Comments on: End of Tour: Reflections on Cycling in Europe

By: Jill Ford

Jill Ford — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 09:18:03 +0000

In reply to willandrewsdesign. Brilliant article. Am living in Uk at moment but returning to wgtn next year. Been involved in campaigns for cycling. As well as travelling around Europe and have seen and experienced everything in your article. So totally agree. Kiwis need to be more open to change.

By: willandrewsdesign

willandrewsdesign — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 08:54:22 +0000

Excellent points-
‘Pulling teeth’ is a great metaphor! Soft measures can make a huge difference as you see in N EU.
‘Stockholm Syndrome’ is on the money, too!
And surely yes, people and habits CAN change quite dramatically. See what happens when you light a cigarette in a restaurant nowadays!

Agree with Rob- your EU articles would make a powerful argument gathered together… good stuff.

By: Andrew Carman

Andrew Carman — Wed, 16 Sep 2015 10:55:20 +0000

Thanks for the article! It’s a a great summary of the cycling infrastructure in northern Europe. Very different from NZ, but as you say there is no reason why we cannot achieve the same here. It wasn’t always that way there either. In the 1960’s there was even a plan to fill in Amsterdam’s historic canals to make room for cars – thankfully never happened!
http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/visiting/plan-your-trip/getting-around/cycling/amsterdam-cycling-history
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bicycle-capital-world-transport-cycling-kindermoord

By: Jon Irwin

Jon Irwin — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 08:01:02 +0000

My wife is from Lower Hutt, we currently live in London. Cambridge Cycling Campaign put together this document / website which may be useful to borrow/suggest ideas to your local councillors – http://www.makingspaceforcycling.org/ My approach is based on trying a changed design using temporary measures. Two way cycling on one way streets would be very easy to trial with some signs for example. Good luck.

By: rob5chch6

rob5chch6 — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 05:45:23 +0000

Any chance of producing a publication which includes every European post here in it’s entirety, photos included and hand delivered to every City Councillor , business leader and person of influence in city?.
This comment is posted from Rotorua after day two checking out the place. Given the extensive mountain bike facilities and enjoyable tracks to ride around the sights ( including Nga Haerenga Te Ara Ahi , Thermal by Bike Trail ) which are great Rotorua CBD is a huge disappointment for an enjoyable ride. Millions spent on a kerbing/footpaths/landscaping seems a waste when the entire area of wide grid pattern streets favour cars and car-parking alone. For such an important tourist city to be so pedestrian unfriendly is a travesty. Where many of the small centrally located businesses are is sadly devoid of foot traffic, despite wide well built and nicely landscaped pavements. Crossing the streets is terrible as there is little traffic calming and the entire grid seems to be for roads to get THROUGH the CBD . ( sound familiar at all ?)

East of the CBD is a large mall and bulk store area with copious car parking and this has sucked the life out of the heart of the city. Such a shame. Whilst there is a shared bike/pedestrian footpath or two around they are inadequate for purpose and seemingly little used. ( in fairness the wind-chill factor has been rather low) Rotorua could be such a cool little city though.
The point to make here is that to encourage an everyday culture of biking is far more than a few separated lanes for bikes, clever town planning plays such an important part , as clearly obvious in the posts from Europe.

By: Criggie

Criggie — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 02:04:58 +0000

“A traffic-free area in the central city for only pedestrians, cyclists and maybe public transport.” I do wonder what the reasoning was for removing Colombo Street from in front of the Anglican Cathedral, back in the day. So, there is a precedent there as well as in High Street/Cashel Street.

By: LennyBoy

LennyBoy — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 20:58:37 +0000

In reply to David Moorhouse. Well, they'll also be even more full of motorists with serious head injuries, despite all the other safety features of cars, but I haven't seen anyone calling for mandatory car helmets yet... :-)

By: David Moorhouse

David Moorhouse — Sat, 05 Sep 2015 20:49:52 +0000

Interesting series of posts Glenn – thanks for taking the time to document and share.
But gosh, on the helmet issue, according to folks I speak to here in NZ, – you should have reported that the Emergency Departments in these European cities are stuffed full of cyclists with serious head injuries.