Category: Bicycle politics

Anything about politics, politicians, submissions etc.

Council Long Term Plan brings some good cycleway news

Last Friday saw the Christchurch City Council have their  final deliberations about the Long Term Plan (LTP), which sets in place how much CCC will spend on various activities over the next ten years. As mentioned earlier, there was …

Cycle-friendly places vs People-friendly ones

You may have seen the new Cathedral Square concept plans released last week by Regenerate Christchurch. They have certainly generated lots of comment (positive and negative), and you might argue about the architectural merit of some of the development ideas. …

Draft Govt Policy Statement is good news for cycling

We’ve heard lots of cycle-friendly murmurings from the new Government since they came into power. But as the saying goes, that all counts for naught until you “show me the money”. That has now happened with the release of …

Christchurch Long Term Plan – More Waiting?

Christchurch City Council has our Long Term Plan, LTP, up for submissions. It covers all aspects of our city and its needs. This article focuses on cycling.

Council is going to need to hear from a lot of us that …

Do cycleways = extravagance?

There’s a worrying trend starting to appear in conversations around Christchurch. Any time that a city agency (City Council, Otakaro, ECan, you name it) is seen to be doing something new, problematic or contentious, social comment seems to very quickly …

Guest Post: Hospital Corner re-done

Guest contributor Ian provides some thoughts about the Hospital Corner cycling saga (remember you are welcome to contribute your own guest posts for consideration):

The problems with the new design for Hospital Corner are set out in this earlier post…

Are new cycleways OK for existing cyclists?

When considering potential objections to cycleways, or “bikelash”, there are the usual suspects to consider, such as businesses worried about losing parking, and motorists worried about getting held up. But another group has also been making noises about some …

The optical illusion behind “I never see any cyclists”

In amongst all of the seemingly endless “controversy” about the new cycleways in Christchurch (well, controversial if you’re a Press reporter…), inevitably there is some online comment questioning the value of the cycleways because “I never see anyone using …

Ferry Road a link or a gauntlet for the Heathcote Expressway?

This project was already consulted on in late 2016. While a real improvement, it fell short of CCC’s own Cycle Design Guidelines for a Major Cycle Route. Submissions received provided strong support along with requests to improve what was on …

Historic Southern Cyclist Magazine article on Auckland Harbour Bridge Crossing

A friend was cleaning out his garage and handed me a box of Southern Cyclist magazines dating from 1979 to 1988. I haven’t had much time to look through yet but the July 1979 issue had a very interesting read …

Who’s Who for Cycling in Christchurch?

In a relatively short period of time, it seems that a number of people and groups in Christchurch have sprung up to help encourage everyday cycling in some way. This was brought home to me a month or so back …

Guest Post: Should kids be able to ride on the footpath?

Here’s an interesting guest topic from Jo Clendon:

Do you cycle with kids?  Do you sometimes let them ride on the footpath? Perhaps you’ve seen or heard in the news about my campaign to make cycling on the footpaths …

Mythbusting: What a Safe Passing Rule Means

1.5m overtaking spaceSince the Cycle Safety Panel report came out, there has been a lot of attention focused on one particular recommendation in it – introducing a mandatory minimum lateral clearance distance when passing someone riding a bike. As is often the …