News

Megan Fowler has won the prestigious IPENZ Transportation Conference 'Best Young Author' award at the 2008 conference in New Plymouth. Megan's paper, co-authored by Axel Wilke, was entitled "Staged Pedestrian Crossings" and is available from our website.

ViaStrada's website is constantly changing, with details of projects, publications, events and new staff appearing on a regular basis. We have decided to publish a simple monthly electronic newsletter to keep our clients, colleagues and fans in the loop. It will be an easy way to see what's new in ViaStrada and in New Zealand's land use and transport planning fields.

Getting our newsletter is as easy as 1-2-3:

On Saturday 11 October 2008, ViaStrada entered four teams in the Hirequip/Fulton Hogan 6 Hour Blast at McLeans Island. The weather was excellent and all the teams got through the day with no injuries or major bike disasters. The women's team of Helen, Megan and Jeanette (Bicycle Belles) were placed third in the women's team category - well done.

Kathryn Stapleton started in the Christchurch office of ViaStrada as a Senior Planner on 6 October. Welcome to the team!

ViaStrada is reviewing the Tennyson St cycle path facility in Christchurch, some 7 years after it was constructed.

In 2001, the Christchurch City Council reconstructed Tennyson Street between Colombo Street and the Heathcote River in Beckenham, including a new kind of cycling facility. The design uses off-road cycle paths between the footpath and the kerb, with a narrower roadway than previously for motor vehicles. Some people love it; some hate it!

At the recent Trafinz Conference in Christchurch (8-10 September 2008) ViaStrada presented the preliminary results of an inductive loop continuous cycle counting trial undertaken for the New Zealand Transport Agency.

The trial concluded that inductive loops have the capability to count bicycles on a continuous basis. The full trial report will be published in October.