North Taranaki Cycle Advocates
Combined NTCA/bike kitchen meeting
25 February 2015
MINUTES
Chair: Graeme
Notetaker: Stuart
Present: Kylie, Nigel, Alan, Graeme, Joelle, Stuart, Quin
Apology: Nathaniel
1. Financial report
Balances:
NTCA: $435.00
Bike kitchen: $480.72
Since last meeting NTCA helped bike kitchen purchase bike stand.
2. Matters arising from Nov meeting
Action: Graeme will enquire who the new Let's Go road safety engineer is.
3. Debrief on recent cycling events
- 20 inch retro bike race
- Bike to work breakfast
4. Coming events
- IPENZ traffic conference is coming up in Auckland - the first day will focus on walking and cycling infrastructure.
Action: Joelle will email Graeme link for conference.
- Bike census - Graeme and Stuart helping Let's Go with bike count during the commute on Thur 3 Mar.
- Joelle has sent links for following events to Graeme and wants NTCA to promote them:
5 Mar NZ Cycle Fest coincides with Bike Exhibition (art projects based on bicycles) and Frocks on Bikes arts ride.
11 Mar - Bike Bus - all schools invited to participate.
12 Mar - Hawera to New Plymouth ride, bone collector or individual/business challenge.
Riders needed for fit for farming cycle events during Womad
5. Bike Kitchen
BK is about two thirds moved to Coffee Escape on Liardet Street. Plan at present is to continue previous opening hours but there may be a conflict with the yoga group upstairs on Wed (if we make too much noise) - which means choosing a different evening. Liang wants people to show up at Escape Coffee at 10 am 27 Feb. There is still an unresolved issues about storing all the excess bikes from Joe's Garage.
6. Discussion on doing more cycle advocacy.
- Mayor Ross Dunlop (So Taranaki District Council) has expressed interest in developing a cycleway from New Plymouth to Hawera along the railroad line - will on require diversion at one location.
- Possible cycling related questionnaire for local body elections.
- Lobbying to improve rural signage
- Visting Venture Taranaki to seek their support for cycle advocacy.
Action: Quin will try to locate Pukeiti tourism report.
Action: Quin will try to get report from Taranaki Regional Council about their cycling plans.
- Attending Road Transport Forum (joint meeting of Taranaki Regional Council and New Zealand Transit Authority.
Action: Graeme will find out when Road Transport Forum meetings meet.
- Ongoing planning/development for walkway/cycleway through Oakura.Need for better signage for rural commuuter and school cyclist routes.
- Problem with contractors blocking cycling lanes with traffic management signs. This is contrary to NPDC and NZTA policy that all contractors need to have their traffic management plans vetted by either NPDC or NZTA. They're not supposed to block the cycle lane without created an alternative lane for bicycles.
Action: Graeme will email Carl about coming to one of our meetings to explain the process.
7. Roading issues
- Mangati Road really rough for cyclists at intersection with main road. This is state highway issue but NZTA is unresponsive to cyclists with issues. Discussed posting complaints to NZTA on our Facebook page.
Action: Alan will ring Carl to find out who to contact at NZTA and cc complaint to Carl.
- Steel barrier separating cycle lane from railroad under Paynter's Ave boxes cyclists in so they have no way to escape from trucks.
- Vivian West of Dawson - cycle lane ends abruptly and you have to cross two lanes of of traffic to turn left.
- Te Henui pathway - hard to cycle during wet weather do to water pooling, rutting, vegetation and vines.
Action: Alan will take photos next time it rains and make a request to Let's Go that survaces be made more uniform.
- One lane bridge on Junction Road - dangerous for cyclists when vehicle coming the other way.
- Ban on cycling in Pukekura Park - would require bylaw change to permit cycling and upgrade paths.
8. Cycle skills training
Joelle doing two days a week for Let's Get Going in New Plymouth pre-schools and skills training at Bell Block school.