Melissa and Chris Bruntlett, from Vancouver Canada, sold their car in 2010 and embraced a “car-lite” life of cycling, walking, public transport and car share with their two young children. Since then, they have become two of the city’s leading advocates for sustainable transport, particularly cycling. In 2014, they founded Modacity as a way of using their writing, photography, film, and social media skills to spread the word around the globe (some people might recall their previous visit to NZ in 2014, including the 2WALKandCYCLE Conference in Nelson). And soon they will be in Christchurch…
Currently the Bruntletts (with their children Coralie and Etienne) are working their way around Australasia on a tour of the major centres promoting the benefits of cycling and also their new book “Building the Cycling City”. This describes the lessons learned from their 2016 family study tour of the Netherlands and relating it to some of the North American examples where cycling is being embraced.
The Bruntletts will visit Christchurch on Nov 27-29, and an exciting programme is being prepared for their time here. One event locked in already is a public seminar in the TSB Space (Level 1) at the new Tūranga library on Tue 27th Nov at 6pm (doors open from 5.30pm). During their visit, we’re also looking into a bike ride or two, a workshop, and maybe a cafe chat as well.
.jpg)
If you want to be more inspired about how to make Christchurch an even better cycling city, and how you can embrace a car-lite life, come along and listen to the Bruntletts!
This looks great. I too gave up my car one year ago, I have three children and we cope.
Same here. It’s manageable if you want it to be. We (two working parents) came to Christchurch in 2013 with two kids; we have been living without a car since 2011, but we have a cargo bike which works well (not as easy though if compared to Ghent/Belgium where we used to live – a city which is more bike-friendly and culturally adapted to cyclists… Christchurch and NZ have still a long way to go). And, of course, you need to find a good location in town which is connected in terms of public transport and cycle infrastructure so you can easily get to the places you need to go to…
If you want it you can make it work!