Earlier this week, I attended the NZ Walking Summit here in Christchurch, organised by pedestrian advocates Living Streets Aotearoa. It was a fairly well attended forum, with delegates from around the country coming to hear the latest thinking on creating …
Category: Cyclivism
Anything to do with cycle activism
Flashback Friday: Yes, there are people who cycle in Christchurch – plenty!
This week there has been a little bit of controversy with the claim that cycling numbers in the city had dropped, with the inevitable resulting grumbles about money-wasting from the naysayers. Turned out of course that it was a …
Flashback Friday – Cycling and the Law: Where can you Ride your Bike?
As we roll out more cycleways and other facilities around the city, it’s probably timely to remind everyone where you can and can’t bike and the Road Rules around them. Mind you, that could all change before we know it; …
Hey world, have you heard of Christchurch?!
We all love a bit of healthy rivalry, whether it’s which is the bigger “second city” in NZ or even which is the “shittest town in NZ”. Bike-friendliness is another metric by which many people seek to answer “where …
Flashback Friday: How to Deal with Cycling on Social Media
Another day, another news item somewhere about how cycleways are the cancer of the world… Actually, lately I seem to have been more stuck on dealing with the chatter around stories on speed limits, stadium costs, and bus lanes – …
Flashback Friday: The Orthodoxy of the Highway
It’s been an interesting week for transport policy, both nationally and locally. For a start the Government’s first Emission Reduction Plan was finally released on Monday, which personally was a bit underwhelming but at least makes some signals about further …
Flashback Friday – Cycling Complaints: When Feedback is Appropriate
I imagine that all of us at some stage when riding have encountered some less-than-exemplary behaviour from other road users; just today, a driver turned left in front of me having just passed me… We often can’t do much about …
Flashback Friday: More on why I write submissions
Last week we looked back on some advice from Chrys Horn about the importance of submissions when consultations come out. This week, Chrys continues the theme (first published in Sep 2014) and gives some more examples why submitting can …
Flashback Friday – Submissions: Why bother?
Happy Biketober! I hope you have a fun month… But as we mentioned yesterday, it’s also a time to mourn the passing of a great local advocate Dirk de Lu. One of the things that Dirk was prolific at …
Remembering Dirk de Lu
Last Friday 24th Sept saw the falling of a mighty Californian redwood… Many in the local cycling advocacy world will probably have heard of the sad passing of Dirk de Lu last week in hospice, having succumbed to the ravages …
Flashback Friday: Thoughts from Velo-City Global 2014 Adelaide
It’s hard to picture while Covid currently rages across Australia, but back in 2014 hundreds of people from around the globe descended on Adelaide to take part in the first instance of a global cycling conference happening down under. …
Flashback Friday: A little plug for Spokes Canterbury
Local cycle advocacy group Spokes Canterbury recently had its Annual General Meeting, and reflected on another positive year of progress for cycling in the city. This post (originally from Apr 2014) reminds us of the work that Spokes has …
Bike Activities coming up in May 2021
It’s already halfway through May, but I thought it was important to let you know about three interesting biking-related events coming up very soon in May:
- On Tue 25th May from 6-7pm, local cycle advocacy group Spokes Canterbury will
Cycle-friendly consultations out now
There seems to be a bit of a flurry of proposals currently out for consultation by the City Council right now, with a few of them due in the next week or so. So it’s worth letting you know about …
Flashback Friday: Cycling in the Netherlands
After a year in which most of us have been unable to do any overseas travel, it is nice to reminisce on opportunities in the past to visit interesting new places. Regular viewer Frank Dohmen (Cyclomaniac) provided a guest post …
Better Consultation
As Submissions Convener for Spokes Canterbury for 12 years, now retired, I have some thoughts to share on how consultation might work better. The links are to Strong Towns which offers a rich source of articles on urban planning and …
Flashback Friday: The way we talk about cyclist safety
I already had this article ready to post before the unfortunate events of last night – my condolences to family and friends. I’d like to think that media reporting around cycling safety is a little more enlightened now than seven …
Nominations for “On the Go” awards now open
Is there some local walking or cycling initiative that you think is worthy of some official recognition? Then perhaps you should consider nominating it for this year’s “On the Go” Awards, organised by Waka Kotahi (NZ Transport Agency) in …
Flashback Friday: Coroner’s Cycling Inquest Hits Christchurch Soon
With all the growth in cycleways and cycling in Chch and New Zealand at the moment, it is pertinent to recall that a lot of the recent investment in cycling is due to the tragic events of nearly 10 years …
Flashback Friday: Don’t be a D***k – Stop at Red
Nothing gets the cycle-moaners vocal quicker it seems than any hint of law-breaking by people biking. And while that is often a case of “the pot calling the kettle black”, I do still often see some fairly dodgy behaviour at …