Category: Cycle-centric ideas

Bright ideas about cycling

Flashback Friday: Timely street maintenance is important for cycling

I was in a meeting yesterday where a discussion was held about coming up with a standard national specification for maintenance of cycleways, now that quite a few of them are appearing around the country. It’s one thing to find …

Flashback Friday – End of Tour: Reflections on Cycling in Europe

Earlier this week I reported on the recent draft Chch Transport Plan, which has some great proposals in it. It’s stated that many of the ideas in it came from looking at best practice elsewhere in the world; many …

A lot to like about the draft Chch Transport Plan

It may have been an attempt at a political stunt but, whatever the motivations, the Christchurch City Council decided a couple of weeks ago to publish the draft version of its Christchurch Transport Plan currently in development. There was subsequently …

Flashback Friday: Bus-Bike Workshop a Success

Mixing with heavy vehicles such as trucks and buses while biking can be a daunting prospect to say the least. As was evidenced by the controversy just last week about a close-passing truck in Wellington, we still have some …

Flashback Friday – Vauban and Rieselfeld, Freiburg: Suburbs for Cycling

Last week I reminded you about my time visiting the German city of Freiburg and some of its transport-friendly aspects that the similar-sized Christchurch could emulate. Another feature that Greater Chch could do well to consider is how Freiburg develops …

Flashback Friday: Freiburg – Cycling and Sustainability

This week has seen a flurry of discussion locally by City Council about whether to release or not the draft future transport plan. In the end, the Council decided to publish the 30-year draft plan for the public to have …

Shutl brings e-bike subscriptions on demand to Christchurch

There’s a growing number of people in New Zealand who are liking the benefits that e-bikes can bring to their lifestyle, especially if they have to contend with hills, longer distances, or just poor health/fitness. But owning an e-bike doesn’t …

Flashback Friday – Cycling in Zürich: An uphill challenge

This week I have been spending time in Wellington, looking at some proposed cycleway routes and observing bike behaviour in our capital city. Although similar in size to Christchurch, Wellington suffers from having a lot of hills that limit the …

Flashback Friday: First Count Data for New Cycleways

Cycle counts in Christchurch were in the news this week, with some concerns about stalling bike numbers (at least the Press article was somewhat more measured and factful compared with some other misleading dross elsewhere…). We’re lucky to have built …

Flashback Friday: Cycling in Nantes and #VeloCity2015 Conference

Like many parts of the world, Europe is starting to attempt some semblance of post-lockdown normality (even despite the ongoing Covid infection numbers…). In the cycling world, that meant another recent Velo-City cycling conference two weeks ago, in Ljubljana, …

Flashback Friday: Christchurch – The City that… Cycles ??

As New Zealand reopens to the world (despite the lingering Covid numbers…), and we start to see more international visitors to our shores, it’s an interesting question as to what impressions they will take away from the various places they …

Time for another Winter Solstice Ride – Tue 21 June 2022

It’s hard to believe that a simple fun idea dreamed up 10 years ago would turn into a much-loved institution in the Christchurch cycling calendar. But that was the concept started by Ian Wells all those years ago, with the …

New 529 Garage site aims to tackle bike theft

Tackling bike theft is a perennial problem globally; it’s a particular issue in places where biking is increasingly popular – like Christchurch. We’ve talked about other attempts to address the problem before, but often the challenge is getting sufficient …

10 Years of “Cycling in Christchurch” – A Decade of Change…

On this day, 10 years ago back in 2012, a social media developer from Auckland called Jenny Marshall (aka “Unity Finesmith”) first launched a little blogsite called in Cycling in Christchurch, as well as sister sites Cycling in Auckland…

Flashback Friday: Reflections on a Month in the UK

With all the recent Govt announcements allowing more easy travel in and out of NZ once more, it feels like the world has suddenly opened up again. People are talking about doing the travel they’ve had to postpone for the …

What do you think of the Ferry Road trial so far?

Many locals will recall the efforts roughly a year ago to install a bright “pop-up” separated cycleway along Ferry Rd, connecting the Heathcote Express at Fitzgerald Ave with the St Asaph St cycleway. In a matter of weeks, a relatively …

Flashback Friday: Cycling in Bristol

Any time that someone claims their city is too hilly for lots of cycling (and conversely, that’s why everyone bikes in Chch…) I invariably think about all of the hilly cities I have visited around the world that somehow buck …