Gah, it feels like all I have managed to do lately on this site is recycle a few posts for Flashback Fridays, even though I have a bunch of other post ideas half-done or fermenting in my mind. Sorry folks, …
Category: Cycle-centric ideas
Bright ideas about cycling
Flashback Friday: Learning from Ilam Road
One of the things I realised when I was in The Netherlands a few years back was that their great cycle infrastructure hadn’t happened overnight – it had been a series of gradual improvements as lessons had been learned from …
Flashback Friday: What “Quick Wins” would you like?
There’s often a lot of focus on the big flagship projects to help cycling, like the Major Cycle Routes. And, to their credit, they have already started to turn around cycling demand and safety in the city. But many of …
Flashback Friday: Cycling to Events
It’s been a very busy week of work and social activities; hence the lack of blogposts lately. One of those events (pre-lockdown) was the Electric Avenue music festival – very fun, but disappointing again to see zero consideration of bike …
Flashback Friday: Where should our next Open Streets be held?
Cycle infrastructure is a key part of the biking renaissance here in Chch, but it’s also important to have a variety of events and other initiatives supporting these activities as well. We’re fairly lucky to have a pretty good selection …
Flashback Friday: Dealing with Cycling Safety in NZ
Concerns about the safety of cycling in NZ certainly haven’t disappeared in recent times, and sadly we still have a number of deaths and serious injuries occurring every year. Still, many of the current efforts in this space (including considerable …
Photo of the Day: Rangiora Bike & Ride
There seems to have been a bit of a theme about bike parking in our posts of the past week or so, so let me continue that trend with a good example I came across recently, up in Rangiora. As …
Flashback Friday: Learning from the Dutch
Christchurch has been down the cycle network planning/design path for a while now and nationally the state-of-the-art has also progressed quite a lot. But seven years ago, it was a brave new world embarking on our Major Cycle Routes programme. …
Bike Parking at Major Events
Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Hagley Park, along with 15,000 others apparently. Not surprisingly, given those numbers, I figured that the most sensible way to get there was by bike, to …
Photo of the Day: Grocery Shopping by Bike
Apparently in many people’s minds, biking is still something you can only do recreationally “for fun” (some people still tellingly refer to it only as a “sport” or “hobby”…). And as for doing something practical like shopping – …
Has Cycling increased in Christchurch?
“Build it and they will come” – that’s what we’re regularly told about the magic of induced demand, especially for something like transport. It certainly seems to happen when we build additional roading capacity – what about when we …
Flashback Friday: Biking – Easier on the Body
Some recent heel niggles while out running have reminded me of how much easier it is when I can just hop on my bike and knock off a few kms that way instead. Similar thoughts were going through my head …
Flashback Friday – Separated Cycleways: Which Separators are Best?
Happy New Year! Another year, same old Flashback Friday. This time, let’s go back to something first posted in Oct 2013 when separated cycleways in Christchurch were quite the rarity. Now we have a considerable selection of separators around the …
Cycling in Chch 2020: The Power of a Bike…
It’s that time of the year when we reflect on what has been happening cycling-wise in Christchurch in past 12 months and also look ahead to the coming new year. If I had to pick a theme this past year, …
Flashback Friday: Cycling wishes for Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that Santa has got you something suitably bike-friendly… Speaking of what we want, I thought you might like to muse on this Christmas wishlist (originally posted in Dec 2017) and think about what we …
@Limebike e-Bikes now in Christchurch
Last month, we mentioned that Lime was bringing public share e-bikes to Christchurch. Three weeks that became a reality when Lime introduced them to the city with a little launch event (yes, I’ve been a bit remiss in getting this …
Better Consultation
As Submissions Convener for Spokes Canterbury for 12 years, now retired, I have some thoughts to share on how consultation might work better. The links are to Strong Towns which offers a rich source of articles on urban planning and …
Flashback Friday: Xmas Shopping by Bike
With the crazy season upon us once more (or does that just describe the entire year in 2020?!), it seems an appropriate time to remind you of the practical benefits of getting around on bike when traffic is at a …
Flashback Friday: Open Streets was a Blast!
Back in Sep 2013, the central city was still slowly recovering from the 2010/11 quakes and only opening up bit by bit. To celebrate a bit more opening up of the centre, the Council held an “Open Streets” cyclovia; this …
Biketober 2020 in Review
Biketober has come and gone; we’ve even now shot right through November, and at last convenor Robert can catch his breath and reflect on this year’s activities:
The fourth annual Biketober Festival of Cycling held in Christchurch is over for …