Research and publications

ViaStrada and Abley Transportation Consultants were commissioned by the NZ Transport Agency to develop a national framework of guidance for planning and designing for cycling. The resulting framework, titled Cycling network guidance - planning and design (CNG) was officially launched in July 2016. It provides comprehensive guidance and / or links to appropriate sources.

At the IPENZ Transportation Group Conference in March 2016, Megan Fowler presented a paper on the CNG project, covering the various stages of project development, gaps identified in current guidance, development of the online framework and some of the interesting "quick wins" that have been addressed.

The Canterbury branch of the Transportation Group had a meeting where two presenters talked about e-bikes. John Lieswyn's presentation covered two aspects. Firstly, he talked about the CV Link project that he project managed in California, an 80 km pathway project that will cater for low-speed electric vehicles with a top speed of 40 km/h. Secondly, he discussed various legislative approaches around the world to e-bikes.

Glen Koorey presented at the 2016 TRB Annual Meeting in Washington DC about a research project investigating the relative effects on cycle count and crash numbers after installing a series of on-road painted cycle lanes. Twelve routes installed in Christchurch during the mid-2000s were analysed, together with some control routes that already had cycle lanes. Cycle count data along the routes were compared against cycle crash numbers before and after installation. The results found notable reductions in cycle crashes following installation, typically with a 23% average reduction in crash rates.

At the Bike Futures conference in Melbourne in October 2015, Axel Wilke presented on the development of New Zealand national cycling planning and design guidance. The deliverables from this project will be updated guidance, and a web-based reference framework that will point planners and designers to the guidance to be used. This framework is expected to go live in early 2016. More information on this project is available on the Transport Agency website. Axel's presentation is available for download from this page.

The purpose of this presentation is to highlight how professional training courses about planning and design for cycling contribute to a safe system for New Zealand. The presentation can be downloaded from our website.

Glen Koorey presented at the 2015 IPENZ Transportation Conference about a study to determine the extent that traffic speed is affected by on-street parking. Ten local streets in Christchurch of various widths were chosen, and observed speeds were recorded at various parking demand levels. The results showed that vehicular speeds fell noticeably with an increase in parking levels. On average, there was approximately a 10km/h reduction in mean speeds between empty and full on-street parking levels, with an even bigger effect noted in 85th percentile speeds.

Glen Koorey presented a paper at the 2015 IPENZ Transportation Conference that investigated the effects of changing current NZ pedestrian give-way crossing legislation to match many other parts of the world. Analysis of NZ's pedestrian crash data found that, if NZ road rules did change, then crash patterns at unsignalised intersections may change to mirror those at signalised ones. A survey of road users' understanding/perception of current/potential road rules found that, on average, 78% of people are already willing to give way to pedestrians. VISSIM simulation modelling of predicted delays to pedestrians and motorists found generally no notable effect on total personal delay caused by possible rule changes. Overall, implementing a rule change in NZ appears to be possible.

More and more Separated Bicycle Facilities (SBFs) are proposed in New Zealand, but their integration into signalised intersections is not well supported by the existing legislation. From work undertaken by ViaStrada for various clients (NZTA offices in Auckland and Dunedin, and Christchurch City Council), it is clear that multiple changes to the Road User Rule (RUR) and Traffic Control Devices (TCD) Rules are required to address the issues. Axel Wilke gave a presentation to the 2014 Signals New Zealand User Group (SNUG) workshop in Christchurch. The presentation can be downloaded from our website.

Palmerston North City Council (PNCC) is working towards supporting its community road safety educator’s with a Junior Road Safety Track in Palmerston North where young children can learn the skills required to be both a safe cyclist and pedestrian.

ViaStrada has been engaged by PNCC to develop a concept design for the track that will provide a training facility where young children can experience realistic roadway features such as intersections, roundabouts and traffic signals in a safe learning environment under the supervision of trainers and caregivers.

This presentation was given by Jon Ashford (ViaStrada) and Sandi Morris (PNCC) at the 2014 2WALKandCYCLE Conference in Nelson.

At the 2WALKandCYCLE conference in Nelson in October 2014, Axel Wilke presented a paper on Bicycle Network Planning: The Target Audience Approach.

The purpose of the paper was to inform about a new approach to bicycle network planning that is emerging in New Zealand. Fundamental to this is the cycling typology developed by Roger Geller. Case studies covered Christchurch and Dunedin.

Axel's paper and presentation are available for download from this page.