Money for Cycleways

The New Zealand Prime Minister announced recently before the 2014 elections, that an additional $100 million is to be made available for cycleways over the next four years.
The Prime Minister in his announcement commented "that everyone knows the health and traffic benefits cycleways can deliver" It is great news that he and his Government think this way. It was my impression that the Government and the vast majority of the community are not aware of the benefits of cycleways to local communities.

In Auckland hopefully some of this money will be spent on the cycleway across the harbour bridge.
You only have to go to San Francisco to see the number of people out on their bikes crossing the Golden Gate bridge every day. This attraction boasts tourism and helps create a healthy and vibrant community which San Francisco is famous for.


In Auckland many citizens of Auckland see a cycleway across the harbour bridge as a project that would only benefit a few non tax paying pedestrians and cyclists. For this majority view to change will rely on the project being completed properly and not just as a cheap add on.

The new Oakland Bridge in San Francisco includes a integrated cycleway which is already very popular even though it only goes half way across the Bay until the second bridge is completed.

Cycling in Amsterdam

In New Zealand 77% of people get to work in a car rather than use public transport or cycle to work and as a result there are significant problems of road congestion and air pollution.

One of the solutions that is often touted is greater use of cycles. In Amsterdam 60% of travel in the inner city is by bike but with the large number of bikes on the roads and bikeways congestion has become a problem. There are to many bikes and not enough storage spaces in the city.

This is not going to happen any time soon in Auckland but careful planning is needed as cycling gets more popular to provide more bikeways and bike storage and to encourage the use of bikes for local travel and to also provide better pedestrian walkways that are segregated from the bikeways.

To reduce the reliance on the private motor vehicle we need to provide better public transport and provide improved pedestrian and cycling facilities. 

Advice on how to cycle in Amsterdam

Bikes in Amsterdam

Cycling Protected Intersections

When riding in cities bikeways do a reasonable job when you are riding along a city street but what happens when you get to an intersection? Both motorists and cyclists do not know. What purpose do the little boxes with a bike on them serve?

The attached link to a video has some good suggestions on how to get around this problem.

Cyclists Protected Intersections

Cycle Helmets

In New Zealand cycle helmets are compulsory. Some cyclists argue that making the wearing of cycle helmets does not contribute significantly to the cyclists safety and that debate on this issue is a diversion from the more important cyclist safety issues such as ensuring that cyclists obey the road laws and improving cycleways. 

Yurts

While cycling in the USA last year I noticed that in many of the State Parks they have Yurts which are a round semi-permanent structure that uses insulated canvas around a wooden frame with a domed roof above it all. There are also Yurts to be found in Central Asia.

The reason I mention these is they are perfect in my view because they are not like the home away from home palaces that New Zealanders tend to build at the beach. They are better than a tent but do not take up a lot of real estate and can be relocated at minimal expense.

 They would be a welcome addition to our holiday accommodation especially for cyclists.

Link to see how Yurts are used:

 http://fatcyclist.com

Bollards on Bikeways

In Auckland there are an increasing number of bikeways which is great but there is a problem of safety. To restrict the bikeways to bikes only there are bollards in the middle of the bikeways and there are a significant number of these. Not all of them are near roads so it is difficult to see why so many of them are required.