We need your help to make sure Grey Lynn streets are as good as they can be.

Last year, you and 1200 people like you helped us support making Grey Lynn a calmer, more pleasant place to be. Now a group of disgruntled protesters have shut down construction of safe bikeways in Grey Lynn and are trying to do the same across Auckland. We need to make a stand.

The recent street upgrade isn’t perfect and has a lot of people riled up. There are a lot of good ideas; however, they do need some fine tuning. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater and getting rid of the safe walking and biking infrastructure to appease some angry protestors is a terrible idea.

Luckily, Auckland Transport is listening, and is working with the Local Board and the West Lynn businesses to make positive changes.

Here are some things we’d like Auckland Transport and the Waitemata Local Board to consider while they rethink their next steps:

• Keep as many trees as much as possible, plant new ones to beautify the village and surrounding streets, and create more great places for people to sit.
• Lower road speeds to 30 kmh through the town centre, which not only makes it safer for pedestrians and people on bikes, but also gives drivers a chance to see what they’re missing when they speed through.
• Let AT get on with improving the works over the quiet Christmas period – so the children of the inner west suburbs have safe ways to get to school when they start back next year.
• Aucklanders need to hear from AT that it’s still committed to its mandate to deliver safe routes for people on bikes, both as a local amenity and as part of the wider network.
• Increase the quality and safety of the bike lanes by ensuring they are separated from both moving and parked cars as much as possible, and follow best design principles.
• Be brave about fairer use of road space, so more people can travel more efficiently and healthily.
• Don’t be bullied into supplying even more parking at the expense of safety. There will always be a limit to the number of parking spaces on our streets and in our villages. The best way to grow your customer base is to make it easier for people to get there by other means.

Sign your name below to show AT and the Local Board you support saving the safe streets in Grey Lynn (and everywhere in Auckland!)