Comments on: Guest Post: Is cycling just for Rich People?

By: chris morahan

chris morahan — Sun, 09 Sep 2018 08:29:22 +0000

In reply to Jillian. Yea I agree, for each index value there was a big range in biking mode share, indicating there's other factors at work too. I would be quite interesting to dig more into some of those. Also just a note that this is based on the Census question on travelling to work so it doesn't actually reflect children/adolescents.

By: Cyclomaniac

Cyclomaniac — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 08:39:41 +0000

I have had a few conversations with kids from a deprived background and a broken bike as a reason for not cycling came up quite often. Not owning a bike is the perfect excuse obviously, apart from the fact that I believe that most kids thoroughly enjoy cycling. Cycling is of course not only for rich people (certainly with the current fuel prices) but the barriers to own and maintain a bike for poorer people are higher than for people on high incomes. This is why I love the work that RAD (www.radbikes.co.nz/projects/projects/) is doing . The government should take Working for Families one step further and gift a free bike to all six year olds.

Great to see that you have started blogging about public transport in Chch, Chris! Change will only come with awareness and our the local media is not particularly placed to cover this topic, preferring clicks over informing the public so great to see you are taking this space!!!

By: Jillian

Jillian — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 02:51:38 +0000

This is interesting but I think there is definitely a lot more to it. For example, topography may have something to do with it – some of the higher decile areas in Christchurch are located on the hills, and I live in Lyttelton which has a low deprivation score but where few people cycle (probably mostly due to the hills and the inability to cycle through the tunnel).
In my research with adolescents, the percentage of students cycling to school was far less at low decile schools compared to high decile schools. This was partly to do with access to a functioning bicycle, and lack of cycleways but also due to the norms associated with cycling in these different neighbourhoods. Overseas research also shows social norms regarding cycling are also influenced by ethnicity and this is likely to also be a factor here too.