Kidical Mass: the future on wheels

This post began as a thread over on Twitter, where it struck a chord. All I did was share some thoughts and photos from last weekend’s lovely Kidical Mass bike ride (hosted by Bike Auckland under the banner of Biketober and the inaugural Auckland Climate Festival)… and it really took off.…
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Too little, too late: what now for safety?

Auckland Transport is consulting on safety improvements in Pukekohe town centre, including raised crossings and new traffic signals. Feedback closes tomorrow Wednesday 31 August, so it’s not too late to have your say. Unfortunately, it is too late for the poor soul who died on Monday after being hit by a bus at a roundabout that AT proposes replacing with traffic lights. …
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Safety on Ash St & Rata St – but not for bikes

Last year Auckland Transport consulted on safety along Ash St and Rata St, a critical link from the west for public transport, freight, and cycling, as well as a busy local connection and a north-south severance through Avondale. Matt wrote at the time about this “pre-consultation consultation” – in particular, asking why it was phrased as such an open question, given safety issues and safety treatments are so well understood.…
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DIY Safety

Tactical urbanism is in the air at the moment. In case you’re not familiar with the concept, tactical urbanism is a design strategy that involves testing changes to spaces temporarily before permanent solutions are built. It’s a cost-effective way of trying things out without many expensive hours of design, planning and construction.…
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Guest Post: Why bike lanes need to be designed for women

A guest post by Marita Hunt A handful of recent articles on cycling, gender and the climate demonstrate the value of centralising women when designing cycling infrastructure. In February, a paper called Pedalling Towards Equity: Exploring Women’s Cycling in a New Zealand City by Marie Russell, Cheryl Davies, Kirsty Wild and Caroline Shaw was published in the Journal of Transport Geography.…
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Copenhagen: Confirmation of the future sensual city

In August this year Greater Auckland reproduced a chapter I wrote for a book speculating on our future world, The Big Questions, in three posts; here, here, and here. Included was the section below describing the city centre. In bold is a short description of what I imagine the sensual experience of these future streets will be like: The whole Queen Street valley will be car-free, plied only by emergency and delivery and service vehicles, the latter at set times.…
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Constructive conversations about change

Over the next few years Auckland’s streets will see unprecedented change. This may be in the form of expanding our safe cycling network to provide healthy, safe and sustainable travel options. It may be in the form of bus lanes to improve the reliability of our bus network and encourage more people to use public transport.…
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Watch: Why Isn’t Cycling Normal in London?

Here’s a funny and informative video about why cycling mostly sucks in English speaking countries. It is based on the London experience but it has commonalities with other countries/cities: start with separated cycleways in the early 20th century -> vehicular cycling -> planning for cars -> crappy infrastructure era, and finally -> proper separated infrastructure.…
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