And just like that, we’ve reached the end of 2025! As we herald the New Year, let’s look at how things have gone in the cycling world over the past 12 months…
While the signs were looking somewhat worrying at the end of 2024, the current Government may actually surprise us next year by introducing some road rules that help cycling (even if some people still think cyclists and their bikes should be licensed or registered). There was even a half-hearted attempt to review the cycle helmet laws as well. And if you can’t remember all the current Road Rules around cycling, here’s a few things to brush up on…
Meanwhile in Christchurch, there’s actually been a lot of good little improvements for cycling across the city’s networks, with the promise of more to come.
While there were a few notable cycleway sections completed, including much of the Nor’West Arc cycleway in Bryndwr (look for some pictures from that in the near future), the Antigua St cycleway in the central city, and City to Sea pathway in Dallington, often it was just the small connections and crossings that made the difference. These include the street works around the new Te Kaha stadium, the new pathway through South Hagley Park, and the completion of the signalised railway crossings along the Northern Line pathway.
In the near future we should also see some additional cycleway connections through Spreydon and Linwood – again, further pieces of the cycle network puzzle… It looks like the newly elected City Council is not practically much different than the previous one, so hopefully we shouldn’t expect much pushback.
In tandem with all this, we’re also seeing more and more bike parking installed across the city, be they self-securing Locky Docks or even just quirky urban design installations. And our friends at Spokes Canterbury have even been getting into the act by offering bike valet services at community events.
Speaking of events, we may not have had Biketober this year, but that hasn’t stopped the usual variety of other biking activities from happening (even if I wasn’t particularly enamoured by the Big Bike Film Night this year…). The annual Winter Solstice Ride continues to be popular with young and old and in March we even hosted the annual CAN Do advocacy workshop (where I also got to talk a bit about the history of this website). It was also great to see the Urban Cyclist Social Club get off the ground this year (albeit sporadically…), for those wanting a drink and a chat either at the start or end of their day.
All this does mean that Christchurch continues to get recognised overseas for our cycle-friendliness, be they from North America or Europe (and certainly doing better than some of our Australian counterparts…).
Speaking of Europe, as we look toward 2026, that is probably where my partner and I will be spending quite a few weeks in the middle of the year – my first trip back there since 2015. It will no doubt be hectic and I’m sure that I’ll see a few new places of interest from a cycling perspective – how much I manage to maintain some regular posting while I’m there remains to be seen…
How have you found cycling in Christchurch during 2025?