The new online Cycling Network Guidance was launched in July at the 2 Walk and Cycle conference following extensive trialling. This smart tool will enable safer cycling networks to be planned, designed and built across New Zealand encouraging more people to get around every day by bike.
Historically, New Zealand has largely relied on following guidance from Austroads. Although Austroads did have a New Zealand supplement, we needed a more dynamic reference source that could be easily updated as new information came to hand, rather than waiting for a new edition of a printed document. The online tool was the answer.
The project was led by the Transport Agency in collaboration with local government and sets out a principles-based process for deciding what cycling provision is desirable for the location, and provides best-practice guidance for cycleway design.
National Cycling Programme, Principal Advisor, Gerry Dance says that the project was eighteen months in the making.
“During the first stage we reviewed the available national and international best practice guidance, together with 160 in-depth stakeholder survey responses. From this we identified over sixty gaps in current guidance.
“Most of these were addressed in the second stage of the project which also saw the development of the online framework on the Transport Agency web platform.”
Gerry says that the Cycling Network Guidance project has been a real collaborative effort working across the Transport Agency and with our sector partners.
“The on-line tool is also a first of its kind to be launched on the Transport Agency web platform, and a special thank you must go to Eva, Paul and the Channels team for making it happen,” says Gerry.
The Cycling Network Guidance online tool was developed in direct response to, and in support of, the Government’s Urban Cycleways Programme and the New Zealand Cycling Safety Panel’s report recommendations. To find out more about the Cycling Network Guidance, please contact Gerry.Dance@nzta.govt.nz
Online at www.nzta.govt.nz/cng
