With some of the recent discussion around Major Cycleway delays (and in light of today’s tragic events), you might have got the impression that the City Council is sitting on their hands doing nothing for a few more …
Author: LennyBoy
Cycling Stuff from Wellington
So last week I spent most of my time in Wellington (which explains the slight gap in posts). For much of it I was attending the 2014 IPENZ Transportation Conference, but I did also have a little bit …
Draft Council Annual Plan – Have Your Say
It’s submission time again: this time it’s the turn of the Chch City Council to put our their Draft Annual Plan 2014/15 and amendments to their Three Year Plan. This sets out what the Council will do over the next …
M is for Maintenance
Over the past few months, my bike has been looking progressively more haggard, with various things not quite working as well as they should. The gears weren’t shifting properly, the brakes were a bit so-so, there was a bit of …
Greens want more Walking & Cycling to School
OK, that headline probably isn’t that surprising. But, now that we’re officially into election mode, the Green Party has fired the first salvo in the transport arena by targeting the trip to school. Their “Safe Walking and Cycling to …
Plans for New Bus Interchange
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 …
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 …