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) …
Category: Flashback
Identifies those posts that have already been featured in a Flashback Friday
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…
Census: Cycling on the Rise in Christchurch
Last year, the long-awaited national Census was finally held. Now we are starting to see some of the results in detail, including information about travel to work. The full detailed regional results across the country won’t be publicly available for …
Cycling Safety and the Media
So, like most people I’ve tried to spend the last few weeks enjoying summer and thinking of nice things like going for fun bike rides. But the good ol’ media, bless them, never sleep in their quest to remind …
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 …
Riding Long Distances
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When I told you the other week about the ride that my son and I took out to Sumner, I mentioned that we clocked up 30km on the trip. For some people relatively new to cycling, that might seem …
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 …
A Ride to Sumner (and the promise of things to come)
So last weekend, my youngest boy was keen to go on a big ride somewhere. OK, I said, how about out to Sumner? It’s been a long time since I biked out there and a lot has happened in southeast …
Cycling to Events
As the golden weather starts to kick in, we’re also starting to see a lot more fun events to get to around Christchurch. But will you be able to ride your bike to them? And will there be some bike …
Where should our next Open Streets be held?
For a first-time event, the recent Christchurch Open Streets ciclovía was a fairly successful activity (especially considering the so-so weather). Lots of people enjoyed various activities around town without the distraction of motor vehicles. So, on the assumption that we …
Dealing with Cycling Safety in NZ
In the fog of overwork during the last few weeks, one item I haven’t highlighted yet is the release of the final report by the Coroner’s Office of their investigation into cycling safety. As you may recall, this was …
Learning from the Dutch
There’s a stereotype about the hard-working Dutch, and Christchurch put that to the test over the past few days. As mentioned last week, the city was host to two visiting experts in cycle planning from The Netherlands, and they had …
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 …
Cycling and Hills
So I’m in my new home now and it’s slightly up into the Port Hills. This means a speedy ride downhill at the start of the day, but a little bit of a climb at the end (only 400m of …
Cycling to/from New Places
So, as I mentioned previously, I’ve just moved house and that means a new ride to work and other destinations. It can be a bit disorienting at first to work out the best way to/from each place. So how do …
“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 …
Biking – Easier on the Body
I’ve had a few significant aches and pains lately (mostly self inflicted – don’t play football against your son’s team…) and have been feeling less mobile than normal. This was then exacerbated when I moved into my new house last …
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 …