Research and publications

The Canterbury Regional Council currently is developing a Regional Land Transport Strategy. One of the draft objectives is to minimise travel times, an objective which has widespread support nationally. For example, it is also an objective of the draft Update to the NZ Transport Strategy. Axel Wilke challenged this objective in 1999, quoting international research that suggests people often seek constant travel time budgets for the trip to work (as opposed to quicker commutes), and sparked an interesting debate. The issue also has funding implications and Axel therefore extended the debate into the forum of the Traffic Management Workshop (now the IPENZ Transportation Conference).

ViaStrada researched continuous cycle counting technology for the New Zealand Transport Agency. The research report is now available.  By "continuous" we mean counts of a few months duration or longer. Shorter-term counts (days or weeks) are probably best done by conventional rubber tube cycle counters. The aim is to provide road controlling authorities and others in New Zealand with information on the effectiveness and availability of these tools. This technology will aid the planning and monitoring phases of cycling projects and hence assist with the funding process.

This project consisted of two components:

1) an internet-based survey of road controlling authorities (RCAs) and regional councils about their experience and interest in counting cycle traffic, either manually or automatically, and

2) a literature review of traffic-counting technology able to detect and monitor cycle traffic on a continuous basis.

We subsequently undertook further research on counting technologies.

This presentation discusses recent work done by ViaStrada on cycle traffic counting, including a survey of all councils and Transit offices about their experience with and aspirations for counting cycle traffic and a literature review of continuous cycle counters.

Axel Wilke and Susan Cambridge are proposing to discuss design philosophies for signalised intersections in terms of pedestrian treatments.

In order to cater for pedestrians at the intersection, at least three different design philosophies could be followed:

(1) Provide slip lanes as per the proposal shown.

(2) Provide slip lanes with pedestrian crossings.

(3) Do not provide slip lanes, but have motorists turning left at the traffic signals.

The purpose of this presentation is to stimulate discussion and feedback from signal engineers at the SNUG (Signals NZ User Group) workshop. The presentation, focusing on the technical details, is based on the diagonal crossing paper presented at the 6th NZ Cycling Conference, but addresses a different target audience.

Devised by the Cycling Advocates’ Network (CAN), the national organisation promoting everyday cycling, and sponsored by Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC), the Cycle Friendly Awards are designed to acknowledge and celebrate some of the most notable achievements in the country that are helping to promote cycling and to create a cycle-friendly environment.

Sparked by a desire to upgrade its existing email-list system, Spokes Canterbury has embarked on a project to develop a new online website and content management system. Using a freely available "open source" web site framework called "Drupal," a new site has been created that allows a wider group of people to contribute cycling-relevant information, rather than the traditional "webmaster as gatekeeper" approach. This presentation, from the 2007 NZ Cycling Conference, summarises the work undertaken so far by Spokes and speculates on possible future initiatives in this brave new world of online advocacy.

This presentation was given by our former employee Petr Pokorný at a conference in Liberec, Czech Republic. Petr is comparing NZ and Czech practices for roundabout design. The most serious deficiencies of Czech roundabouts can be summarised into the following points:

• Traffic lanes too wide on entrances, exits and within the circle,
• Absence of splitter islands, and
• Insufficient deflection of approaches and exits.

The other deficiencies are more or less similar to those described in the publication "The Ins and Outs of Roundabouts - Safety Auditor's Perspective".

This presentation was given to the Network Operations Team of Christchurch City Council. It covers good design practices for cycle facilities at traffic signals. It highlights some layouts that have been found to not work well.