Aotearoa Bike Challenge 2020

Sign up and invite others to join this year's challenge

The Aotearoa Bike Challenge is a month-long challenge that encourages Kiwis to make everyday trips by bike, offering the chance to win some great prizes along the way, including a Trek e-bike if you sign up before 1 February. If you haven’t already signed up, register today - we would love it if you could invite your friends and colleagues to sign up, too.

We are excited to be teaming up with Variety - the Children’s Charity again this year to give participants the opportunity to ride and raise funds to get disadvantaged kiwi kids riding. Last year, 80 kids received their brand-new bike and helmet thanks to the fundraising efforts of Bike Challenge participants! Keep an eye out for an email from Variety once you've signed up.

There are lots of ways to raise money, through personal donations or even by businesses sponsoring their own staff per km travelled.

Find out more about Bikes for Kids here.

New Lynn to Avondale shared path underway

Construction has started for this 2.9km path, which will create a continuous shared walking and cycling link between New Lynn Station, Avondale Station, Waterview Shared Path, Mt Roskill’s greenway network, and the Northwestern Path. In the future, it will also connect with the Te Whau Pathway, which will follow the western side of the Whau River in Avondale.

The path will be mostly off-road and will cross the Whau River on a new purpose-built bridge (which will stand alongside the existing rail bridge).

Mark Lambert, AT’s executive general manager of Integrated Networks says paths like this are vital in changing the way Aucklanders get around.

“We know that safe off-road walking and cycling facilities encourage more people to get active. In the past year, nearly four million bike trips have been recorded across Auckland, an increase of 5.9 percent in the previous 12 months.”

The shared path will cost $44.3m. Funding for the project comes from Auckland Transport, Whau Local Board, and the Transport Agency through the Urban Cycleways Programme.

Construction has begun on New City Centre Cycleway

Construction has now begun on a safe, separated, single directional cycleway along each side of Victoria Street West, from Beaumont Street to Nelson Street. The project is due to be completed by March 2020.

The cycleway will connect with the existing cycleways on Nelson Street and Franklin Road, linking the city centre, Victoria Park, and other key destinations. In addition to providing more transport options and making our streets healthier places, there will also be safety improvements for people walking along Victoria Street West and at the Halsey/Victoria Street West intersection.

Across Auckland, as part of a Vision Zero and Safe System approach, AT is working to create a more ‘forgiving’ road network that recognises that people sometimes make mistakes, but the consequences don’t have to be devastating. This involves improving safety on our roads where there are large amounts of people walking and on bikes – like in the city centre. Find out more information on our website.

Tarmac Art towards better streets

New York’s transportation commissioner and initiator of New York’s urban transformation and cycling boom Janette Sadik-Khan wants to help more cities do the same thing. The Asphalt Art Initiative will grant ten small or mid-size American cities up to $25,000 each to implement their own arts-driven retrofitting transport projects. We look forward to seeing what the successful cities implement over the course of 2020!

Freedom through bike lessons for NZ refugees

Women arriving in New Zealand as refugees can often find themselves isolated, perhaps with limited language skills, a family to care for and sometimes living in housing a long way away from facilities. With their own set of wheels, these women get a new sense of freedom and can do simple things like getting to a language class or meeting new friends. Bike skills courses are run in Auckland for refugees, as well as this fantastic project from Wellington spotlighted on the BBC.

The build is on! Auckland’s future in progress is underway

Stay up to date on road closures

Major works will continue to transform Auckland’s city centre throughout 2020.

Early March until December 2020, Wellesley Street will close to vehicles at the intersection with Albert Street for City Rail Link works. There will be some bus route diversions. We'll keep you posted on the updates.

To find out more about the roadworks and projects we're currently working on, visit our website.

If you usually drive into the city centre, think about another way in. Try the AT Journey Planner or you can walk or cycle for part of your journey.

Choose safer routes at night

Techies are predicting a new ‘lighting’ layer will be added to Google maps in the near future, which will help with making night-time navigations a bit safer. Intel suggests that this new Lighting Layer will highlight streets that have good lighting with a yellow colour highlight which will allow users to choose a brightly lit walk home at night. Find out more here.