News

ViaStrada are studying crosswalk changes for cyclists and pedestrians being trialled in Dunedin, at the State Highway 1 intersections with Albany Street. This is part of the official trial required by the NZ Transport Agency. Please help us out by participating in the survey.

Recently ViaStrada assisted with the development and presentation of NZTA's first webinar on walking & cycling topics, namely measuring and monitoring these active modes. The resulting (free) webinar is now available for viewing and listening to.

We are pleased to announce a recent arrival to the ViaStrada team for the summer - Niklas Höing! Niklas recently completed his transportation Masters at the University of Wuppertal, Germany and was keen to get some overseas working experience. He will be working for us between October - March, as well as taking the opportunity to have a good look around New Zealand. Welcome Niklas!

We are pleased to have submitted our report for this complex project, a formal Traffic Control Device trial of directional cycle signals. It involved four locations in Christchurch and Auckland, and we carried out baseline surveys, then observed and surveyed user behaviour (of both people cycling and driving) after everybody got used to the new signals, and the same again a further year down the track.

Congratulations to Palmerston North City Council for opening the He Ara Kotahi bridge today. ViaStrada's Axel Wilke undertook the feasibility study in 2014 for possible bridge locations and how this could link into a network of shared paths.

We were delighted to meet Joshua Gregory last week when he visited the office with his mum, Megan. Joshua arrived in the early hours of 23 March, weighing in at 3.9kg. Welcome Joshua!

ViaStrada's Glen Koorey was honoured with winning highly commended in the paper category at the 2019 T-Tech Conference in Christchurch. Glen's paper discussed who should develop and manage "Mobility as a Service" (MaaS) services in New Zealand. It was the inaugural occasion for the T-Tech Conference to give out awards.

Congratulations to John Lieswyn and Dr Glen Koorey who, on 1 April 2019, became directors of ViaStrada. Both are of high standing in the industry. They are natural leaders and we welcome them at the directors’ table.

Christchurch City Council and Auckland Transport have been conducting a trial of directional traffic signals for people who cycle – you may have seen the installations and even taken part in the user surveys last year. To conclude the official trial process, the NZ Transport Agency requires another round of investigation. Regardless of whether you participated in the user surveys last year, whether you have seen the signals, and whether you ride a bike, your participation in the survey would be valued!

The Christchurch survey is currently live. The Auckland survey will be active during May 2019.

The 2019 Transportation Conference gave recognition to great work on some of our projects. At the conference dinner, our Dunedin Central City schools cluster project was one of the finalists. Glen was then awarded runner-up for best research paper Glen Koorey on the mechanics and politics of changing a speed limit immediately followed by Axel being awarded best research paper on directional cycle signals. We were thrilled to be recognised for our efforts.