This morning, Bike Auckland had a slightly less typical meeting – a cupcake shout, sponsored by Bike Auckland for the lovely walking/cycling folks of Auckland Transport.
These are the folks who managed to convince the other AT departments and third-party stakeholders of the needed changes to Quay Street to ensure that the whole new cycleway will be protected, cycle-only, rather than have a short section of shared path in the middle near the ferry terminal.
As promised two weeks ago when we heard the decision had been made, we really felt that needed some praise and reward. Because it would have been easy enough for people to say “Well, we tried” and leave it as originally shown.
After all, there were some real issues with existing permits and historic promises made to bus operators and others – and it took some design creativity and skilled internal diplomacy to convince everyone that the new solution (which moves the Explorer Bus onto Queens Wharf for an interim period), was workable and sensible.
We in particular want to thank Kit McLean, project manager of Quay Street Cycleway project, and Greg Edmonds, AT’s Chief Infrastructure Officer, who was instrumental in getting the changes approved.
But really, the cupcakes were for everyone in Council who is involved in building good cycleways (next time we need to bring more than 20!) – and who too often are caught between the dual stormfronts of cycle advocates (“That’s nice, BUT…”) and that proportion of the public that feels all this bike stuff is an overblown fad or worse (“You are planning WHAT?”). It’s not an easy job, and it deserves more reward.
Talking of reward, we were asked if the cupcake deliveries were going to become a regular thing now. We said we’re sure that we can make that happen… they just have to do such great work as often as possible! Thanks folks, enjoy the cupcakes – and looking out of your windows and seeing the cycleway progress along Quay Street.
