Contents:
- NZ's best of the best cycling projects honoured
- Impressions from 2 Walk and Cycle Conference 2016
- Call for Vision Zero to be adopted for NZ to bring down road toll
- Auckland Council gives nod to SkyPath
- Urban Cycleways Programme gaining traction
- NZTA consulting on Land Transport Rules
- Paris unveils its next-generation cycle lanes
- Portuguese government invests in university bicycle lending
- Planning method offers way to prioritize pedestrian, bike projects
- Weblinks
NZ's best of the best cycling projects honoured
8 July 2016- Cycling projects across New Zealand were recognised at the Bike to the Future Awards in Auckland tonight. Winners included a cycling junior football team, a power company and a rural school with a 60% commute-by-bike rate.
Auckland's Te Ara I Whiti (Lightpath), otherwise known as the Pink Path or Magenta Adventure, was named the Supreme Winner and also received a highly commended award in the Big Bike Bling category.
Judges said the Lightpath is an outstanding, unique and innovative design delivered in a remarkably ambitious timeframe through a successful collaboration with multiple parties.
"We are impressed with how Te Ara I Whiti has transcended walking and cycling for multi-use. In only a short timeframe, the Lightpath has become a celebrated, iconic Auckland feature," they said.
"The Lightpath has already had over 100,000 users and has quickly become a very important part of Auckland's cycling network, setting the benchmark for other projects."
The awards are a joint initiative by the NZ Transport Agency and Cycling Action Network (CAN). They are part of the third 2WALKandCYCLE conference taking place in Auckland from 6-8 July 2016 and recognise all the pedal-pushers, people and organisations working to make cycling a safer and more attractive transport choice.
More than 60 projects were nominated for awards, and winners were announced this evening by Hon Simon Bridges, Minister of Transport. There were six category winners, and six further projects that received highly commended awards.
The full list of award winners is here:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1607/S00101/nzs-best-of-the-best-cycling-projects-honoured.htm
Impressions from 2 Walk and Cycle Conference 2016
21 July 2016- The hotel bike racks were jam-packed with bikes of every variety: cargo, commuter, touring, electric and folding. It was clear, the delegates of the 2016 2WALKandCYCLE Conference had arrived in Auckland on 6 July to talk all things walking and cycling. Touted as the premier walking and cycling conference in New Zealand and occurring every two years, this year's focus was on active, human-powered transport for achieving healthier and more livable cities.
Delegates flew in from around the globe to showcase their research findings, walking and cycling programmes and success stories related to outcomes in health, policy and society providing a wealth of relevant knowledge for New Zealand today. Key stakeholders and policymakers from the likes of the NZ Transport Agency, Auckland Transport, BECA as well as City and Regional Council members from both islands were represented and eager to learn.
Read more here:
https://can.org.nz/2walkandcycle2016impressions
Presentations from the conference are now online here:
http://www.2walkandcycle.org.nz/presenters/presentations
Call for Vision Zero to be adopted for NZ to bring down road toll
15 July 2016- With the number of road deaths currently increasing in New Zealand, a group of organisations has come together to call on Government and local authorities to adopt a Vision Zero approach to road safety - aiming for zero road deaths and injuries. The #VisionZeroNZ campaign was launched at the 2 Walk and Cycle conference recently held in Auckland. Vision Zero is an approach used in a growing number of countries and cities around the world and at its core is the principle that life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits within society.
The calls come from Brake, the road safety charity, Cycling Action Network (CAN), NZ School Speeds, Waitemata Local Board Deputy Chair Pippa Coom, and Walk Auckland, who jointly held a workshop on Vision Zero at the conference.
The organisations say NZ needs to go beyond the current safe system approach by aiming for Vision Zero and creating a safe, sustainable, healthy and fair transport system for everyone.
Already this year 181 people have been killed on NZ roads, a 5% increase on the same time last year and continuing a worrying trend of increases to the number of road deaths over the last two years. Vision Zero (also known as Target Zero) is a proven strategy to bring down the road toll and ultimately bring an end to road deaths and serious injuries.
Read more here:
http://www.voxy.co.nz/national/5/257576
Auckland Council gives nod to SkyPath
21 July 2016- Councillors have voted to build the SkyPath across the Auckland Harbour Bridge by means of a public-private partnership.
The vote for the clip-on walking and cycling path was unanimous despite earlier opposition from some councillors.
Bike Auckland spokesperson Jolisa Gracewood, who had backed the project, said she was thrilled by the vote.
"I like to think it's a sense of inevitability, that there's this great big missing link in the middle of our city and that they have a chance to connect it.
"The tide was turning. That map with all the people who supported it showing just green lights all over the city for this project to happen."
Read more here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/309130/auckland-council-gives-nod-to-skypath
Urban Cycleways Programme gaining traction
4 July 2016- Nine of the Government's Urban Cycleways are complete one year on since the programme was launched, Transport Minister Simon Bridges says.
Through the Urban Cycleways Programme, central and local government are working together to deliver $333 million of new cycleway projects throughout the country over the next three years - the single biggest investment in cycling in New Zealand's history.
In total 54 projects are being funded under the programme nationwide. Of these, 13 are under construction, eight are in the design phase and 24 are under investigation.
"This investment by Government has meant that many cycling projects were able to get underway much quicker than had originally been planned," Mr Bridges says.
Read more here:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1607/S00046/urban-cycleways-programme-gaining-traction.htm
NZTA consulting on Land Transport Rules
The NZ Transport Agency is consulting, on behalf of the Minister of Transport, on proposed amendments to 15 Land Transport Rules. These include amendments regarding definition of intersections with cycle paths/lanes, overtaking cyclists, cycle lights/reflectors, use of "sharrows", and speed limit setting.
The public consultation (yellow) draft of Land Transport Rule: Omnibus Amendment 2016, together with an explanatory overview, and Questions and Answers, is available on the NZ Transport Agency's website at:
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/omnibus-2016
Submissions close at 5pm on Friday 12 August 2016.
Paris unveils its next-generation cycle lanes
28 May 2016- Paris has unveiled its next-generation cycle lanes, with the opening of the first leg of its new "bike highway".
The 600-metre stretch near Bastille features two metre-wide tracks on the Boulevard Bourdon, giving cyclists almost a third more space than traditional bike lanes.
There will be similar highways constructed around the city, all part of the Express Bike Network, which will eventually lead to 45 connected kilometres of safe routes around the city.
Much like London, the city will be first intersected north to south and east to west, using the river as a guide.
The lanes are designed to be wide enough for easy overtaking, making it a safer space for riders of all abilities. They are totally segregated from traffic and will cost more than 150 million Euro to construct - money dedicated to meet the 2020 cycling capital ambitions held by the City Hall.
Read more here:
http://road.cc/content/news/191681-paris-unveils-its-next-generation-cycle-lanes
Portuguese government invests in university bicycle lending
26 May 2016- The Portuguese government has launched a 6.4 million Euro long-term bicycle-lending programme in 17 universities, covering different parts of the country's mainland.
Conventional and electrically assisted bicycles will be lent to students as part of a program to start a boost current bicycle use in the country's mobility system, currently with a mode share below 1%, but aiming to achieve 5% by 2020.
The Portuguese Government's focus isn't only on improving mobility behavior amongst a trend-setting population segment - university students - but it's especially focusing on reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions at a national level.
Read more here:
https://ecf.com/news-and-events/news/portuguese-government-invests-university-bicycle-lending
Planning method offers way to prioritize pedestrian, bike projects
25 May 2016- For decades, highway engineers have had a universally accepted means of measuring the effectiveness of new or improved roads, and that metric, known as "level of service," has also profoundly reshaped the way our cities and towns look and function.
Now, as growing numbers of urban and suburban residents opt for other forms of transportation, including their own two feet, as a primary means of getting around, planners who are faced with making choices about reshaping streets and roads to safely accommodate pedestrians and bikes have been making up measurements of effectiveness as they go along. The risk here is that the absence of a universally accepted standard will lead local governments to spend more money than necessary on improvements that have little real benefit.
New research conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Urban Transportation Center takes a first step toward developing such a standard, and it too could in the long run profoundly reshape the way our cities and towns look and function.
Read more here:
Weblinks
Can air pollution negate the health benefits of cycling and walking? (hint: no):
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/253627
Cycling fallacies: Don't be fooled by common myths about cycling - use these explanations to help spread the truth:
http://cyclingfallacies.com/en/
Counting bike trips more accurately:
https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/counting-bikes-pedestrians-numina-startup
Google teaches self-driving cars to share the road with cyclists:
10 ways the bicycle moved us forward:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/82103/10-ways-bicycle-moved-us-forward
The bicycle problem that nearly broke mathematics: "Everybody knows how to ride a bike, but no one knows how we ride bikes":
http://www.nature.com/news/the-bicycle-problem-that-nearly-broke-mathematics-1.20281
About e.CAN
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About CAN
Cycling Action Network (CAN) is New Zealand's voice for cyclists. We want to see cycling become an everyday activity in NZ. CAN's membership includes experienced cyclists, advocates, engineers, planners, local and regional councils, bike shops, and local advocacy groups throughout the country.
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