Maja Zidov, Sustainability and Wellbeing Manager
Our Sustainability and Wellbeing Manager, Maja Zidov has been working on making sustainable transport choices available and appealing for our people. She shares the latest news on cycling and carpooling.
Commercial Administrator Lisa Martin and Zara Osborne, Sustainability Intern, testing the new bike fleet booking system
Cycling
“Earlier this year, and in time for AT’s February bike challenge, sustainability intern Zara Osborne worked with our reception superstars Lisa Martin and Jessi Golding, on the re-launch of our staff bike fleet. We restocked our gear (locks, vests, pumps, helmets), simplified the booking system, and encouraged our staff to give it a go, whether it be exploring our campus during lunchtime or to get to meetings on time.
To date, 50 of our staff have borrowed an e-bike during the day or overnight to try it out for their home to work commute. In August, along with our partners, Big Street bikers (BSB), we organised group rides to promote the exclusive ‘Ride to Own’ scheme, and to connect new cyclists with the cycling community. Across three different events, we engaged with approximately 75 students and staff. BSB crew, by the way, is our onsite bike repair service and has helped keep our fleet on the road, despite battery glitches, parts breaking and wheels not cooperating.
Harry, a costume design at Unitec, is interning with BSB for their Bikerwear range
The Big Street Bikers crew in their temporary hub in B003
BSB has set up their temporary headquarters at the northern end of our Mt Albert campus, in B003. The studio/workshop is in prototype mode and has employed two interns from our School of Creative Industries. Harry, pictured below is our costume design student working on Bikerwear range – totes, tees, tops and other accouterments of fruity punk Big Street Biker style. Because as Cleve, Chief of Culture and one of the founders likes to say “being visible on a bike doesn’t mean you have to look like a road cone”.
You can meet them all this Wednesday at their Kai & Ride event, and finally, have the good old question answered: “why are all those bikes in Building 3?””
Carpooling
“All good things take time right? Cris de Groot – Senior Academic Leader Business and Innovation in Creative Industries has, for the last year-and-a-half, been leading a project for solving one of the big carpooling challenges – finding a match.
Carpooling is like dating. It can be very exciting but most of the time it feels like a lot of work. Finding your true match is about trial and error, and in this context is not just about coordinating your work schedules and travel routes, but also finding someone you can sit in silence with and not be awkward about it. And in a city like Auckland, designed for cars, where cycling or public transport is not yet an option for the majority, carpooling is realistically the next best sustainable travel option, IF we find our match.
Year 2 Community Development class looking into different travel options and their implications on students’ learning, families and budgets
Three groups of Cris’s students worked on the design of the app. The first draft got Auckland Transport’s attention, picking up a ‘Matchmaker award 2018’. Next, he brokered cross-departmental student projects with our School of Community Studies and Computing and Information Technology school to further research user needs and behaviors and to code the design. Last week, four Computer Science students from Guillermo Ramirez Prado’s cloud computing class presented their work on the back end and front end development. Within the next month, we will have some more updates but are working towards road-testing the app (excuse the pun!) with Unitec staff and students early in 2020.”
For more on sustainable transport, check out last week’s article on walking and public transport.
Well done! inter school collaboration magic