Cycle Aware Wellington is trying a new tactic; pop-up bike lanes created by human bollards. It sounds heroic, if not entirely practical. Will support for such action drop off as Autumn turns to Winter? And what happens if a truck doesn’t spot the change in the road layout?

However, in this case, the medium (or is it the median?) is also the message; there’s been some progress in creation of separated cycle ways, but they’re not coming fast enough for a lot of cyclists, especially in the central city.

So far, CAW’s human bollards have popped up on Featherston and Victoria Streets, greeting cyclists with a 25 metre stretch of protected bike lane. Not much, I grant you, but not many bollards give you a wave and a cheer as you ride by.

Of course 2019 is local body election year, and as Wellington Councillor Chris Calvi-Freeman rightly pointed out to this blog on Twitter, while public transport is a regional council issue, the provision of local roads is a city affair. So if you agree with CAW, it’s to the City Council you go, which is exactly where the opponents of such cycle ways are sure to be going (as well as taking the council to court).

With the benefit of hindsight, I wonder if the likes of Victoria Street, with its key role funneling people out of the central city (be it on foot, bus, bike or car) might have been the best place to start the whole cycle-lane conversion.

My recollection of the thinking around Island Bay was; “here’s a nice wide road with plenty of room for everyone, surely no one’s going to mind if we give a little over to the cyclists?”  Turned out quite a few motorists were rather attached to that wide bit of asphalt.

I wonder how much the concern over maintaining motor traffic flow out of the city played in the decision to begin the city’s recent cycleway upgrade in the suburbs? A lot of cyclists use Victoria Street to exit the city to the south. True, there are protected lanes between Ghuznee and Able Smith Street, but for most of the way, it’s a can of paint or nothing at all, and we all know how colourblind folk can be.

Perhaps more tricky trade-offs between space for motorists and everyone else using the roadway, need to be happening at the business end of town?

And there’s no doubt the cyclists are coming. Look at the bike racks, check out the stats.

This month is down on the last by the way, but the trend is up.

And given what last week’s Traffic Jammers were saying about our physical health, what’s not to like about getting more people on bikes?

 

 

 

 

 

So, a couple of high powered thinkers drift into town on a mission to get people back on their feet. How do you tackle the topic?

Take them for a walk around the block of course!

This week, Otago University released a report arguing New Zealanders need to get more active when it comes to getting around. It concludes the health benefits are too great to ignore, and our leaders need to prioritise walking, cycling, and other forms of human powered transport for the good of the nation.

The Report, Turning the Tide, lists these goals for 2050;

“Double the proportion of trips walked to 25%. Double the proportion of cycling trips in each of the next decades, with the ultimate goal of 15% of all trips being on bicycles.  Increase the proportion of all trips by public transport to 15%”.

If anything, these goals seem slightly on the conservative side, given the availability of electric assistance on bikes and other forms of micro-mobility is only likely to increase. I see no reason why smart motors won’t be able to kick in when you’re pushing off on a scooter, or using your roller skates, let alone bikes.

Of course, you could argue, if micro-motors are where we are headed, by 2050 we’ll all be floating around on our own personal pods.

All the more reason to encourage exercise while we can.

The report’s name suggests the situation we find ourselves in towards the end of the teen years of the current century is the result of a long term trend. Anyone who remembers 1980s high school bike sheds stuffed full of Choppers, Raleigh 20s and Healing Ten Speeds will relate to this.

In terms of winning over others to active transport (given I’m one of the converted) I think the surest route to success might be through our children. Adults who earn enough, can afford to compensate their sedantary existence with gym passes, but I don’t know of many parents who wouldn’t like to see their children living a more active lifestyle.

For this week’s Traffic Jam I took two of the report’s authors, Otago University’s Dr Sandy Mandic, and Wellington consultant, Andrew Jackson, for a 30 minute walk around the block.

You can read the full report here.  It’s the result of a lot of brainstorming which came out an Otago University run gathering  of active transport specialists earlier this year. Hopefully it won’t be the last.

It’d be great to see data from the University’s longitudinal study incorporated into a case for human powered travel. I’d also love to know what health outcomes populations in countries with more active transport (The Netherlands, Denmark) are achieving. Are the Dutch less obese? Do they have less heart disease? These were questions Sandy and Andrew were unable to answer.

Last year over a hundred Wellington doctors got off their chuffs  to argue more cycling infrastructure is a public health no-brainer.

I’d wager there aren’t many schools in the city that couldn’t do more to encourage kids to make their own way to class, especially if parents push them in that direction.

Sandy and Andrew are now taking their ideas to local and central government officials around the country. It’ll be interesting to see how many of them turn up as council and departmental policy in a few months time.

 

 

 

 

I was hoping this would be a reaction piece, but there’s nothing to react to, although Stuff reckon they had the inside running with this a few days ago.

I’m talking about Let’s Get Welly Moving of course.

Instead, my latest Traffic Jam is a set of wish lists from a couple of observers; one a  Wellington National MP, Nicola Willis, who has been very prominent in her criticism of the Greater Wellington Regional Council’s new bus network.

Here she is doing a Selfie with me on the No 2 bus to Karori. I’m the one on the right.

Nicola is a National MP. As such, her views are a pretty good indication of how the mainstream is moving when it comes to transport. Or at least, how National views the mainstream is moving.

My other guest was Arron Cox from Generation Zero – as in zero carbon .

Arron isn’t so well versed in the art of politics, and forgot to get a selfie with me. But he sent a nice one from the slopes of Mt Taranaki.

That’s Arron on the left.

The set-up for this podcast was simple; two guests are given the time it takes the No 2 bus to get from Lambton Quay to Karori, to tell me what they want out of LGWM and why. Luckily, we were traveling off peak, so transit times were pretty much identical.

If you’re a fan of less catering for cars, you might find Nicola’s views aggravating. However, given Arron benefited from a private vehicle to get to the slopes of Mt Taranaki (and he’s a greenie) what would you suggest instead?

Who knows? By the time you read this the Government may have decided where it’s putting its money. I’m half hoping, in posting this, I’m triggering Murphy’s Law.

Happy listening.

 

 

 

This is one scenario of four, and yes, this one involves digging quite a big hole under the city. The idea here, is to segregate the traffic traveling through the city, from the city itself. On one level (if you’ll excuse the mild pun) it looks attractive. The problem is the cost (which leaves less money for alternatives to the private vehicle) the disruption (it most likely won’t be a tunnel, but the trench that is then covered over) and amount of extra motor traffic such a scenario will deliver to the central city itself, not to mention the suburbs (have you noticed how busy it is in Karori, Kilbirnie and Miramar on the weekends these days?).

The deadline for submissions has closed, now begins the hard work.

Newtown and Berhampore are entering the business end of efforts to set up a functioning cycleway network in Wellington city. These suburbs are the pinch points –  where all that wonderful geography which helps to make the capital so compact and livable (and which becomes such a liability when you add a lot of cars) funnels everyone from the south down the same valley.

The Wellington City Council is going to come up with some sort of final plan of separated bike ways (off road and along the road) hopefully connected to the existing network, and designed so it can expand them when the need arises.

We can also be certain this will come at the expense of some room for cars and carparks.

The Island Bay Parade Cycleway, if I remember rightly, was meant to be the easy bit. With such a wide road, there’d be no trouble setting aside some space for bikes. Right? Well, that hasn’t quite turned out the way  its supporters hoped.

Which brings me back to Newtown and Berhampore, and the possibility that without the right leadership, it’ll end up as another Island Bay-like bunfight.

I discovered a lot of the groundwork, in terms of reaching a consensus, happened four years ago. I spoke to Michelle Rush, one of the facilitators who organised it.  A lot of the group’s recommendations, a group made up mostly of locals, has come through in the packages the council presented to the public. However the group, and it’s members, are now nowhere to be seen.

When the proverbial gets real, as it will, when some residents find they won’t be able to park where they used to, who will argue the loss of some carparks is worth it? Can cycling advocates rely on the council?

Over on the other side of the Orongorongo divide, Michelle Rush has been working on this. Here’s a post from a federated farmer in support of the process.

Cycling options stand a better chance of gaining support if  Newtown businesses, and Berhampore residents lead the debate in favour of what ever bike routes the council decides on.

There is risk in the council leaving the final decision to a committee of bureaucrats. Supporters of roads less traveled by cars, might do well to encourage the council to continue engaging with the community

There’s still time for Wellington City Council to do this. While it’s at it, it should get Newtown’s biggest employer involved.  Wellington Hospital currently forces many of its staff to park in already congested neighbouring streets. That’s where a lot of the local parking pressure comes from. What is the hospital going to do to support its shift workers in finding alternatives to driving to work?

If progressives want to achieve lasting change, they need to win over the conservatives, or at least enough of them, that when the next conservative regime arrives, it doesn’t roll it all back.

Happy jammin’!

 

It began as just another bikelash week.

Kiwiblog was lamenting the loss of 600 carparking spaces in proposals to make Newtown more active transport accessable.  On Newstalk ZB, Hosking, Hawkesby and Soper were all having a go at Government plans to spend 23 million dollars on encouraging kids to cycle to school.

“A sick craze” said Soper. “We’re not in the 1980s now” said Hawkesby.  Hosking summed it up thus; if a cyclist isn’t confident on the road, the Government shouldn’t be encouraging them. “That’s why it’s called riding a bike”.

I took a deep breath, as I often do. Somethings, being a cycling enthusiast is like holding open a prison door, only the inmate doesn’t want to leave. Instead, they hurl abuse at their would-be liberator.

How many online comments can you take?

Then, in the murk of a wet Wellington day, someone thought outside the box. Well, inside it really.

Caught on smartphone from the comfort of a passing car, a man, we think it was a man, cycling into the southerly, up Taranaki Street, in the rain, protected from the elements by a bike box, with strategic holes cut for arms and vision. And all as the car-stereo blasts out one of Tina Turner’s finest.

By Tuesday it’s all over Facebook. They’re sharing it in Spain. People exchange ideas on who Boxman might be. There are offers of romance.

Stuff and the Herald pick it up, and soon the comment sections are full – of love. So much love, for a cyclist.

Of course, it blew out as fast as it blew up, but just for a while, it felt like everyone was cheering for the bike.

Why am I writing about this now? Because in the debate about who shares the road and how, logic can only take you so far. For folk, who normally don’t think about these things until something gets in their way, emotion counts.

In my eagerness to open the prison door to all those trapped in traffic misery, I, like a lot of my kind, can get a bit earnest on it. It’s easy to forget the transformative power of a good laugh.

Because Boxman did make us laugh. Boxman was taking on the world, and ever so slightly, taking the piss. Boxman could have been anyone. Or put this way, everyone secretly, would love to be Boxman, if just for a moment.

New Zealand is blessed with cycling advocates like Patrick Morgan and Jolisa Gracewood, who remain positive and approachable in the face or relentless negativity.  But they can’t do it on their own.

We can all help. Want’s the point in being right, if it only makes us grumpy?

I never did track down Boxman. Well, if I did, I didn’t realise it. But in seeking him out, I gained a greater appreciation of the power of the Light Side.

If the buggers see us having fun, maybe some of them will want to join in.

It’s something I ponder most days; how different my city looks and feels depending on how I get around in it.

As a cyclist, it’s often a mini-battle zone. As a motorist, an exercise in frustration. Travel is something urban public transport users appear to endure, rather than enjoy. Then there’s the look of resignation on the pedestrian’s face, as they wait for another red light runner to pass in front of their “cross now” signal.

But Thomas Bryan had a perspective entirely foreign to me. After hearing Episode 1 of The Traffic Jam, on Wellington’s new bus network, he invited me to view his  neighbourhood through his eyes; eyes which can’t see.

Thomas, who works with The Blind Foundation and hosts a disability show on Wellington Access Radio , calls Newtown home.

We met at a bus stop on a wet and blustery day. Walked a few pavements, hopped a few buses. I learnt a lot. Of course, quite a few things Thomas uses to navigate a busy urban environment were right under my nose. The pads of yellow plastic by every pedestrian crossing, the hazards of sandwich boards and other things, blocking the footpath.

I came away from our meeting realising even my stationary bike can be a hazard, depending on where it’s tethered. I also came away with more of an appreciation for the value of noise; the dangers of silent e-vehicles, or of crossing signals drowned out by the roar of traffic – or the Wellington wind.

As Ellen Blake argued in Episode 3, the footpath is not quite the pedestrian sanctuary it should be. I have mixed feelings about opening up paths to other wheeled users (on top of those who already have the right to be there).  I do feel, whatever happens, the sidewalk should be a place where pedestrians come first, and pedestrians should be able to put their trust it that being the case.

Newtown struck me as a noisy place. A lively one too, and Newtown’s environment is all the more relevant given this is coming up .  It’s a microcosm of Wellington’s dual geographical blessing and curse. A blessing in that its geography has funneled three major suburban routes into one compact easy-to-get-around valley. A curse because when you overlay that valley with demand to squeeze a growing number of motor vehicles through it, things get messy.

I’m going to devote Episode 7 to Newtown’s potential make over. In the meantime, I invite you (in true Traffic Jamm’n style) to walk a talk in Thomas’s shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stats for the first month of Onzo ridership in the capital are out, with over 24 thousand trips registered with the dockless bike app.

During the initial two weeks, the Onzo app and its fleet of two hundred green, black and yellow bikes (which remind this writer of the classic Raleigh 20 of his youth) accounted for just shy of 14,000  trips.

That figure dropped to 10, 470 for the second half of the month.

Perhaps the novelty value and initial publicity, which came with the October 7th launch, had worn off. I also recall some rather ordinary spring weather over that period.

If we take the second half stats as being more realistic, it appears Onzo is most popular during the morning commute, with over a thousand trips between 8 and 9am. But even after dark there are Onzos on the road, with 41 trips picked up in the hour before midnight.

And when the sun shone on a “can’t-beat-a-good-one-in-Wellington” weekend, the Onzos were out in force, and not just on the waterfront. I noticed at least a half dozen (relatively) neatly parked outside an Aro Valley drinking establishment.

My  Onzo experience was largely positive. I found the app easy to use (once I’d worked out which way to point my smartphone to scan my cycle) and the bikes simple to ride. They are trundlers, not speeders and for that reason, are well suited to shared paths, especially our wonderful waterfront. The front basket proved most useful for my recording equipment, with plenty of room left over, if I’d decided to buy a few items from the shop.

On the road, their slightly cumbersome steering and lack of acceleration hampered my ability to pedal it with the motor traffic. Oh, and the lack of gears also limits them to the flat for most users (I did see one bloke walking an Onzo up Raroa Road).

If I was to use the app just once, the initial $14 to download it (plus the $2 spent hiring a couple of Onzos) would struggle to compete with an inner city Uber trip, but based my weekend experience, I would Onzo again if my own bike wasn’t available.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the bikes handled after a month of dockless ridership in the Capital. None appear to have gone into that great trolley park in the harbour just yet, although I discovered a few folk are taking Onzos home and keeping them for themselves (#Onzo shows on map, but is behind a locked door). Something for Onzo to consider as Wellington’s six month trial continues.

One thing I failed to find was a bell. Its location wasn’t obvious to my untrained eyes. Turns out it’s a twist grip on the right handlebar. Thanks to all those who pointed out my mistake. I’ll be sure to use it next time!

As for unclaimed Onzos getting in the way of pedestrians, I found most were parked in a considerate manner, and when I did find one stuck in the middle of a footpath, I moved it myself (it didn’t seem to mind).

On the basis of my observations and experience, I’d expect Onzo ridership to rise with the temperature, as Summer approaches. We might even need more bikes.  At the end of last week , 181 of the 200 initial bikes were in service. A drop-off of 19 Onzos a month isn’t sustainable, especially if their popularity increases.

But I’d say this to businesses worried about cycle-paths driving away customers in cars; build them, and the Onzo-dollar might come your way instead.

 

 

 

 

They tell me Wellington is a very livable and walkable city. Let’s set aside the city’s outer suburbs for this discussion. That’s for another day. But, thanks to geography, the central city is a compact little number. Whether it’s making the most of its geography is another matter.

Last week, I went for a walking tour with Ellen Blake from Living Streets Aotearoa. We started where a lot of visitors have started over the years, at the central railway station. Our plan was to make our way, via the “Golden Mile” (who gave Lambton/Willis/Manners/Courtney that name???)  to Tory Street, then down to Te Papa and the waterfront.

You’ll notice a lot of background noise. Some of it’s traffic, some of it’s wind. Not ideal, but does add to the realism. This is Wellington on a typical day.

Interesting thing about the waterfront, which I regard as one of the finest promenades in the country, if not the world (of course I’m biased!). It isn’t easy to access on foot from the city itself. In fact, you can’t even catch a bus to it!

There is plenty of parking at Te Papa if you want to go by car.

Speaking of which, my colleagues at RNZ have been looking at the latest market trends in private motor vehicle demand. Wouldn’t like to meet one of those running a red light when the green figure is flashing, or parked on a footpath (and in a lot of narrow suburban streets, the footpath is the go-to  option for wide vehicles).

Ellen has a bit to say about the latter issue. I’m planning to do a podcast on the former; I often observe pedestrians waiting (when they have the cross now sign in their favour) for cars running red lights. Why do so many pedestrians look so resigned to their fate?

But that’s for another Traffic Jam. For now, I invite you to download, sit back and let your imagination do the walking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’d like to put some cards on the table.

I own half a car. I like driving.

But there’s no way our family would buy a second one. Given all the things we could do with the thousands of dollars needed to purchase another four wheels, it’s not worth it.  Even if our income increased by a quarter or more, I suspect we’d find better things to do with the extra dosh.

That’s why I cycle to work, that, and the fact it keeps me fit.

But I’m lucky. I have a choice.  Others don’t. My partner is a musician, she needs a car. And then there are all those people who need a motor vehicle not just to get to work, but to carry the tools and materials they need for the job.

That’s the ethos of The Traffic Jam; encouraging people to think outside, and beyond, their transport mode induced bubbles.

So before you condemn those whose mode choices you can’t understand, I invite you to spend some time in their shows, or in this case, their white van.

And while you’re at it, listen out for a special guest appearance from George the Cat, who likes cars, especially to sleep on.

Happy jamm’n’…!