Projects

Since 1998, the Christchurch practice has been to apply red coloured surfacing in selected sections of cycle facilities to heighten the awareness of motorists and cyclists regarding the presence of these facilities, particularly at conflict points. However, apart from Waimakariri District, the rest of New Zealand uses green coloured surfacing for cycle facilities, as well as for bus lanes.

NZTA commissioned ViaStrada to update more MOTSAM (Manual of Traffic Signs and Markings) material. Gone are all the old double limit lines, for example. Some of the more noteworthy amendments are:

The University of Canterbury introduced a new course in 2008 - Transport Design Project. Industry mentors assisted groups of four students during the course of the project. Jeanette Ward and Axel Wilke mentored one of the groups.

Walking and cycling strategies are useful tools that aid councils in providing for pedestrians and cyclists. In 2005, earlier research found that 36 strategies were held by 30 different councils throughout New Zealand. A stocktake of all current walking and cycling strategies was undertaken. This revealed that there are now 61 strategies prepared by 55 different councils (out of 85).

Megan Fowler's first project at ViaStrada was to assist Tim Hughes of Land Transport New Zealand (now the New Zealand Transport Agency) in completing the Pedestrian Planning and Design Guide.

Transit NZ (now NZTA) commissioned ViaStrada to update the cycling-related road marking content of the Manual of Traffic Signs and Markings (MOTSAM). In a parallel process, we were also assisting in a revision of the NZ Supplement to Austroads Part 14 Bicycles, the NZ cycling design manual (the revisions have now been published). We think the industry has been eagerly awaiting the outcome of these processes.

ARRB Group (Melbourne) ran two-day workshops on "planning and developing walking and cycling strategies" in Australia and NZ. Andrew Macbeth teamed up with ARRB to develop content and deliver (with an ARRB co-presenter) the NZ workshops in Wellington and Christchurch.

ViaStrada was engaged by ARTA to develop a tool to convert short-term manual cycle counts to "annual average daily traffic" (AADT) estimates of cycle traffic. The methodology used standard pneumatic traffic counters with softer than normal rubber road tubes for detecting cycles.

Cycle traffic was counted at five sites around Auckland, with counts undertaken continuously for up to two weeks. In addition, manual counts commissioned by ARTA and undertaken by Gravitas during March 2007 were used to verify the reliability of the automatic counts and to help develop the tool.

ViaStrada staff are the only authorised agents for delivering SIDRA INTERSECTION training courses in NZ. The courses run by the software developer Akcelik and Associates receive a very high rating. ViaStrada is proud to have so far received the same positive results.

ViaStrada presents cycling planning and design courses at both fundamental and advanced levels. Over 700 people have attended these courses to date. This page contains background information on the Fundamentals course and its PowerPoint presentations can be downloaded from near the bottom of the page.