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 …
Category: Cycle infrastructure
Cycle paths, networks, traffic lights, racks etc.
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 …
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) …
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…
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 …
So what’s a Sharrow and do we want them here?
While cycle lanes and paths are all very nice, there are still many situations where it is not feasible or sensible to install them. For example, there may be limited road width to play with (and no politically easy way …
Cycleways happening around NZ
With all the excitement of what’s currently happening for cycling in Christchurch, you may have missed some of the interesting developments in other parts of the country. I was at a cycling forum in Wellington last week, organised by TRAFINZ…
Cycling Help from the Dutch – Thu 28th Nov
As was mentioned the other day, the City Council are starting to ramp up the work required to make the city’s new cycleways a reality. This involves quite a team of local planners/designers/etc, and is being guided by the …
Major Cycleways – We’re on our Way!
So it’s been a little while now since the City Council signed off on the $69 million plan for major cycleways, and you might be wondering what has happened to it. Actually quite a lot in the background, but …
Guest Post – Parking: The Critical Issue
Here’s another guest contribution from occasional blogger Robert:
If you drive a car, parking at the destination is always an important consideration for the success of the journey. Critical even. “Free parking“, “easy parking”, “convenient parking”, “handy parking” are all …
“Accessible City” Plan – What’s In it for Cycling?
At long last, the Government (through CERA) has released its final transport strategy for the central city, “An Accessible City”. It’s been almost exactly one year since the draft Plan was released, and about six months since it went …
Separated Cycleways: Which Separators are Best?
Separated cycleways are coming to town as part of the Major Cycleway Routes; we’ve already seen one recent instance along Ilam Road (still waiting for the coloured surfacing to go down there, by the way). There are a …
Guest Post: Cycling in the Netherlands
Here’s an interesting guest post from regular viewer Frank Dohmen (Cyclomaniac):
After been away for 7 years we decided to visit family and friends in our home country the Netherlands. Since our friends and family are quite spread over the …
Road Works Around the Rebuild
Earlier in 2013 following persistent complaints about the management of site safety around roadway work sites from people riding bikes, members of Spokes asked for a meeting with SCIRT (Stronger Chch Infrastructure Rebuild Team) to discuss how things can be …
The Curletts Road Conundrum
The NZTA are currently consulting on proposals to reconfigure the layout of SH73 along Curletts Rd in Upper Riccarton. This proposal has some serious implications for cycling (or not) along this route.
Some background: In the aftermath of the 2010-11 …
Guest Post: Impressions from a “tourist”
This is a guest post kindly supplied by Prof John Parkin from the UK, editor of the recent book “Cycling and Sustainability” and a recent visitor to our fair city…
Kia ora.
Large and small gems: that will be mine, …