Sneaking out in amongst the other big headlines last week was the release of some preliminary information about the new Christchurch Bus Interchange, which will be located in the Lichfield/Tuam/Colombo block. This one of the anchor projects for the …
Author: LennyBoy
Big Cycling Events Coming Up
Apologies for the lack of posts lately; the day job has been a little intense just recently, with a few major deadlines to deal with. Not helping has been a dead computer at home requiring some urgent attention…
For those …
Are the Chch Cycle Design Guidelines up to scratch?
A little bit of controversy has been brewing this week with the release of a blogpost by well-known Dutch-based UK cycling advocate David Hembrow, which has taken aim at the City Council’s Cycle Design Guidelines. Hembrow has produced a …
A Week in Auckland – Is there hope for Cycling?
I’ve just had a week teaching up in Auckland, which is much more time than I usually get to spend up there. A lot of that week was spent inside presenting course sessions or listening to others. But I did …
Keeping Pathways Dry
Any time there’s a decent rain (like this past evening) it’s instructive to see how our various cycle paths fare. Often it seems that it doesn’t take a lot of water for them to more closely resemble a swimming pool …
Are painted cycle lanes dangerous?
The planned Major Cycleways for Christchurch will comprise a mixture of treatments: separated bikeways, shared paths, and quiet streets (“neighbourhood greenways”). These are designed to attract a lot of new “interested but concerned” people to cycling (or cycling more) …
Bike Wise Month – Do We Care in Chch?
February has rolled into view and that means around NZ it’s time for the annual Bike Wise Month, where there is a range of activities all over the country celebrating getting on your bike (or trying it out). And …
Voting begins to Name the Cycleways
Now for a bit of fun! Promotion of the City Council’s Major Cycleway Programme began a couple of months ago, and one of the interesting activities was a competition to suggest names for the 13 planned cycleway routes. Previously …
Where would you like some Separator Posts?
A few weeks ago we talked about the City Council’s “Targeted Improvements” (or “Quick Wins”) programme that is being rolled out. One of the tools that fits in very well with this programme is cycle lane separators, as previously trialled…
Census: Cycling on the Rise in Christchurch
Last year, the long-awaited national Census was finally held. Now we are starting to see some of the results in detail, including information about travel to work. The full detailed regional results across the country won’t be publicly available for …
See the Person – Share the Road
In amongst the feeding frenzy regarding cycle safety last week, the NZ Transport Agency released a new advertising campaign encouraging motorists to better share the road with people cycling. The campaign is designed “to personalise and humanise people cycling so …
Cycling Safety and the Media
So, like most people I’ve tried to spend the last few weeks enjoying summer and thinking of nice things like going for fun bike rides. But the good ol’ media, bless them, never sleep in their quest to remind …
Clever Cycling Stuff: Cycle Bypasses
It’s always nice when you can get an advantage over motor traffic by cycling instead. Some people riding already do this by sneaking through intersections when other traffic is stopped. This doesn’t tend to do much for cycling-motoring relations (as …
Learning from Ilam Road
Christchurch’s first step into the brave new world of cycleways came almost accidentally with the reconstruction of Ilam Road near the University. What started out primarily as a pedestrian crossing improvement project ended up also providing some rather handy separated …
What “Quick Wins” would you like?
Hidden beneath all the hoopla about the City Council’s Major Cycleways programme, there is another small but potentially very useful line item in the Council budget. $250,000 was allocated for each of the next two years for “cycleways targeted …
Riding Long Distances
When I told you the other week about the ride that my son and I took out to Sumner, I mentioned that we clocked up 30km on the trip. For some people relatively new to cycling, that might seem …
Happy New Year! Cycling Wishes for 2014
Welcome back! I hope you like our new look website. No doubt we will continue to experiment with the style for a while; please stop by regularly and give us your thoughts. And pass it on to all your friends …
Merry Xmas – and a Service Announcement
Another busy year has nearly come to an end, and I hope that you are able to take a break over the next few weeks. From everyone at Cycling in Christchurch, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and …
So what’s a Sharrow and do we want them here?
While cycle lanes and paths are all very nice, there are still many situations where it is not feasible or sensible to install them. For example, there may be limited road width to play with (and no politically easy way …
A Ride to Sumner (and the promise of things to come)
So last weekend, my youngest boy was keen to go on a big ride somewhere. OK, I said, how about out to Sumner? It’s been a long time since I biked out there and a lot has happened in southeast …