As mentioned earlier, the final section of the Te Ara O-Rakipaoa Nor’west Arc Cycleway (Section 3 from Ilam – Papanui) is now out for consultation, with submissions closing this Tuesday 12th Oct. This length will complete a route …
Category: Flashback
Identifies those posts that have already been featured in a Flashback Friday
Biking and COVID-19 in Christchurch
What a difference a week makes… this time last week, we were all discussing how to limit our interactions with others as we got on with our daily lives in a COVID-19 world, then suddenly: lockdown upon us and …
Cycling solo – useful “Alone Time”
“I thought of that while riding my bike” is the oft-quoted response from Albert Einstein as to how he came up with the theory of relativity. And while most of may not have a world-changing idea floating around our head, …
“No-one bikes into town, it’s not practical…”
With the news the other day that cycle numbers in Christchurch are continuing to climb, it was inevitable that the naysayers would jump onto social media and grumble about how cycling is not at all practical for a certain …
Elections: Why are Cycleways always the Easy Beat?
It’s local election time! Chances are you have your voting papers by now and are pondering which boxes to tick. Simon Barnard has provided a useful summary of some of the punters who have put their hand up. I also …
Passing in cycleways
When I visited the cycle-friendly city of Portland (Oregon US) nearly a decade ago, I remember being intrigued to see a “bike overtaking lane” on the climb up to a bridge. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised for a route …
New Central City cycling projects aim to fix the little things
By now we were meant to be enjoying an enlarged public bike-share scheme around the city; instead we have none (but plenty of e-scooters…). The story behind that is for another day, but at least there is a silver …
A Regional Cycle Node Network
Guest contributor Jan Jakob Bornheim has been thinking beyond Christchurch…
The Christchurch Major Cycle Ways are a success in moving people riding their bicycles around Christchurch. But in the last few years, it seems there has been another, quieter evolution …
High St revitalisation
While consultation is happening at one corner of the central city along Victoria St, another proposal is also out now in the opposite corner along High St. Consultation has begun for plans to reconstruct High St between Cashel St/Mall …
Photo of the Day: East Frame Pump Track
There’s a lot going on in town these days; it’s great to see it all coming together. New buildings are popping up; we’re getting nice new spaces like the Oxford Promenade, and fun events like the Bread & Circus…
Can e-scooters and bikes co-exist?
In case you have been living under a rock lately, it’s been two months now since Lime e-scooters turned up on Christchurch (and Auckland) streets. Judging by the volume of alarmist news articles and letters to the editor, you’d think …
New northern cycleway to Waimakariri coming
An exciting new development for cycling is about to start construction along the Christchurch Northern Motorway corridor. From the end of August, work will begin to construct additional lanes on the Waimakariri River motorway bridge. As well as two extra …
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. …
West Coast Wilderness Trail: a great tour
Last week I spent a few days on the West Coast of the South Island checking out the West Coast Wilderness Trail, one of the 23 routes that currently make up the NZ Cycle Trail network. The route winds …
Night-time Cycling
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of travelling around the country. More often than not, that has necessitated very early starts to catch the “red eye” flight out of town. As described previously, my usual method of getting to …
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 …
Yes, there are people who cycle in Christchurch – plenty!
Anytime that cycleways are discussed around Christchurch, it doesn’t take long before someone pipes up and claims that they never see any (or many) people using the new or previous cycleways. I always wonder just when, where and how they …
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 …
Cycling wishes for Christmas
Photo (and a half) of the Day: Cycleway signage
As a number of Major Cycle Routes come on-stream, it’s pretty important that people know where these routes are and where they go to. So it’s good to see quite a few of these popping up around the place …