demand also applies to the kinds of vehicles you empower, as laid out here by Andy Boenau.
A fair share for walking
Starting from a survey about what people value about where they live, this article asks: isn’t it time cities properly invested in the pedestrian experience?
Speaking of walking:
Pedestrian bridges empower active mobility by connecting neighborhoods & shortening distances to community amenities.
Let's build more of them !!!! pic.twitter.com/R9dwLnuoKG— CoolStreetsWPG (@CoolStreetsWPG) July 4, 2023
Better cities have fewer cars: an article about how business associations have begun to “bang the gong for bike lanes, vehicle bans and pedestrian-focused facelifts”, to entice people back into downtowns:
“Business leaders want to see people downtown, and creating more pedestrian-friendly areas is a great way to have people downtown,” said Kate Dineen, president and CEO [of Boston’s A Better City]. “Pop-up parks, parklets and pedestrian street closures are just more common in the lexicon now, and I think the pandemic helped people think, ‘Oh, we can use this space in different way.’”
Cycling is great (in other places): another day, another travel story about cities rapidly expanding their bike networks to the benefit of residents and tourists.
Don’t be put off by the dismal experience of cycling in most Australian cities. Many cities overseas have spent millions on improving cycle lanes and encouraging locals and tourists to get on their bikes, making this an increasingly agreeable way to get around.
In 2020 alone, Europe spent €1 billion ($1.6 billion) on cycle-related infrastructure, including the addition of another 1000 kilometres of cycle paths. Even places with so-far modest cycle ways, such as Barcelona, Lisbon, Krakow and Milan, have now set about improving and extending their networks.
Bike parking flies into place: in Wellington, two new double-decker bike parking stations have been craned into position at a public park and a swimming pool. These look sturdier, more attractive, and better placed than Auckland’s two sad and lonely examples that mostly sit empty (one in Te Komititanga, one near Aotea Square). Hope AT is taking notes.
Meanwhile, in Christchurch, a cycling city returns to its roots – some great footage, both vintage and modern, in this video:
Trees, please!
Fifteen full-time Awa Rangers have planted 14,000 new native plantings along the Puhinui awa, with a plan to add another 20,000 over winter. The mission is underwritten by a philanthropic grant from the Milford Foundation and coordinated by the Sustainable Business Network, in partnership with community, business and all of Auckland’s iwi.
“Whatever helps us would help the whenua as well,” says Naumai-aaria Naumai-aaria (Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Porou), who is an Awa Ranger with Te Pu-a-Nga Maara.
At age 21, she spends her work week clearing weeds and planting native bush along the winding Puhinui, which stretches around 12 kilometres. […]
Long considered one of Auckland’s – and New Zealand’s – most polluted streams, the Puhinui could one day return to being a source of kai (food), wai (water) and mana (strength) for its neighbours.
From the Bruntletts, a lovely example of a pop-up / drop-in parklet that includes trees. (As we understand it, it’s not against the law to do this with any otherwise unregulated curb space here, either – anyone keen to try, let us know.)
Good graphs
This excellent graph fell into our hands this week. You might have seen this set of scenarios for New Zealand’s uptake of e-bikes (and scooters) before – it’s from a few years ago, showing a few potential sales trajectories from low, to medium, to high.
Overlaid on top in red is the actual e-bike sales of the last several years.Turns out the extremely optimistic scenario was right on the money – New Zealanders love e-bikes as much as anywhere else! Better get building those connected networks.
And, in a week where the world broke all previous heat records, and then broke them again the following day, this graph (via Twitter) offers some practical hope:
The main thing New Zealanders need to get their head around – according to the most recent Ipsos poll, covered by Marc Daalder in Newsroom – is what counts as climate action. Top tip, folks: recycling is certainly a good thing in itself, but to have any chance of getting to Net Zero, you’re better off dropping those first two letters:
When quizzed on which actions would have the most impact on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Kiwis rallied behind recycling as making the biggest difference. Recycling actually has an almost negligible climate impact, although it is good for the broader environment. Ipsos cited a 2020 study which ranked recycling 60th among changing consumption options for mitigating climate change.
[Ed: thanks to a reader, here’s the aforementioned list of effective lifestyle changes for climate action]
Previous Ipsos polls have displayed a similar trend, with Kiwis repeatedly identifying recycling as the biggest climate problem.
The number one option, living car-free, was selected by just 12 percent of New Zealanders, compared with 18 percent in other countries. Kiwis were also less likely to identify refurbishing houses for energy efficiency (ranked sixth) or going vegan (seventh) as effective, compared with respondents overseas.
Now that you’re all warmed up for climate action (see what we did there), try this game from 2021, which is more relevant than ever. You’re the Mayor of Smogtown, and it’s your job to bring your city’s emissions down while staying popular enough to hold onto power. Best of luck!
Week in flooding
Major flooding (and heatwaves) in China this week. A major new report shows12% of New Zealand housing (around 400,000 homes) is in flood-prone areas, to the tune of $218bn. And news just in: flash flooding in Zaragoza, Spain, washes cars down highways:
So you think peaceful protestors begging for action on #ClimateEmergency are annoying? Wait till what hit Zaragoza in northern Spain today, arrives on our doorstep
And yesterday, “Code Red” summer storm killed 2 in Amsterdam, shut down airport, trainspic.twitter.com/Eytq0sRXB2
— John Gibbons (@think_or_swim) July 6, 2023
People in urbanism
Shout-out to these students from Ruapehu who presented at last week’s The Future Is Rail conference.
Ruapehu College head girl Grace Burnard spoke at The Future is Rail national conference in Wellington and said passenger rail could promote greater equity.
“It would allow people to have better access to healthcare practices,” she said.
“As a young person, knowing there is an accessible mode of transport that is readily available for me to use would be highly beneficial, especially when thinking about university.”Ruapehu College head boy Joshua Simons said communities in the Ruapehu region could benefit greatly from more sustainable transport options.
“Rail networks provide alternative transport that reduces the number of cars on the road.”
And how about this cool kid – Isaac Lee Sang has travelled every bus, train, and ferry route in Auckland. It took him about a year to tick them all off:
A public transport lover, Isaac set himself the impressive goal of covering Auckland’s entire public transport network, a colourful 187 routes.
“It’s something I do in every part of my life,” he said.
“I have a tendency to do a lot, as much as I can in as short of amount of time as possible.”
A nice read from The Spinoff about Professor Michelle Thompson-Fawcett (Ngāti Whātua), who’s putting indigenous futurity at the heart of urban planning:
Recent work by Indigenous designers and planners has been delivering places in urban areas “where Indigenous people can see themselves, their narratives, and recognise they belong,” she says. The Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland rail system is one example. The redevelopment of the City’s railway stations incorporates te ao Māori in the design. Using culturally significant, locationally-specific themes connected to movement by waka, navigation via stars, the flow of waterways, local volcanic māunga and more, the new development reflects the journey of those travelling through the city.
Meanwhile, in NYC: the longtime voice of the New York subway (“Stand clear of the closing doors!”) is finding her new voice as a trans woman – and the MTA couldn’t be happier to share the story as part of its Pride Month communications.
Tweets and threads of the week
<taps mic> Is this thing on? What with all the changes to Twitter in recent weeks, we’re shifting to screenshots of the good stuff, in case it all goes down. Except for the video clips, which we hope keep working for you.
In response to this article about how the vehicle fleet is too big and heavy to effectively electrify in time for net zero carbon, check out this great comparison of the amount of battery you need to move one person around:
Here’s an illuminating thread by Ryan Rzepecki about the “smart city” of Songdo outside Seoul, in Korea, a tower-in-the-park style development with huge wide roads. “It is what happens if a traffic engineer is given unlimited budget and creative control. It is the perfect execution of flawed ideas.”
This could so easily be any avenue in Auckland (or, as we so unimaginatively call them here, “arterials:… maybe it’s time to change that vibe?):
Manhattan rush hour has changed a bit in the last decade pic.twitter.com/KmpKYNetMP
— Urban Upgrade (@ForwardBike) July 5, 2023
Given the current combined crises of climate, road safety and now constrained operating budgets, Auckland needs to get smart about rolling out our bike network everywhere we possibly can. A quick, affordable and proven way to do that is via the ongoing maintenance and renewals programme. Here’s Brisbane, showing how it works:
And, speaking of main arteries / avenues moving smoothly, how about this fire engine making its way easily down Queen St. Or as we call it, Access For Everyone:
Fire engine travelling through transit only sections of Queen St. pic.twitter.com/YvR86C2kBl
— Kent Lundberg (@kentslundberg) June 30, 2023
Amazing how much space there is downtown, when you look at it:
Posted without comment. (Likewise, this display. We deserve better.)
Phwoar, looking good, winter-time city!
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I note that Simon Kingham biked 9km and it took him 25 minutes. That is a nice ride. In Auckland the ride to the CBD from most places outside the isthmus would be 40 minutes or more, double the distance and with all the obstructions it is not encouraging. So the number of riders going to the CBD from Henderson, New Lyn, Panmure, Otahuhu or Glen Innes is low. There are very few bikers coming from the North Shore. In the city there are no bikeways from Onehunga or Mt Roskill. Where do we build our new bikeways that will make a difference?
Maybe then we should be making it easy to ride into and around places like Henderson and New Lynn. Then people can do their short trips on a bicycle or ride to PT Hubs to make longer trips. Must also say E bikes are making longer trips quicker and easier, my ride from Te Atatu to Wynyard is 45/50 mins, E bikers do it in more like 30
> In Auckland the ride to the CBD from most places outside the isthmus
Even from the isthmus there are hardly any cyclists heading into the city because there aren’t any cycle lanes… make a safe route on any one of the arterials and watch it fill up!
“Where do we build our new bikeways that will make a difference?”
All the arterials get reallocated with concrete separators including a lane on the bridge.
Also, safe cycleways within 2km of all schools
Will someone please think of poor Mike Hosking. Where will he park his expensive car?
“There are very few bikers coming from the North Shore”
I wonder why that is.
Oh, right. A harbour with a discriminatory bridge design that hasn’t changed after over half a century.
In our sprawling city we need more safe bikeways connected to the nearest bus or train station. People will ride a few km to a station. I notice that there are usually just a handful of bikes parked at any Auckland station and more bike sharing and bike lock up places would help. AT could start with an area in any station with free used bikes for people to use.
The lack of cycling infrastructure in the central Isthmus is a joke. I can barely think of anything other than a small section of St Lukes Road.
I get the feeling the former Auckland City Council would have done a much better job, they were about to put cycle lanes on Dominion Road before AT took over.
In 2010 there was planning for both light rail and bike lanes on Dominion Road.
Thirteen years and not a metre has been built…
That will be the result of “push back” from somewhere influential against it….):^(
A lot of the support to establish active travel infrastructure is demand driven.
In NZ cyclists are made up from two major social groups of people. The better off generally, if they choose to cycle do so for recreation, or sport and maybe a few local trips to the dairy etc, but their main source of utility transport is a late model motor vehicle.
Many less well off NZers who do cycle to meet most of their transport needs do so because relying on a car is debilitating. If they do own or have access to a motor vehicle it will be one that is less reliable and only used when absolutely necessary, and also a older model which will be a maintenance and storage burden. A bike in combination with PT is often their most reliable form of transport.
Often if the prevailing residents of a “greenfield development” are better off, ie most if not all residents live in owner-occupied house holds, they will not be so motivated to establish the infrastructure needed by someone who cycles as their main form of transport. Many of these suburbs are residential with limited local commercial development. Supermarkets and other retail venues may be some distance away and easier to access by motor vehicle. Also many will commute some distance away to employment.
Also there are a number of these people who often prefer to live in these localities; places where a car centric suburb with limited to no mass transit options, for ideological reasons. That way they keep “less well off” residents from settling comfortably in “their” suburb. They see no real need to use a PT service and only cycle recreationally or very locally so do not need for networked cycle friendly infrastructure. Some view the introduction of a networked cycle infrastructure in negative social and cultural veiw-points similar to that which underpins racism and classism. Regrettably, some real estate sales techniques still actually use this as a sales pitch, ALBEIT less brazenly than in the past.
I lot of what you have said is sadly true.
Great argument for why we need to passionately oppose more “greenfield” development and embrace densification inside the isthmus.
Having biked from Onehunga to Newmarket many times, I am astounded by how easy the ride could be along Manukau Rd, connecting a great catchment of residential zone from Mt Albert Rd, Royal Oak, Epsom, to one of the best commercial shopping zones. Unfortunately it is extremely hostile with cars regularly pulling out and cutting off, full of parked cars in temporary clearways. Broadway itself is frankly a death zone for cycling, being basically a major bus hub but still with heavy car traffic and still allows street parking. There is also so much pedestrian traffic but the footpaths are so narrow, you feel squashed just so a few cars can park . Honestly, how many of the shop customers really can reliably use those street parks?
Since the Waterview tunnel replaced Manukau Rd as the best way from the Airport to the city centre, it would be a great time to reallocate the road space.
For convenience, here is a direct link to the graph in the report listing the most effective methods to mitigate climate change:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8589/pdf#page=14
“or, as we so unimaginatively call them here, “arterials”…
That’s the perfect name. They are the lifeforce of our cities, moving people around.
We just clogged them with both parked cars and slow-moving cars, when they should be full of people walking, cycling and taking PT.
Even our (wrong) moves to repair them align with the arterial moves. We constantly try to unblock them with localised surgery and widening, when what we should be doing is making what flows through them a healthier mixture.
Yes. We need a cycle network which includes over the bridge.
There are many gaps in Auckland’s networks, both for bikes and rail. The current Liberate The Lane campaign to return a permanent passage for pedestrians and low speed wheeled machined has phenomenal cost benefit ratios, in well being, in physical health, in addiction reduction, and also with a minimal financial investment compared to other very urgent infrastructure projects.
South Auckland has been reconnected and was never disconnected as the undercarriage of the motorway bridge was always retained.
It is now time to reconnect the North Shore to the Isthmus. So that we can all escape our water limited worlds, safely travel with our children, at our own pace, across the mighty Waitematā; as the Manukau has always been traversed.
Apparently Ngā Hau Māngere was an almost decade long investment of forty million dollars. There has been more than a decade of people’s dreams, protests and generally unpaid work put into opening up one lane of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, at considerably less cost than forty million dollars.
Surely Waka Kotaki believes in He Kotaki, that we are all one people and we all deserve to be able to move whichever way we choose, inclusive of two left feet!!!
Where is that graph from re New Zealand’s uptake of e-bikes (and scooters) ?
With the uptake of e-bikes and 30km/h speed limits, there’s no need for separate cycle infrastructure. Motorbikes and (vespa type) scooters don’t need separate lanes. Neither do UBCO bikes.
Sure – Maybe once all 50kmh roads are reduced to 30kmh then maybe we can have that conversation.
And maybe once vehicles actually drive at 30km as posted, rather than 50km. I’m overtaken multiple times a day as I ride at 30km in a 30km area by drivers doing considerably more than that…. all too often before they abruptly pull left again, well before they are a safe distance in front. It’s not something I enjoy as a confident cyclist, and as a result most of the so-called 30km areas aren’t places of let my kids cycle alone, though they are in or close to their teens.
I think its time a few fantasists who think they have a role as would be traffic legislators need to get their heads and egos out of Alice’s rabbit hole and take a reality check. “Universalizing” NZ’s transport spaces into a one size fits all zone of hazardous mayhem by injecting the narrative with a road rage producing mandated 30kph speed limit for all users is delusional, and proposing it in that way in expectation of something that simplistic being accepted by the voting public is an insult to most NZer’s intelligence. Its up there with thinking its still safe for your kids to play ball games on the road.
When motor cars were first invented, roads were used as a ‘universal’ public space. In order to legally be driven on public roads early motor vehicles had to stick to a 15 mile an hour speed limit and have someone walking ahead of them waving a flag and shouting warnings to other road users through a bull horn….. horse buggies were able to go faster at that time and knocked over many pedestrians, who also had to dodge animal cr*p and the odd chamber pot contents being tossed out of multi-storied building windows. It was still ok to light up a cigar anywhere as well. It was chaos then and these people want to bring it back! This was way before ebikes, escooters or electric mobility scooters hit the road.
The 30kph road safety narrative assumes all car drivers are ‘nice honest compliant people’ and respectful of other road users, who get in their way, like cyclists, mobility vehicle users, moped riders and pedestrians……and disregard the fact that a minor collision between 2 motor vehicles going 30kph, in which most of the pain for the motorists is felt in the insurance premium excess; is a vastly different matter than that of a motorist running over a cyclist because the ‘didn’t see them’, or a cyclist having to have extensive plastic surgery after face-planting because one of these selfish prats is running late for an appointment and cuts them off.
Maybe people who want to make laws like that could be forced to ride a bike alongside motorists who share their views, on NZ open roads for a year to meet all their transport needs…… should we be expected to trust these people-yeah right. And, the conversation hasn’t even turned to how this proposed magical 30kph traffic free-for-all is going to be managed for busses and large lorries, and the likes of people who have to drive vehicles for a living.
At the dawn of motor vehicle use, Regulatory authorities and the public knew that motorists couldn’t not trusted as a social group to comply in unison any more than they can now. Motor vehicles need separate, designated road spaces for their exclusive use, and so do other smaller vehicles and pedestrians, end of story. If authorities lend support to anything less they need to be fired for endangering the public. Get over it.
Safety requires much lower traffic volumes, too. Not just slower speeds.
The Queen St video of the fire engine is great. Need to show it to the fire service reps who attended the Safer Speeds meetings at AT. Their points about speed humps affecting fire engines were valid – but needed to be considered alongside other potential streetscape improvements that would hasten fire engine journeys – like the above example. Unfortunately, the fire service reps were oppositional to modeshift (cycling and cyclists were a butt of their jokes), VKT reduction, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, other traffic calming and the potential for right-sized fire engines in an intensified Auckland.
Basically, the fire service wasn’t informed enough to be “a road safety partner”. It would be good if AT was more proactive as the transport expert, to help bring paradigm shift in such organisations.
Thanks Heidi – perfect.
Our fire and emergency folks are brilliant, and are the people you want in your moment of need. They are however the worst advocates for safe infrastructure. Very angry at the 80kph speed reductions out our way – which have really dropped their workload.
Re- “Unfortunately, the fire service reps were oppositional to modeshift (cycling and cyclists were a butt of their jokes), ”
Fire safety protocols and vehicles will need to be reviewed in order to ensure that they can get into these spaces at the speed they need to.
I think most of the jokes and derision about cyclists demonstrates that the real issues are about the need to create new ideas of how and where motor vehicles drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, and those essential services are going to be able to do their job in new public roads and shared spaces and be heard in decision making about how they will be built.
The reason NZ is in this mess is that motor vehicle use increased, and replaced all the other ways NZers traveled. It also became a cash cow for the business community. Cycling just became too hazardous under the prevailing road regulations, and business neglect of public mass transit made it too unreliable and slow to be attractive for passengers to use. Students stopped using cycling to get to school. Finding quashed animals at the kerbside was a common experience. Cyclists are human beings, not hedge hogs and possums. NZ motorists started to view anyone daring to cycle legally on the road as a public nuisance, and cycling where it was safer, on the footpath invited hostility as well. Cycling for transport became a stigmatized activity.
It is the responsibility of authorities and experts involved in transport infrastructure reform, in design, engineering and building to ensure that new public infrastructure remains fit for purpose.
A much more serious knowledge based approach than that which has happened in the past is needed in helping NZ public opinion be effective in participation over critical infrastructure building decisions, to ensure that NZers are not trapped into making uninformed decisions that are supported by strongly held ideological narratives that have no hope of working except to create disaster. The protraction over issues about making an active transport route over the harbor bridge is a example of this. All manner of bam-pot complicated schemes were presented and argued about, but in the end simplicity won.
We need to be able to trust work done by people who will go further than just repeating what may have worked in the past and who recognize that the way people get around is undergoing a profound change, which means infrastructure has to rapidly evolve.
Its a mistake not to recognize the role nostalgia plays in some public opinion over decision making disputes. In the late ’60s-70s I traveled a rail commute to school in railway carriages that looked awfully like those seen in photographs of NZ’s early settlers. The commute began with a bus trip, beginning before dawn for most of the school year, and ended with a tram ride from Wellington rail station on a tram which I came across being exhibited at MOTAT. No-one seemed to have to care about that then. We do now.
There was a more modern rail-car which sped up the line from Wellington to New Plymouth in record time for the day, but it used to hit and kill people and other things on railway crossings too frequently. I saw 2 incidents on one crossing within 6 months of each personally, before the service was discontinued.
But change happens. It takes less than half the time now to travel the same distance on the Wellington line, with fewer safety hazards with the updated but second hand equipment NZ rail services purchased from overseas. But the equipment looks modern enough to lull NZers into a sense of security that this is good enough, until it breaks down and needs servicing….
Increasingly, NZ Service providers cannot get away as much with using old technology to meet 21st century needs. Cyclist jokes aside.
Thanks for the great Weekly Round up again! So many interesting tidbits.
The Puhinui Stream work is really inspiring… I’d love to see more updates on it.
The Fire Service are invariably called upon to extract motorists from their vehicles,post accident,and as such ,probably see some horrendous things. They,the fire service should be all over anything that reduces harmful contact on our roading network,it would improve their job immensely. I cannot understand,how they are struggling to conceive road safety.
Probably because many firefighters are as blinkered and car-dependent in their daily-lives as most Kiwis are. Same with railway workers. I struggle to understand why more of them cannot not see how policies and political-ideologies that prioritise building-for-cars are ultimately detrimental to non-car modes including rail.
Ref- “The first of the new shelters – which each have parking for 24 bikes – was trucked and lifted into position adjacent to the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre in Kilbirnie on Friday 30 June.”
Is this intended for the exclusive use of people just using one facility/ business? The structure looks like a throwback to mid 20th century cycle infrastructure, usually found in school yards. Are we supposed to view this as ‘progress’? Cycle technology has moved on from that time. The new technology requires more sophisticated infrastructure and a very different approach to providing user infrastructure than that of the past. I feel “bread-crumbed”.
Looking at the picture from a cyclist perspective. The parking shed is located in a open car park, shared with motorists. I doubt that the designers have ever tried to navigate a busy car park as a pedestrian or cyclist.
Motorists pulling out of car parks have to be constantly reminded to look for smaller vehicle users and pedestrians. This is not a health and safety issue that should be resolved by undue reliance on giving ‘stern warnings’ to motorists without looking at why motorists are injuring pedestrians and cyclists who also are also expected to use these spaces. Part of the responsibility should be borne by infrastructure designers.
Bikes are not “mini cars”, nor are they used the same way as a car is used. The most useful factor about bicycles, when used as localized personal transport, is their size. Cars are parked away from buildings, or located in spaces designed to prevent contamination of the air in residential and business premises, and because of the space they take up, and the chemicals used to fuel them while being used and parked.
Locating bicycle parking facilities in car parks, off shared pathways, at distances from pedestrian entrances to buildings requires added work providing safety infrastructure and enforcement administration against motorists running other car park space users who are not in motor vehicles over, and to prevent other shared pathway users colliding with other people traversing the shared pathways after parking their cycle.
This is ‘wasteful’ design. Having to use it is a major drawback for cycle and mobility technology users because the location and design deprives cyclists of a major part of the convenience experienced when cycle and mobility device parking is enabled in annexed apace, in close proximity to buildings’ pedestrian entrances.
These bicycle sheds while they may appear to be an improvement over traditional exposed bike stands, but not when located in isolation from where the cycle technology is used, or dangerously located at kerb-sides, which are cramped spaces and may require electronic security measures to be installed, where any structure will obscure visibility which may allow thieves to pull up a trailer next to the parking shed and use it to conceal their activity, or obscure the view of right of way for motorists and obstruct pathways.
Pictures from overseas of huge bike parking facilities also look like a ‘cycling infrastructure nightmare’. Part of the need generated for these huge areas of cycling parking [as seen in cities like Amsterdam] at transport hubs is that most mass transit hubs do not provide a full or appropriate service to cyclists by allowing them to travel with their machine .
Alternatively, with the popularity of hired scooters and cycles, locating designated parking and service centers for these as a structure added to bus shelters would mitigate the current annoyance of these vehicle littering the berms and being thrown onto pathways, and locate them in a handy position for people wishing to use them in combination with bus transport, without the need to organize a separate building project located at what could turn out to be a less convenient option for service users.
I hope that this post is read by infrastructure planners before more of these structures are built.
The shed isn’t located in the car park nor is access to it via the car park. It is located next to the car park but backs on to it. Access is from the paved path between the street and the aquatic centre main entrance, same as for the existing cycle parking. It is ~10-12m from the main entrance, plus easily visible from the street & adjoining bus stop.
If conveniently located covered cycle parking literally metres from the door is not good enough you what is?
OK, Thankyou for clarifying the matter. The photograph doesn’t give such a clear picture.
At The Future is Rail conference, there was a third student who spoke: Corbin O’Shannessey, the head boy of Taumarunui High School. I thought his speech was really good, as he illustrated the problems by giving specific stories of how the public transport deficiencies in the town are affecting people.
His words matched my observations from a few days’ prior, as I’d stopped over in Taumarunui for two nights to break the rail journey to the conference. I’d known the limitations of the public transport, but I hadn’t realised there wouldn’t be a taxi. Not that I really needed one – it just meant I couldn’t visit a few things further from town I was interested in.
I did have a fantastic time exploring Taumarunui on foot – swimming in the river, walking up each of the three main hills overlooking the town (and exploring the communities up there – including to watch a breathtakingly beautiful sun rise), walking out past the golf course to have a swim in the heated pool at the high school, and trying out all the cafes in turn. (Excellent food on the whole.)
Every transport system change that would improve locals’ lives and access to opportunities would also make towns like Taumarunui an even better option for domestic holidays.
Thanks Corbin, Grace and Joshua. You showed leadership far superior to the “can’t do” “won’t do” on display from the Ministry of Transport, Waka Kotahi and KiwiRail.
Great round up this week! I’ve a lot of reading to do now!
Smogtown game is pretty easy. If you don’t make any dumb decision (like EV subsidy or free PT instead of efficient) you end up with almost 100% popularity plus emissions almost gone. If only NZ politicians could do fraction of that….
Re- “If you don’t make any dumb decision (like EV subsidy or free PT instead of efficient) ” LOL! the game of giving the masses a charitable grant which pays for less than half a pair of shoes, knowing that very few will be motivated to take them up on the deal….. A lot of that going around.
exactly