Minutes of the meeting of Rotorua Cycle Action 1  July 2008

Apologies received from:
Amy Fowler, Katrin Walbert, Christian Walter, James Blakely, Michelle Watson, Juliette Lasserre and Amanda Westwood.

Present:
Mark Dyer, Clarrie Hall, Chris Lenth, Mike Collie, Willie Shaw and Eldad Collins.

Membership drive:

Katrin & Amy's letter of introduction of RCA is finished and awaiting the letterhead. Thanks Katrin & Amy.
Willie shaw had some additions for it.

There was a request to ask Garry Sullivan about the number member signups there have been now that the website is online and also about the progress with the letterhead. (Chris to follow up since he will be talking to Garry anway)

It was suggested that we should express our thanks to riderotorua.com.
To those of you in the ride rotorua team: Thanks very much, your efforts are fantastic for the group and we would not be able to make much progress without you.

It was suggested that we need a separate version of the letter of introduction to relevant health related groups and walking groups since the emphasis would not be exactly the same. We are hoping the we can prevail upon Katrin and Amy again for this.

Correspondance:
Chris did not bring all received correspondance but he did bring:
A letter of thanks from RDC for contributions to world environment day activities of Chris Lenth.
A letter from EBOPadvising that they will be extending their process, effectively going back and starting again.
Willie Shaw will be sending  a letter to EBOP as a follow up on his submission.
Notably absent from the correspondance was any response to the submission to RDC.

It was noted that now that we are ready to accept members, it is time for media releases perhaps in the daily post and in local papers.

It was suggested that media releases could be used to aid education.
Note that there has already been a mention of RCA in Graeme Simpson's Daily post column.
www.vorb.org.nz (New Zealand Cycling Online) is another place that we could raise our profile.

It was suggested that most clubs would allow us to speak at their meetings and presenting our letter of introduction would have significantly more impact than just sending it.

The current list of tactical issues include:

• Scott St reserve crossing
• Mourea bridge
• Te Ngae pedestrian crossing
• Placement of temporary signage
• More advanced stop boxes (no specific locations yet)
• Use of coloured surfaces on advanced stop boxes and perhaps also cycle lanes

Ideally each request would have adequate documentation to clearly illustrate the problem and perhaps suggest a solution.

A map and photo/s with a textural description would be ideal.
It was suggested that a standard form could help to get consistant and useful input, perhaps a web based form.
A web based interactive map / blog that allows map markup, uploading of photos and comment on existing submisssion is still the ideal solution.

Actions:

• Contact Lakes High School cycling group. (Willie Shaw)
• Attend Drivewise Meeting & talk to police traffic safety people (Clarrie Hall)
• Draft an additional variation on the letter of introduction (Katrin Walbert and Amy Fowler)
• Document the tactical issues raised so far (Mark Dyer and Clarrie Hall)
• Organise media releases (Garry Sullivan)
• Contact our target clubs and organise an opportunity to present our letter of introduction (no one has volunteered for this, if you have some existing involvment with a club perhaps you could put your hand up. Coordinate with Mark Dyer to avoid double ups)

Update:
I (Clarrie Hall) did attend the drivewise trust meeting on 2 July and was welcomed.
I told them about our group, it's relationship to CAN, some of our progress so far and our concerns about the realities and perceptions of cycle safety, education and enforcement.

The acting chairman said he saw some synergies between RCA and Drivewise particularly in their new "Sustainable Transport" subcommittee.

They also are going to have a "Safety" subcommittee which they (Drivewise) thought was of less interest to us.
I am not sure that I agree but I do think that any involvement that we have in the sustainable transport side would still keep us in contact and allow input into the safety side of things as well.

After general business there was a report on drivewise's "kids in cars" campaign, followed by a report on the "Indik8" campaign.

It seems that Drivewise is able to work with the police on these campaigns to target specific issues such as seatbelts for kids and indicating at roundabouts.

I am not sure how these campaigns get started, are prioritised or the detail of how they are run but it would seem that it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a cycle related campaign could be run.

The police advised that there next campaign would be targetting drink driving at sports clubs.
Council reported on the trials of lights at the Ngongotaha rondabout and also of the upcoming work on the Tauranga direct road complete with a fly through of the proposal.

Of more interset to us was a proposed off road route through Hemo Gorge.
Kevin Thompson said he was walking on costings and design now. Since there are a limited number of commuters who would use it (currently 10 perhaps rising to 30) there would need to be a variety of funding go into it. He anticipates that the result will be a 3m wide gravel track from adjacent to the  carpark opposite Old Taupo Rd to the entrance to the mill access road that will eventually be sealed. Two routes are being investigated, a high one adjacent to the road and one the follows the original road down adjacent to the stream. He was very sketchy about details of the north end of this track but did note that now that the lighting has been upgraded it will be possible to reduce the speed limit in this area.

Kevin also noted the changes to the Owhata roundabout, the additional cycle lanes at the south end of Old Taupo Rd and the cycle lane approaching the south end of the Ngongotaha roundabout.

Unfortunatley I ran out of time and was unable to talk personally with S/Sgnt Denton Grimes.

Next meeting is confirmed at the Pig & Whistle 5:30pm Tuesday 5th of August 2008.
Please come along if you can, we need input from a variety of people.