Senior Consultant Karen Fehl recently attended a seminar in Auckland presented by the NZTA National Cycling Team, a group designed to promote and streamline planning and procurement, cycle safety and the optimisation of transport networks.

Cycling is currently the fastest growing mode of transport in Auckland and with the government announcement in March of a further $100 million in funding for cycling through the Urban Cycleways Fund (UCF), there is now an associated emphasis on delivering cycle projects.

The seminar was aimed at assisting future programming and planning for cycle projects in light of this investment and was attended by people from a range of backgrounds, including consultants, cycling advocates, coordinators and educators, project managers and funding specialists.

Topics of discussion included the current state of play with cycling and cycle strategy in NZ, funding and the business case approach, types of people on bikes and their needs, overview design concepts, community involvement and promotion, and evaluating the benefits of cycle schemes.

Karen, who worked on cycle facilities early in her career in Wellington, and is interested in how different road user’s needs are managed on arterial road projects such as the bus lanes project on Great North Road, found the seminar both stimulating and worthwhile.

Mark Armstrong and Nigel Griffith attended Auckland Motorways recent ‘Safe Working on the Road Induction,’ a mandatory workshop required by the Auckland Motorway Alliance for anyone who has to work on the motorway network.

Mark thought the content was excellent and detailed, “There was time to discuss issues and examples raised by attendees as a group, providing answers on what to do and what not to do in the future.”

Key areas covered included Health and Safety responsibilities both as an employer and as an employee; qualifications, powers and responsibilities of the STM; emergency incident procedures; Traffic Management Plans and why they are important; minimum levels of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) required; garments and types of flashing beacons allowed; safety of plant left on site or on the road side out of hours; mobile and special operations and Operational Requirements and Auckland Traffic Operations Control ( ATOC)