Planning & policy

Environment Bay of Plenty asked a number of consultants to bid on the development of a regional walking and cycling strategy in September 2007. We won the tender and have since held three intensive stakeholder meetings to refine the strategy. Participation included all six district councils, Land Transport NZ, Transit NZ, two district health boards, the police, Sport BOP and a local cycling advocacy group, Cycle Aware Tauranga.

Should cyclists be allowed to ride across zebra crossings? When you've got a tricky question like this, who do you ask for sound and reasoned advice? VicRoads, the state roading authority for Victoria, based in Melbourne, sought the answer from ViaStrada. We reviewed international literature and based on this, gave our professional opinion on the merits of cycling across zebra crossings, signalised mid-block crossings, and crosswalks at signalised intersection.

Bike path users in Melbourne can often find it difficult to find their way around on the many off-road paths around the city. Hence, a review of the adequacy of signposting was required.

The trouble was, VicRoads staff never got lost; they knew their way around. So Christchurch-based ViaStrada was called in. If a foreigner could find his way around, the signposting would be fine. Or maybe the theory was that if a Kiwi bloke could navigate the routes, then a normal Melburnian would have no problems.

A discussion paper on a proposed national road classification system (NRCS) or road hierarchy was prepared in mid July 2003 by Andrew Macbeth (at that stage, working for MWH New Zealand Ltd) with input on drafts from Transfund NZ and Transit NZ. The discussion paper was distributed to all road controlling authorities and other interested parties. Recipients were advised of the project, invited to respond to a survey about the proposed NRCS and invited to attend one of a series of five workshops held throughout New Zealand to discuss the proposed NRCS.

Recent development of residential subdivisions in the north west of the city has resulted in a substantial increase in traffic activity on a number of roads in the area. The increased activity has not been limited to vehicular traffic but it is evident that pedestrian and cycle activity has also increased. Previously many of the roads experienced very little traffic activity.