Minutes of Cycle Aware Wellington Meeting 6-7.30pm 3 July 2012 Library Bar.

Present: Claire (chair), Emma, Justin, Don, Luke, Isobel, Malcolm, Stuart, Eleanor, Tim, James, Paul, George, Ashley, Neil, Hilleke, Brian, Patrick, Dolores, Alastair (minutes).

Apologies: Frank, Phaedra

A long ride
Emma and Justin talked about and showed pictures of their ride from London to Bangkok, via Istanbul, Moscow, Mongolia and the Tibetan plateau. If you missed it, or want to know more, you can catch up on their Rolling Tales blog. We were inspired. It's rumoured that the next CANDO will be in Istanbul (to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Ataturk learning to ride a bicycle), with a post meeting ride through Turkey, Iran and the Stans...

Adelaide Rd/ John Street
We discussed the issues for cycling through this intersection, which is being changed to facilitate traffic into and out of the new supermarket on the corner of Adelaide and John St.
Problems include:

• Narrower lanes (to provide for an extra left turning lane from Adelaide into Riddiford)
• Advance stop boxes are provided, but will be difficult for cyclists to get to, since the lanes are too narrow for cyclists to filter through).

Hilleke suggests this area could be a good place to trial sharrows
Changes at the John/Hanson intersection may make this a preferred cycle route.
James will take our concerns to a future SASTRG Meeting (see below).

SASTRG (WCC's safe and sustainable transport reference group)
James reported on this meeting:
We went through NZTA's crash analysis reports.
Top ranked factors: observation / failure to give way / pedestrian action / driving too fast / alcohol.
2011 saw a spike for cyclist accidents and 2012 is tracking the same way.
We discussed the Little Fighters film but couldn't show a preview (equipment problem).
Safety2012 world conference is in Wellington in October. There'll be an Australasian Road Safety event held in conjunction.
Police discussed schools cycle skills, noting young kids have declining cycling skills.
Regional Public Health are clear on the health benefits of mode shift, and they are mentioning this when they submit on transport and health consultations.
Discussed the final budgets and agreements in the LTP (cycling confirmed; walking cut; safe speeds 40k zones cut.)
There's an engineering-related meeting in a month or so; I put my hand up to join and sent Paul our top three engineering questions (Adelaide/Jervois/Bunny).

Twitter
Isobel reported that our Twitter feed is up and running: @CycleAwareWgtn