Quotes
Automobiles are used for a variety of other purposes. As homes, offices, bedrooms, henhouses, jetties, breakwaters, even offensive weapons.
Frank Smith (b. 1928), Canadian educator.
23 December 2008
All of us here at Abley Transportation Consultants wish our clients, suppliers and sub consultants a very happy and enjoyable Christmas and great New Year.
The Abley Transportation Consultants office will close at 5pm today and reopen at 9am Monday 5 January 2009. Between Monday 5 and Friday 9 January there will be a skeleton staff attending to calls and responding to urgent client enquiry. The office will fully open from Monday 12 January 2009 to assist with all your transport planning needs.
6 December 2008
Last year we went white water rafting (grade 5!) so this year was a complete contrast and we took it easy with a winery tour in Waipara which is about an hour north of Christchurch and famous for its high quality hot and dry climate that makes it a great grape growing area. The tour included tastings, lunch and finished at a micro brewery before the trip back to Christchurch. The day started off midmorning and by 11.20am we were already at Pegasus Bay for our first tasting. Next we had a great lunch at Waipara Springs then onto Fiddlers Green and finally the Brew Moon Cafe & Brewery. All in all it was a fantastic day to celebrate a year of outstanding achievements.
The annual Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) Transportation Group conference is the premier forum for the traffic engineering, road safety and transportation planning community. It is intended to stimulate debate and was attended by about 200 professionals and has been running for over 30 years.
The award for Best Technical Note was presented to Steve Abley and Reuben Williams for their work determining the accessibility of Christchurch's public transport system. Paul Durdin was awarded a Highly Commended Paper for his work regarding access management of Christchurch's roads. Both awards were presented by the Chairman of the IPENZ Transportation Group Bruce Conaghan and the awards were judged by a three person panel from the private and public sector based in Auckland and Wellington.
Steve Abley says the awards reflect the exceptionally high quality thinking that Abley Transportation Consultants provide clients. Contact Steve if you would like to discuss how this work could be applied to your city or town.
1 November 2008
The MoT released 'Raising the Profile of Walking and Cycling in New Zealand, a Guide for Decision Makers' this month.
The guide shows how the benefits of encouraging and providing for walking and cycling can improve the liveability and sustainability of New Zealand towns and cities. It discusses these benefits, provides a ‘snapshot’ of the current walking and cycling picture, and considers the many initiatives that can be implemented to increase the numbers of New Zealanders using these active modes for safe and convenient transport. The guide includes case studies, including Abley Transportation Consultants case studies, for walking and cycling initiatives and practical ‘how to do it’ information for regional and local government.
The guide can be downloaded here (1.9mb) and more information on the case study projects can be discussed by contacting Steve.
30 October 2008
Today Steve presented to the NZ MUGS Conference on Public Transport Modelling including the creation of GIS based walking networks.
As part of his presentation, he announced that the Christchurch City Council had agreed to release the methodology documents for developing citywide and fine grained walking networks. The reports enable other local authorities to develop walking networks in a systemised and standardised manner. This means the walking networks that are created are transferable between users and local authorities and the network builds are made as simple and efficiently as possible.
Abley Transportation Consultants Limited wants to sincerely acknowledge and thank the Christchurch City Council for making this material available to the wider professional fraternity.
Contact Steve if you have any questions regarding the creation of a GIS walking network for your community. The methodology report for building a citywide walking network can be downloaded here, and the methodology report for building a fine grain walking network can be downloaded here.
29 October 2008
Today Steve presented to about 50 delegates from a variety of local authorities, central government and other consultants on trip and parking databases and the soon to be released New Zealand Transport Agency Integrated Transportation Assessment (ITA) Framework. This is the first of a series of national workshops, the second is being held in Wellington on 11 November and the third in Christchurch on 13 November. Delegates can download the workshop materials from www.tdbonline.org
16 October 2008
The Christchurch City Council today provided extensive comment to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) on the Land Transport (Road User) Amendment Rule 2009. The proposed rule is extensive and includes matters such limiting the use of hand held mobile phones, bus priority, parking and cycling. Andy assisted Council with internal consultation and technical advice to draw together a comprehensive submission of some 27 separate points. The Christchurch City Council submission can be downloaded here. If you would benefit from advice regarding submissions on government transportation strategy, policy or rules, contact Andy Milne.
15 October 2008
Abley Transportation Consultants office will close at 5pm Tuesday 23 December and reopen at 9am Monday 5 January 2009. Between Monday 5 and Friday 9 January there will be a skeleton staff attending to calls and responding to urgent client enquiry. The office will fully open from Monday 12 January 2009 to assist with all your transport planning needs.
14 October 2008
The inaugural New Zealand Modelling User Group (NZMUGS) Conference is being held in Wellington from Thursday 30 to Friday 31 October. Steve will be presenting on strategic modelling for Public Transport including the creation of walking networks
3 October 2008
In the latest Sustainable Business Network Southern newsletter, Abley Transportation Consultants was welcomed as a corporate member. Abley Transportation Consultants believe corporate responsibility is doing the right thing; behaving in a responsible, ethical and trustworthy manner, plus acknowledging our impact on society and the environment with accountability to our stakeholders.
25 September 2008
Five our our staff have been invited to present at the national IPENZ Transportation Conference that is being held in New Plymouth from Sunday 2 to Wednesday 5 November 2008. The programme for the conference is available at The Conference Website
Our presentations will cover a variety of topics:
If you are attending the conference we look forward to seeing you there. If you are interested in learning about any of the subject matters that we are speaking about, from accessibility modelling to resource consent assessments to safety best practice, please contact Steve.
22 September 2008
Today we received two award certificates from Bike Wise. Bike Wise is administered by the New Zealand Transport Agency and that promotes safety and biking as a sustainable, fun, healthy and enjoyable means of transport. One award is for being a national winner of the Bike Wise Battle for 2008, and the other is for being a regional winner of the Canterbury Bike Wise Battle for 2008. We are proud to accept these awards that reflect our support for sustainable transport.
10 September 2008
The New Zealand Local Authority Traffic Institute or TRAFINZ represents local authority views on road safety and traffic management in New Zealand.
The topic for this years confrence is 'tools to deliver in the future'. Steve presented at the Wednesday workshop session this aftrenoon on how a good public transport system can infulence the success of a sustainable transport system. Principally Steve explained how new and methods and tools for measuring the success of public transport system can infulence the managemnet of the public transport network.
Contact Steve if you would like further information and view a short animation of walking times from the confrence venue.
9 September 2008
The New Zealand Transport Agency today made available research that Abley Transportation Consultants Limited and Douglass Consulting Services Limited have completed on behalf of the New Zealand Trips and Parking Database Bureau Inc.
This report makes the Ministry of Transport’s New Zealand Home Travel Surveys (NZHTS) information more readily available to researchers and practitioners. The report provides a wide range of tables and graphs relating to modes, purposes and trip legs for weekdays and weekend travel. It concludes with recommendations that the research should continue to provide more detailed investigation of trips, travel trends and regional comparisons. It also recommends that the variables surveyed in the NZHTS be further assessed for use in the development of transportation models for future travel projection.
If you have questions on how this research could be applied to your specific enquiry, please contact Steve Abley. The research report is available here.
9 September 2008
The New Zealand Transport Agency today made available research that Abley Transportation Consultants Limited completed regarding:
The purpose of the research is to link physical and operational variables in the walking environment to perception surveys undertaken using the CSR methodology. These tasks were undertaken as part of the Walkability Tools Research project.
This report provides a summary of the data collected to date, the reports issued for this project and recommendations for data enhancement and analysis.
The report can be downloaded here.
3 September 2008
The Trips Database Bureau was an exhibition sponsor at the 3 day AITPM Conference in Perth, Australia. Kathryn produced the majority of the publication material for the TDB exhibition booth that included tight coordination with the TDB Administrator Malcolm Douglass and the TDB Perth member Donald Veal.
20 August 2008
Abley Transportation Consultants Limited today launched our Team Portal website named "Enable". Enable is accessed via http://enable.abley.com and provides web based access to documents in shared folders for successful project collaboration. Enable uses a check-in, check-out method for document management and versioning control.
Enable can be provided to existing or new clients regardless of Abley Transportation Consultants specific involvement in your project. Such is our commitment to good project management and successful project delivery. Contact Steve if you would like to discuss using Enable on your project.
5 August 2008
Steve presented in Wellington today at the national NZ Transport Agency office with invitees from NZTA, the Ministry of Transport and Greater Wellington Regional Council on measuring public transport accessibility.
4 August 2008
This is the third time Steve has presented to the walking conference, this time on the first day of the conference with a number of likeminded professionals speaking about 'accessibility'. The conference proceedings including Steve's presentation abstract can be downloaded from the official conference web site http://www.livingstreets.org.nz/pdf/conf2008/Abley.pdf
30 July 2008
"Michael Chou recently completed an MET research project investigating “International Accident Experience Comparisons using Accident Prediction Models”. Supervised by Glen Koorey and Dr Shane Turner of Beca, Michael investigated the practicality of using prediction models from other countries to estimate accident numbers in New Zealand. Because of various institutional, environmental and cultural differences, it can be difficult to compare accident patterns between different countries. Michael looked at various prediction models from NZ, Australia, North America and Sweden and found that it does appear possible to transfer models from one country to the next, but there are a number of factors that need to be accounted for. These include reporting rates, crash and injury definitions, speed limits and climatic conditions. Simple statistical tools such as CURE plots can be useful in deciding which models transfer best. For more information, contact Glen Koorey."
30 July 2008
Steve presented on concepts for planning and design for sustainable transport modes that include issues facing walking and public transport. The objectives for this course are to:
3 July 2008
Due to the increase in North Island based clients, we now have a base in Auckland to ease the lines of communication. Our Auckland contact details are as follows:
Phone: 09 974 9820
Fax: 09 974 9824
Post: PO Box 911336, Auckland 1142
28 May 2008
Casebrook Intermediate recently took out a full page advertisement in the Christchurch Mail. A feature titled Design Tech in Sync with Opportunity mentioned Reubens visits to the school through the FutureInTech programme. During Reuben's first visit to our school he looked at the site, met the students and teachers he would be working with and showed us a digital aerial photograph of the Casebrook Area. On his second visit Reuben used the big screen of the school's lecture theatre to take the class through the making of a digital site plan for the students future use - and a quick trip to Wanaka using aerial maps, it sure made the idea of scale clear! Click here to view the view the full article (1200kb).
8 May 2008
Reuben and Steve presented to Christchurch City Council staff today on Public Transport Accessibility assessments using the Transport for London (TfL) Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL) methodology. Staff said “Thanks for that Steve – it’s an excellent piece of work. My congrats... I was struggling to think fast enough about all the uses we can put it to... I love it when a plan starts to come together!” The PTAL methodology combined with our GIS skills and census data is a powerful tool for assessing good and poor accessibility to public transport. A copy of our presentation is potentially available on request; please contact Steve.
5 May 2008
Steve and Paul were pleased to accept an invitation from University of Canterbury teaching staff and today lectured to senior University of Canterbury students on Land Use Developments and Transport Assessments. The class ‘Planning and Managing for Transport (ENTR611)’, is part of the Masters in Transportation course.
17th April 2008
Reuben Williams gave a talk today to the Canterbury GIS community at the Regional ESRI User Group meeting. His talk was titled "Public Transport Accessibility Levels, Analysis and Automation for Christchurch City". The talk covered the background, methodology and application of the project, and also demonstrated some of the technical aspects involved with automating the methodology to allow for fine grained analysis accross the Christchurch urban area. A copy of the presentation is available on request. Please contact us for more information.
Thursday, 20 March 2008
The team at Abley Transportation Consultants have great joy in announcing they placed second nationally and first in Canterbury for organisations with 3-6 employees in the Bike Wise Battle.
Saturday, 16 March 2008
Angela Christie, Futureintech national Director, presented Abley Transportation Consultants with an award today at the 2008 IPENZ Forum for the company's major contribution for the promotion of careers in technology, engineering and science. Steve Abley accepted the award on behalf of the company and said "We're proud to encourage the next generation of engineers, we know that making a positive difference makes a tremendous long term career. Reuben Williams has been a fantastic ambassador for technology and a fantastic ambassador for the company".
Friday, 15th March 2008
The election scrutineers recommended that the membership be informed that Steve Abley has been elected to the IPENZ Board for a further 2 year term. "It is with tremendous pride that the membership has given me the opportunity to represent them again" said Steve.
Monday, 10th March 2008
We are proud to announce that Andy Milne has accepted a position of Senior Transportation Engineer. Andy is an engineer and transportation planner educated at University of Westminster in London and Napier University in Edinburgh. Andy practices in the areas of transportation impact assessments and development planning. Andy commences work on Monday 14 April 2008 and is available via email andy@abley.com.
28th February 2008
The team at Abley Transportation Consultants are participating in the Bike Wise Battle 2008. We promote methods of sustainable transport and it is important to us to practice what we preach.
The majority of our team regularly walk, cycle or take public transport to work.
11 February 2008
Steve announced today he is running for a second term on the IPENZ Governing Board.
"I have served two years on the IPENZ Board and contributed to increasing the Membership by 700 in that time. My vision is to double the Membership over the next five years and leverage our voice at a national and local level".
"I have had valuable leadership experience in various Board roles and as Chairman of the Canterbury Branch, including bringing a NASA engineer to Christchurch, resulting in TV1 and TV3 interviews. I want to continue my track record by promoting Members' engineering achievements and the value of our professional organisation.
Over the last two year's Steve role on the board has been particularly active, in 2007 he was a member of the audit committee, special subcommittee, competence assessment board and Pacific Island Workshop attendee. He was IPENZ Canterbury Branch Chairman from 2004 to 2006, an IPENZ practice area assessor from 2003 to 2006 and IPENZ Canterbury Branch Secretary in 2003.
Steve says "I would be thrilled to represent the membership again."
18 January 2008
Abley Transportation Consultants has been appointed by Colin Brodie (Transit National Safety Engineer) to train Transit's seven Regional Safety Engineers in the use of Road Safety Risk Manager, a software package that is used to evaluate hazards and treatments to mitigate those hazards on road networks. The need for the project has arisen from Transit's policy for continually improving road safety. Transit's Regional Safety Engineer's will use the software to ensure that minor safety projects put forward for construction are sound and cost effective.
7 January 2008
Paul commences work today and is available to assist clients with transportation solutions. Paul's contact details are here
7 January 2008
Abley Transportation Consultants has recently completed a study into the transportation effects of distributed retailing in Christchurch. Our firm was commissioned to undertake a RMA(s32) analysis on the transportation effects that a Council lead District Plan variation might have when trying to return Christchurch to a centres based approach. We were asked to prepare and present evidence at the Council Hearing and later to the Environment Court. Our report and Environment Court decision is available for download. Contact Steve if you have any questions.
