Bike Waikato October 2025 Newsletter

In this newsletter from Bike Waikato:

• Message From the Committee – Reflections on Local Election Results
• Submission Opportunity – Morrinsville Road Fit-For-Purpose Upgrades – Have Your Say!
• Upcoming Events – Love Your Bike Day (November 1 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm)
• Events Wrapup – Public Lecture and Bike Ride to Till’s Lookout/Taitua Arboretum
• In the News – Mill Street Crash Update

Message From the Committee: Special Election Edition

We have written a full reflection on this year’s local elections which you can read on our website here. A summary of our overall thoughts are below.

The election campaigns this year have been fueled by frustration. While these frustrations are stemming from very real sources—rising cost of living, unavoidable water pipe and critical infrastructure replacements, and an unstable political climate—the posited solutions are not always realistic, effective, or based in reality.

Unfortunately, the electorate is not always aware of this, and bad faith actors take advantage. The decrease in voter turnout over the last few years has shown that there is a lack of trust in the Councils. We believe that we should be able to trust our elected officials to use the evidence to support investments into making the city, district or region, a better place, without relying on false narratives, or promises that are unrealistic given the need for investment into the future of the area.

Across the Waikato, mayors and councillors have been elected on platforms of “controlling rates” and “focusing on core services”. Naturally, cycling, micromobility, walking, and public transport are core services that Councils are expected to provide—even if they are not always treated as such. Many of the successful candidates in our region have pledged to stop or remove critical transport infrastructure, such as cycle lanes, raised safety tables, and in-lane bus stops.

Cycling is of course part of the solution to many of these problems—and not one of the issues. Cycling is cheap and convenient, especially over short distances, and increases discretionary spending, reduces congestion and traffic, improves our physical health and wellbeing, and keeps our air clean. Plus, we get all that for a relatively inexpensive investment!

This is why we are going to continue to advocate for cycling over the next three years. It is going to be more important than ever.

Join us as a member to support our mahi: https://bikewaikato.org.nz/get-involved/#membership. 

Submission Opportunity – Morrinsville Road Fit-For-Purpose Upgrades

Speaking of new local Governments—here is our chance to hit the ground running!

Stewardship of Morrinsville Road is transferring from Waka Kotahi to Hamilton City Council. This presents an opportunity for upgrades that make the road safer for tamariki and university students to walk, cycle, and scooter. The Council is proposing to construct physically separated on-road cycleways, raised crossings on side road entrances, and improve the signalised crossing on Morrinsville Road.

You should absolutely have your say here: https://haveyoursay.hamilton.govt.nz/morrinsville-rd-upgrades

With the new composition of Council, it is more important than ever to make our voices loud and clear. We want more safe places to bike! We want people to have transport options!

Our key submission points are as follows:

• We support the intended goals of the upgrades, which is to make it easier for children, university students, and casual commuters to cycle and walk on Morrinsville Road.
• We support the construction of physically separated on-road cycle lanes on both sides of the road.
• We support the construction of safe, raised crossings at Mullane Street, Morris Road, and Berkley Avenue side road entrances.
• We support improvements to the existing signalised crossing on Morrinsville Road.
• We support both options for the cycleway sections (on-road or shared path), noting that if the shared path option is pursued, it must be wide enough to accommodate both people on bikes and people walking, and people on bikes must maintain a current level of service, i.e., crossings across side streets should have priority for people on Morrinsville road— “orange lollipops”.

Upcoming Events

Love Your Bike Day, hosted by Hamilton City Council has been rescheduled to 1 November 2025 at Innes Common. RSVP on the Facebook event to receive further updates. See you there!

Biketober Public Lecture – Great Conversations

Thank you for joining us for our first Biketober public lecture. Our co-chairperson Melissa Smith talked us through their Masters research “When Bike Lanes Are Not Enough”.

Melissa took us through the history of car-dominated planning in Aotearoa New Zealand and the infrastructure that is likely to prevent people from riding bikes. They then introduced the “Level of Traffic Stress” framework and how it can categorise streets and paths based on how comfortable they are to use rather than the presence or lack thereof of dedicated cycling infrastructure, showing that Kirikiriroa Hamilton is composed primarily of “low stress” streets—that do not connect together!

Following the presentation, there was excellent discussion from attendees about the importance of wayfinding to help new and less confident riders to find low stress links.

Ride from Norris Park to Till’s Lookout/Taitua Arboretum

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our ride out to Till’s Lookout/Taitua Arboretum!

What an awesome group – we were joined by gravel bikes, electric bikes, standard push bikes, and a tandem bike!

We followed the Western Rail Trail from Norris Ward Park to Kahikatea Drive and then explored the suburbs of Frankton/Dinsdale before arriving at Till’s Lookout (and its killer climb!). The view out to the Temple and the greater Waikato was spectacular. 

The group then continued to Taitua Arboretum, carefully navigating the gravel paths and hills and greeting the chickens and ducks.

Big pakipaki to Rachel from the Committee for organising the ride! We hope to do more like these in the future.

In the News – Mill Street Crash Update

In late April, a young woman was run over by a truck driver on Mill Road. The truck driver has now been charged with careless driving causing injury. It is likely to be a few years before we know the outcome of the case.

In response to the crash, we wrote to our local Councillors, Members of Parliament (Ryan Hamilton and Hon Tama Potaka), the Minister for Transport, and the Chief Executive of Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency. You can read about our response here. Although we heard from (some) Councillors and the Chief Executive of NZTA, and we received a paltry response from the Minister, we still have not heard back from our local Members of Parliament.

With a batch of new local Councillors and a range of new Mayors around the region, we are planning to follow up with each group to press them for action.

We will continue to update you as we hear more.