One of the things I realised when I was in The Netherlands a few years back was that their great cycle infrastructure hadn’t happened overnight – it had been a series of gradual improvements as lessons had been learned from …
Category: General A2B by bike
Anything that is general or doesn’t fit anywhere else
Flashback Friday: Riding Long Distances
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We often talk about how cycling can be a great substitute for short-medium trips by car, but there are plenty of people who are happy to clock up the kilometres on longer journeys by bike (especially with some of the …
Biking in City Mall – Have Your Say
Did you know that, technically, you are not allowed to bike through City Mall? Being a popular traffic-free cycling connection through town, it comes as a bit of a surprise to some that this is the case and clearly, judging …
Flashback Friday – Parking: The Critical Issue
Hot on the heels of my grumble the other day about bike parking at events, comes the question: what makes for good bike parking? For day to day activities, how you park at your local shops is more of …
Flashback Friday: Cycling and Hills
Life seems a little bit crazy busy right now for me, which explains why I haven’t managed to get a few new blog posts out the door lately (a couple of interesting consultations floating around right now – watch this …
Flashback Friday: Cycling to/from New Places
Given the rapid rate of knots that new cycleways are being built around the city right now, you could be forgiven for not keeping up with the best routes to get around by bike. And if you suddenly change your …
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 …
Biketober 2020 in Review
Biketober has come and gone; we’ve even now shot right through November, and at last convenor Robert can catch his breath and reflect on this year’s activities:
The fourth annual Biketober Festival of Cycling held in Christchurch is over for …
Flashback Friday: How did a 50-year-old get back into cycling?
As someone who is veering rather close to his 50th birthday soon, I am glad that I have activities like biking to help keep me in good shape as I get older. I’ve been biking essentially most of my adult …
Locky Dock stations popping up around town
A few months back we informed you about an exciting new development for bike parking about to happen in Christchurch – “Locky Docks“. Essentially they are free secure bike/scooter parking stations scattered around the central city that also …
Flashback Friday – Wanted: New Bloggers and Guest Posts
Ever since we started this website 8 years ago, this seems like a regular call to arms – please help to share your cycling experiences! As other focuses and priorities get in my life, churning out yet another blogpost for …
Flashback Friday: Can You Ride Two Abreast?
Cycling behaviour regularly seems to come into the public firing line; what’s often interesting is whether the perception of what riders are doing “wrong” actually matches the reality of the law (often not). Cycling two abreast is one of those …
Flashback Friday: Cycling in Beijing
With our current inability to travel pretty much anywhere overseas, it’s a good time to reminisce on past trips instead. This post, originally from May 2013, recalls a time when my work took me to the traditional home of …
Flashback Friday: Christchurch’s Riskiest Intersections for Cycling?
Before the cycleway programme started getting rolled out in Chch, the local media didn’t really help things by regularly coming up with various “cycle safety” angles for news items. This article, originally from Apr 2013, is a case in …
Guest Post: Submit Submit Submit
“To have a “light-bulb moment”, the power has to be on.”
Said someone relatively famous. Thanks Google
For me, the power is on whenever conversing with partner Peter over a pint or a coffee, or when riding the bike. …
ECan Forgets about Bicycles
ECan’s Annual Plan is up for consultation until 25 March.
Spokes Canterbury has their draft sub up for those with an interest. http://www.spokes.org.nz/2020/03/ecan-annual-plan-2020/
With the new elected ECan Board there is the chance to get cycling back into their consciousness. …
Flashback Friday – Handy Tips: Avoiding Dooring
This subject seems to have suddenly been topical again on social media this week, so here is an old post, originally from Feb 2013, looking at the age-old problem of “dooring”…
There has been a flurry of interest…
Christchurch Annual Plan and More Community Boards
Nb: Papanui Innes residents and riders your Community Board only gave 11 days for submissions. It is due on Monday March 2nd. The rest vary from 6 to 9 March. The Annual Plan gives you to 2 April.
The consultations …
Flashback Friday: It is the little things …
We’ve had many guest posts over the years from different contributors; some one-hit wonders and other quite regular bloggers. One in the latter category is Robert Fleming, who has now graced this site with over 50 blog posts – …
Feb 2020 – Time for Aotearoa Bike Challenge again!
A new month rolls over, but of course February is no ordinary month in NZ – it’s Aotearoa Bike Challenge time! Yep, it’s that time when workplace organisations and other groups battle it out to see who gets more of …