5 March 2013 CAW meeting minutes

5 March 2013 CAW meeting minutes

Present
Eleanor Meecham (Chair), Brian Wolfman (Minutes), Patrick Morgan, Pat Brogan, Sridhar Ekambaram, Rozi, Tom, Tim Jenkins, Reuben, Hilleke Townsend, Jonathan, Don McKay, Alastair Smith.

Census day
Spoke about filling in question 41 (What was the one main way you travelled to work?) in favour of bicycle trips. Also spoke about how this question would be better rephrased to capture people's preferred mode of transport, instead of just the way they happened to travel on census day.

Go by Bike Day
About 900 people and 4 dogs (dog attendance up 300 percent from last year). WCC wouldn't provide as many signs as in 2012, so some people missed the breakfast as they didn't know about it.

Hutt Valley had their Go by Bike Day the following week and had about 150 attending.

Team Talk newsletter
Thought it was best to let this lie as it's now old news.

War Memorial Park
Presented plans and discussed any issues.

Some dissatisfaction with the loss of a fast on-road commuting route (as cyclists will not be allowed to use road). Point was made that as this is the only east to west connection from Basin area to Cuba area (all other streets between Buckle and Courtenay being one-ways) this is a very important route for cyclists to be able to use as a fast commuting route, so they should be given dedicated space to do this.

Suggested solution is to dedicate one side of the park to an east-west, separated cycle lane so cycle commuters can still use this as commuting route, rather than slowing down to walking pace among ‘meandering' pedestrians. General feeling was that this would be best for pedestrians too, as experiences on the waterfront suggest pedestrians also not happy about mixing with commuting bikes.

Or how about an east-west clearway for bikes on one side of the park (either north or south side) at peak times? Too hard to enforce?

How will pedestrians/cyclists coming from Basin area cross Tory? We will need lights there to avoid accidents.

Also, how to connect Adelaide Road to Memorial Park? Could the pavement of Sussex Street become a shared path, so cyclists turn left from bottom of Adelaide and follow edge of street around towards park? Or could a dedicated cycle lane be made on Rugby Street to bring cycles safely up to Tasman Street?

People supported removal of diagonal crossing light at Cuba/Karo in favour of being able to use Memorial Park to decide which side you need to be on. This would only work if shared path extended to both sides of the section between Cuba and Taranaki. The south side is currently ambiguous anyway, and cyclists use it even though it's not officially shared use (there's nothing to indicate it's not).

The park plans suggest that some thought has already been given to how this area will integrate with a possible Island Bay to city route... but make sure project team has factored this in.

What about right turn from Memorial Park onto Taranaki? Currently cyclists jump from shared path to road to go through on green traffic lights, as it is much quicker than waiting for cycle light. This will now not be possible, so make sure this corner has good light phasing for bikes (currently you wait a long time at that corner to cross by bike, and the time given to cross is short compared with the time that cars get to go through). Also, as all bikes will now have to wait there, instead of using road, sufficient waiting space must be given on the pavement for multiple bikes and pedestrians, to avoid impeding north-south bound pedestrians on Taranaki Street pavement.

Current ‘interim' treatment around roadworks seems to be working okay, and obviously more still to be done, but more signage would be appreciated to let pedestrians know that bikes are now allowed on pavements they weren't allowed on previously.

Letter from Matt
Decided not to discuss this as we weren't sure of context (who it was from, who it was sent to).

Bus/bike workshops
Four workshops to be run over the next couple of months. Anyone interested?
· Kilbirnie - 7 March
· Upper Hutt - 14 March
· Eastbourne - 9 April
· Lower Hutt (Waterloo) - 16 April.

CAN do
CAN's annual get-together in Auckland. Includes workshops on cycle advocacy, and group ride to Firth of Thames. CAW can help a couple/few people with travel subsidy if keen to go. Talk to Patrick Morgan if interested.

Big Bike Fix-up
This Saturday, 9 March, in Newtown.

Mind the Gap posters
Greater Wellington Regional Council have produced posters to encourage good sharing behaviour on the roads, with messages for both motorists and cyclists. To be posted around town, at workplaces etc, for encouraging discussion. Cyclists felt they weren't sending quite the right message as they portray cyclists as riding unpredictably, which is not what CAW advocates.

60 second rants and raves
Tim Jenks followed orcas around the bays by bike.

Pat Brogan wondered who is maintaining CAW's ‘Wellington black spots' Google map, and has offered to do it. Wondered if we have an ultimate purpose for this, and what it might be used for? Patrick mentioned the cycling@wcc.govt.nz address, which can be used to get a note to council about anything that needs fixing quickly (or not so quickly), but says no one quick answer to what we might do with the map.

Alistair Smith raved about Melbourne's bike share scheme, and the inexpensive helmets that you can buy from any 7/11 or train station helmet-dispensing machine.

Hilleke Townsend reminded everyone about Frocks on Bikes bike skills course ($20) on 16 March. Love to Roll was last Sat (2 March), good turnout and great weather for it. Also mentioned that biking in Auckland is much better than in Wellington, and was disappointed at how far behind we're falling. Auckland has more bike racks, lots of bike lanes and shared paths, and many people wear no helmets, maybe indicating that they feel safe?

Don, Tom, Alastair and Patrick all had seen about Wheels of Justice, the Fringe Fest mystery bike ride. Great fun.

Happy Birthday Claire!

Document Type: 
Groups audience: