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.

Since the end of 2014, Resolve Group has been working with Auckland Transport on the implementation of bus lanes for the Great North Road corridor between Avondale and New Lynn.

From an early list of potential bus improvement schemes developed by Resolve, Auckland Transport decided to progress this one due to its relative simplicity to implement and minimal impact on the local community.

The project involved carrying out a site investigation, and using bus patronage and parking usage surveys and traffic modelling to develop a concept design. The concepts were drawn up and used as the basis of consultation with internal Auckland Transport groups, then the public, before being developed into a detailed design.

The work is a combination of intersection improvements at New Lynn, and signs and road markings on Great North Road between Avondale and New Lynn. Because there are existing clearways along the route, the level of disruption to parking is minimised.

It is hoped the works will improve bus travel time reliability along the route in accordance with Auckland Transport’s objectives.