Category: Cycle-centric ideas

Bright ideas about cycling

Photo of the Day: Cycleways and Rubbish Day

Tennyson St is the grand-daddy of separated cycleways in Christchurch; it’s been around for well over a decade. So it pre-dates the introduction of the kerbside wheelie-bin rubbish and recycling scheme a few years back. I love this scheme; it’s …

Cycling in Christchurch 2015 – The Year of Stuff Happening

Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year. As we head into 2016, it is time once again to reflect on what has been happening cycling-wise here in Christchurch over the past year. And what a year it has been…

As …

Photo of the Day: Xmas Shopping by Bike

‘Tis the season, and everyone is frantically rushing around getting their festive goodies. That tends to mean that traffic and parking get a bit crazy, which duly gets reported in the media (not that it’s really “news” if it happens …

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 …

Inside the new Bus Interchange – What’s in it for Cycling

While it’s been partially open for a few months now, with the second stage of the new Christchurch Bus Interchange now completed, it seems timely to have a look at it and see how it works for cycling (we’ll …

How do you make your bike commute more interesting?

I came across this very interesting blogpost a while back on one of my favourite sites, BikePortland:

“I’ve been bike-commuting for longer than I can remember, and it’s always been a highlight of my day – both directions. But …

Progress on Cycle Safety Panel Recommendations

There wasn’t a lot of fanfare, but just before last Christmas the final Cycle Safety Panel report was presented to the Government. You will recall that this came from the national group of experts convened by NZTA and the …

End of Tour: Reflections on Cycling in Europe

So, two months after I actually returned home, we come to the end of the belated reports on my 3-month study tour of Europe. I finished with a couple of days in Frankfurt, Germany, before flying out, and I’ve …

Vauban and Rieselfeld, Freiburg: Suburbs for Cycling

During my time in Freiburg, Germany, I paid a visit to two outlying suburbs that have become poster-children for sustainable development. Vauban and Rieselfeld lie to the south and west of central Freiburg respectively, with about 6-7000 people in …

Freiburg – Cycling and Sustainability

We’ve seen a lot of examples of cities around Europe that are doing great things for cycling. But our local readers might say “You’ve shown us big cities (e.g. Munich, Vienna, London), small cities (e.g. Enschede, …

Spark Bikes bikeshare now in central Christchurch

Christchurch now has another piece in the puzzle for a cycle-friendly city, with the launch of the “Spark Bikes” public bikeshare scheme in central Christchurch last Friday. As mentioned previously, five stations have been set up across the central …

Cycling in Zürich: An uphill challenge

After my time in Munich, I spent a brief few days in the Swiss city of Zürich, a city of about 400,000 people (although there are about 1.5 million in the greater urban area). Unlike the afore-mentioned German …

Unterhaching, Munich: Cycling and good planning

While I was in Munich for a week, I made a visit to one of the outlying suburbs of Unterhaching. Technically it is a self-contained town just 10 km away from central Munich (about 20 minutes by train); what …

Cycling in Nantes and #VeloCity2015 Conference

After the highs of a month in the Netherlands, I still had another month to check out some of the “lesser lights” of European cycling (which, compared with New Zealand, invariably still means better than most of us…). …

What can Christchurch learn from The Netherlands?

Having had a month ranging far and wide around The Netherlands (and a month since to reflect), I think I’m starting to see some common trends emerging in terms of what makes the Dutch get on their bikes so much …