The Aotearoa Bike Challenge happens every year as part of the Love to Ride international online community that uses behavior change principles to encouraging cycling and make the world “a cleaner, greener, more awesome place to be.” Data collected by the organisation over many years shows participating in Love to Ride challenges achieves “sustained behaviour change” with 40% of previous non-cyclists starting to ride weekly, 31% of them cycling to work.

This year, the Aotearoa Bike Challenge set a target of one million kilometres for transportation, and smashed the target a whole week early, saving over 180,000kg CO2 from entering the atmosphere.

The challenge lasted the month of February and we are very proud to be able to say that, spread over 347 rides, and including 1,142 commuter kilometres, Resolve Group achieved a grand total of 5,384 kilometres, saving 343 kilograms of CO2 and placing us first in Auckland consultancies with 20-49 staff.

Our Top Riders

Kathleen Munson rode 506ks for ‘fun and fitness’, while Dawn Collyns’s 299ks  were exclusively commuting. Daryl Lim rode 783ks, and Stuart McDougall 725ks, mostly commuting, as did Tim Christensen with 300kms and  Ben Sherriff (below, centre) with 230ks. Tim Mueller (below, left), who lives and works in beautiful  Tāhuna  (Queenstown), clocked up 654ks cycling the many trails around Otago. But it was Jack Jiang (below, right), who says, “I ride because I’m too lazy to walk,” who outshone everyone, with a huge total of 1095 kilometres, a significant number of them with kids! Ka Mau te Wehi!

Tim MuellerBen SherriffJack Jiang

Karen Fehl with Kristen White (COO, ITSAmerica) and Bobby McCurdy (Sen Director, Policy and Advocacy, ITSAmerica)

Karen Fehl with Kristen White (COO, ITSAmerica) and Bobby McCurdy (Sen Director, Policy and Advocacy, ITSAmerica)

Karen Fehl with Andrea Thomas (Global Business Director, Internet of Things, Intel Corporation) and HollyAnna DeCoteau LittleBull (Traffic Safety Coordinator at Yakama Nation)

Karen Fehl with Andrea Thomas (Global Business Director, Internet of Things, Intel Corporation) and HollyAnna DeCoteau LittleBull (Traffic Safety Coordinator at Yakama Nation)

A different approach to traffic signals; better in the wind (we think!)

A different approach to traffic signals; better in the wind (we think!)

Travelling on the Southwest Freeway in downtown Houston. Five lanes in each direction plus a central HOV express lane, this freeway forms part of the inner high capacity city ring route

Travelling on the Southwest Freeway in downtown Houston. Five lanes in each direction plus a central HOV express lane, this freeway forms part of the inner high capacity city ring route

Karen Fehl, our Business Operations Manager, and Martin Leak, our Managing Director, recently went to the ITS America 2023 Conference and Expo in Dallas Texas. The 3000+ attendees, mostly from America, came together to share their learnings and recent developments. Martin found the speakers articulate, detailed, engaging and genuine about wanting to share what they had been doing in their own corner of the states.

A key theme of the conference was how technology was being used to address inequity in the transport system, enabling specific groups within the community to be better served. Examples ranged from on-demand transport to connected ITS, autonomous vehicles to toll roads. The Lynden B Johnson Freeway, serving the Dallas Fort Worth area in northern Texas, for instance, incorporates a tolled lane where charges are variable, dependent on a range of factors including not only traffic volumes and congestion but also individual customer profiles, which enables particular sectors of the community to be targeted (teachers during school holidays, for example, and essential health workers during the Covid pandemic).

The question of how transport technology can help lower the U.S. road toll, which hit 43,000 in 2022,  25% at intersections, was raised by Dr Robert C. Hampshire, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, and Chief Science Officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation, who issued an intersection safety challenge as part of a National strategy to get to zero deaths.

Altogether, Karen found it, “an interesting, fun and stimulating week”. She said it was great to hear about (and see) data used for improved identification of safety risk areas and the evaluation of emissions of transport projects; the latest tools for video detection; progress made in CAV (connected and autonomous vehicles) readiness; different approaches to transport operations and corridor management. She heard reports of many, many different approaches to technology use for delivering a more accessible and equitable transport system. She also said Texas was a fascinating place to visit, “it was indeed big, and this extended to warm hosting and grand scale enthusiasm for all things ITS.”

Karen has a deep interest in, and much experience with, intelligent transport systems. She’d be delighted to have a conversation with you about any ideas or issues you may have.