The University of Canterbury has been running a series of “What If Wednesdays” public lectures, showcasing a number of thought-provoking and topical issues that its academics have been working on. As part of its Eco-Week for 2012, Prof Simon Kingham from the Dept of Geography will be presenting a seminar on Wed 12th Sept asking “What if cycling was safer than driving?”
Actually that’s a bit misleading, because the question seems to imply “(because it’s not safer at the moment)”. In fact, as Simon will demonstrate, the health and environmental effects of cycling (or not) mean that actually your life chances are already pretty good on a bike compared with driving. Even the much-worried-about crash dangers are overstated and in many cases no worse than driving. Simon will draw on recent research from UC and elsewhere, looking at people’s perceptions of cycling vs the reality.
The seminar starts at 6.30pm on Wed 12th, in the Undercroft (underneath the UC James Hight library). Although the presentation is free, you need to reserve a ticket by Fri 7th Sep.
Eek, well if it is safer, the teaser slogan has hardly helped the cause, has it? Most people are going to see the poster but not hear the talk, alas.
A video of Simon’s presentation (60 mins) can now be found online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTNOsYPE2GE