While Bike Auckland cracks on with the big picture strategy, helping pull together and promote a citywide vision, we’re delighted to report that strong local groups are hard at work articulating what needs to happen on the ground.
Bike Devonport is one of the longest-running, strongest, and most dedicated of the city’s Bike Burbs – not to mention creative: check out their fantastic Bike to Soccer project. They run a Facebook page and have a fabulous master plan which sets the standard for local engagement with city planners. If you’re a Shore person, you may have seen them at local events or joined their annual Bike to the Beach ride (pictured in the header photo).
They also host a semi-regular bike breakfast: a free-for-all gathering at a local cafe, for chatting about bikes and the neighbourhood in the widest possible sense.
The most recent brekkie took our breath away! As you’ll see from the list below, Bike Devo is 100% plugged in to what makes their community tick: local events, schools, sports, news outlets, shops and businesses. They’re also constantly in touch with their Local Board and Auckland Transport, and extremely clever at coming up with ways to make Devonport an even nicer place to be.
Could your local bike group grab a few ideas off this great list? Or maybe this list will inspire you to start up your own group? Courtesy of Chris Werry, here’s what Bike Devo is up to at the moment:
- BIKE PIT STOP Bike Devonport ran a bike pit stop at the wharf on the morning of Thursday 16th Feb, focusing on raising awareness about bike security, with community constables and AT there to help. And it wasn’t just talk: the group sold decent locks at a discount to anyone keen to upgrade. [Note: this ties in with a pilot project Bike Auckland has been evolving with the Police, NZTA, AT, and bike shops – watch this space!]
- MEET OUR NEW REP AT AUCKLAND TRANSPORT We plan to take Adrienne Hooper, our new bike person at Auckland Transport, on a tour of the peninsula to show her our ‘hood. [Note: AT’s Walking & Cycling team has people responsible for liaising with residents in each quadrant of the city]. We’re aiming to time the ride to coincide with the end of the school day.
- FILM EVENING The Big Bike Film Night is returning to Auckland in May this year with a new selection of films. It’ll be held at the Academy Cinema again, but we’re looking into the potential for a smaller screening at The Vic.
- DEVONPORT ARTS FESTIVAL We’ve been contacted by the Devonport Arts Festival, which has received a bit of funding from the local board to put on a street art event down Wynyard St on April 1st. They’re thinking of doing a shout-out on the local FB page asking residents to donate a bit of wall space/fence/garage doors etc for street artists or mural artists (or any artist) to paint on prior to the festival. They’ll create an art map and Bike Devo can lead bike tours around the residential pieces leaving from Wynyard St. Needs a volunteer to coordinate.
- BIKE STANDS The Flagstaff [Devonport’s local paper] asked for our view on shops using bike stands to park their advertising bikes. I said we had no problems because it promotes biking; but we do need more parking and if businesses want to partner with us we will help them organise parking outside their shop. Philip from The Vic is keen: perhaps a bike corral in one of the carparks outside Corelli’s on Rattray St? Also perhaps we can work with the recycling centre to up-cycle old wooden pallets for bike parking at beaches.
- BIKE LOUNGE [Note: A bit like a bike kitchen, but more casual for now!] With the closing of the bike shop on the wharf there won’t be anywhere to service your bike south of Esmonde Rd – so we need to become more self reliant. Brian Sorrell previously ran a bike maintenance co-op in California. We had our first meetup over the weekend which went well, and even fixed some bikes. Going to do it again in March; hoping to find premises and make it a permanent thing.
- LAKE ROAD CORRIDOR MANAGEMENT PLAN Work continues on the business case to develop a project to implement the Lake Rd Corridor Management (CMP). Bike Devonport’s position on this has three main planks:
- We need protected cycleways on Lake Rd.
- Francis St bridge to link Hauraki with Akoranga and Takapuna. (We’d love to have a champion for this project on the Local Board!).
- Greenways needed to help kids ride to school. (Chris has lodged an Official Information Act request with Auckland Transport to obtain more details of a design evolved by AT in 2015-2016.)
- MICRO PROJECTS Time to refresh our list of micro projects for the Local Board.
Keen to borrow some of these ideas, or start your own local group? Slide on over to the Bike Burbs page to find out more about what’s happening in your neighbourhood, and let us know what’s cooking…
