RobiNZ Personal Blog

Hobsonville Road Cycleway on the way!

Good to see this update on the proposed Hobsonville Rd Cycleway to link Westgate to Hobsonville Point. Even better to hear staged construction to start mid-2025. I ride this road quite often, will be a nice option. Hobsonville Road Cycleway | AT Project update for February 2025 We've been working on the final design of the cycleway. The design is based on feedback from the public consultation and key stakeholders on the route. The design is now available and we're planning to start construction in mid-2025 with plans for download at at.govt.nz/hobsonville-road-cycleway Read more →

Defending the Federal to Nelson Street Cyclepath and Victoria St Linear Park Project | Wayne Brown

Sent to Wayne Brown, Mayor of Auckland. CC Ken Turner (my local Board), Dean Kimpton AT Hi Wayne, I've always thought you were a bit of a dick and didn't vote for you. Seeing your comments in the NZ Herald article on the Victoria St linear park project and temporary cycle link from Federal St to Nelson St seems to confirm this. Here's my position on the project: Living in the West, working at Victoria Park Market I need that cycleway to get me to/from the new Te Waihorotiu Station or beyond to Queen St, Albert Park, Aotea Centre, and... Read more →

Missing the link? Hobsonville Rd Proposed Cycleway and SH16 Cycle Path

AT are currently seeking consultation on a roadside cycleway link between Westgate and Hobsonville Point. From there it will link into the existing Upper Harbour path/cycleway to connect to the North Shore. It will run along the existing Hobsonville Rd with provision for bikes added to the road intersections along its length. Hobsonville Road Cycleway | AT Site Link Auckland Transport is working to deliver a connected safe cycle network across Auckland. The Hobsonville Road Cycleway will provide safer access for cyclists to the Hobsonville Ferry Terminal and the new bus interchange at Westgate serving the Western Express. This is... Read more →

Modern 'cars' aren't safer for those outside them

A mention in David Slack's (brilliant) More than Feilding Substack led me to an opinion piece by Auckland (National) List MP Paul Goldsmith opposing reducing speed limits 'because cars are safer' and he included the Auckland CBD in his argument. I wrote to him... Sent: Saturday, 6 May 2023 16:19 To: [email protected] Subject: Cars are not safer, for pedestrians Hi Paul, Take issue with your 'cars are safer' and citing reducing CBD speed limits in Auckland as an example of poor policing in this recent NZ Herald article: "Auckland Transport has proposed the entire area of the CBD inside... Read more →

New Lynn to Avondale Pathway St Jude Street crossing death trap

Rode the new’ish New Lynn to Avondale Pathway today and saw how an inadequate road crossing is going to injure/kill people. It was this “crossing” (red on map) at St Jude Street, close to a road intersection and near to the rail crossing. St Jude Street is the connector between Great North Rd and New North Road with additional traffic from Blockhouse Bay Rd. All of these are major urban corridors and can be very busy. If not the nature of the road leads to reasonable speeds as people ‘race the railway crossing’. The crossing was slightly changed, for the... Read more →

Cycling further afield in the Auckland Regional Lockdown | Time Out 2021-22 October L3.1 to Christmas

On 20 October, the COVID lockdown in Auckland & Waikato moved to Level 3.1 which allowed regional travel but no access to the rest of the country (still at Level 2). Overnight trips, staying in rented accommodation or camping, were still not permitted but not really a problem for my day ride plans. A look at Strava history was useful to remind me of some gaps in Auckland riding, although not all my ride history is on Strava. I circled some parts of the map between the dashed lines (which approximate the Covid Region) I hadn’t ridden and started tackling... Read more →

Cycling local in the Auckland Regional Lockdown | Time Out 2021-22 September October L3

Being stuck in the Auckland Regional COVID Lockdown, from September to December 3, meant only local rides. I didn’t ride at all in the Level 4 lockdown as was still working and cycling around the block doesn’t appeal. On 22nd September Auckland & Northland relaxed to Level 3, just in time as 25th September was my last day of work. It meant I could ride within ‘walking home’ distance of home. For me, a self-imposed ~5km radius still offered quite a variety of riding. Most of my local rides take in the nearby Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. My favourite Titirangi... Read more →

Just because you are on a crossing, keep watching…

Red lights, cars stopped, green pedestrian and cycle crossing, all good, right? No! It doesn't look so dramatic on the front camera (due to field of view). I let this run a bit longer so you can see the cars queuing across the bike lane trying to enter a gridlocked parking area. The second white one was actually trying to push into a space which wasn't there and looked mad a me for crossing their path! But the rear view better represents what happened at the crossing and how close this near hit was. Read more →

Triangle Road, Massey, Auckland Chicken Run

It is astonishing how many cars are doing a head on "’chicken run’ down Triangle Road passing stationary traffic, on the wrong side of a double yellow ‘no passing’ line, crossing a two lane bridge with no means of escape. They must have a good job to be that desperate to get there… Just to show this isn't a one-off here is a repeat performance from today. * I don't use the bike lane down there unless there is traffic approaching from behind as it is rough, has a lip to the road and often covered in road debris. Read more →

Found the perfect Bravo HGT replacement

The end of this “Long Term Test” video shows the Ferrari FF (or similar GTC4Lusso which recently replaced it) is a viable replacement for my Bravo as shares all these attributes: Italian 4 seats which fit actual people Acceptable performance Acceptable economy (given performance) Practical hatchback, fits a bike in the back! Just a matter of finding the funding… Even used still not exactly ‘affordable’… (TradeMe December 2018) Read more →