Category: Cycle-centric ideas

Bright ideas about cycling

Why was John Lennon in bed with a Dutch bike? Marco te Brömmelstroet visits Chch

Having regaled you earlier this week with some pics from Amsterdam, a heads-up about another cycling luminary from that fair city about to pay a visit to Christchurch.

Prof Marco te Brömmelstroet is Chair of Urban Mobility Futures at …

Flashback Friday: Proposed new Road Rules might help cycling

Mānawatia a Matariki! As we celebrate a long weekend here in NZ, we can also celebrate a few legislative wins that came through last week by the Government to introduce a raft of new road rules, including allowing young …

Flashback Friday: Groningen and Zwolle – the best for cycling?

Greetings from Ireland! My partner and I have arrived in the Emerald Isle for the first time, having just spent the past few days in Amsterdam and elsewhere around the Netherlands. The last time I was in the Netherlands was …

Flashback Friday: Christchurch Will Never Be Amsterdam

Greetings from Rimini, Italy, where I’m just wrapping up attending the Velo-City Cycling Conference here. After that, my partner and I will be taking in a whirlwind journey on to Venice, Zurich, and then Amsterdam. In a blogpost back in …

Events in May: Spokes AGM and Big Bike Film Nights

As we head into May, there are a few cycling events of note coming up (check out our Events Calendar for more of them). Let’s start with this info from Spokes Canterbury:

Announcing our SPOKES 2026 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING…

Flashback Friday: Shutl brings e-bike subscriptions on demand to Christchurch

Earlier this week, we introduced to the new WorkRide bike purchasing scheme. You may not know that the founders of WorkRide actually started off first looking into an earlier e-bike subscription service, Shutl, nearly 4 years ago before pivoting after …

WorkRide: An opportunity to get bikes for your employees

As mentioned previously, all of the current concern about driving with high fuel costs has seen a surge of interest in alternative travel modes, including more people looking at buying new bikes. But what if you might struggle to …

Flashback Friday: Chch cycling continues to rise

If there’s one silver lining from all the current drama around fuel prices in NZ is that many people are considering alternatives like walking, biking and using public transport. That was highlighted earlier in the week when it was …

Flashback Friday: Todd Litman in Christchurch – May 13th

Hot on the heels of the recent visit through our fair city by John Simmerman from Active Towns, let’s cast our mind back to when other international active mode experts have graced our shores. The list has included Dan …

Flashback Friday: More dodgy bike and car parking

New cycleways can be great for cycling, but they don’t always stop bad behaviour by motorists. This has certainly come to the fore lately in Auckland, where several drivers have (for whatever reason) elected to park their cars in the …

Flashback Friday: Do cycle crossings need a bell?

Last weekend I biked out to Hornby to help Spokes Canterbury gather some feedback on improving cycling in Christchurch. I mostly took the South Express cycle route, and a couple of the stand-alone cycle crossings along the way reminded me …

Have your say on changes to Cycling Road Rules

Last year, we foreshadowed the announcement by Transport Minister Chris Bishop of several planned changes to NZ road rules, including several quite relevant to cycling. Last week, the Government launched consultation on these Rule changes, with public submissions due …

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

You might have heard the news the other day that the Government is proposing a number of interesting road rule changes, many of them with significance for cycling. I’ll cover them in more detail in a future post but, for …

Flashback Friday: Hey world, have you heard of Christchurch?!

The media have just picked up the announcement from Christchurch City Council that our fair city has been named the most bicycle-friendly city in Asia and Oceania and 38th globally (I’d like to think they got the heads-up from an …

Flashback Friday: Bicycle Jousting a Hit at the Santa Parade

Tomorrow morning from about 10am, New Brighton will host a seaside Christmas Parade. Spokes Canterbury and other local cycling groups have been regular supporters and attendees of Christmas Parades in the city over the years, often delighting the onlookers …

Apparently other parts of the world are also noticing Christchurch…

I’ve bemoaned in the past how Christchurch has often gotten overlooked when it comes to global “best cycling city” rankings, often just focused on the largest cities and the capital cities. We partially addressed that issue when People for Bikes …