Cycling in Christchurch

Mythbusting: What a Safe Passing Rule Means

Since the Cycle Safety Panel report came out, there has been a lot of attention focused on one particular recommendation in it – introducing a mandatory minimum lateral clearance distance when passing someone riding a bike. As is often the …

Why Traffic Speed Matters for Walking and Cycling

In my overviews of looking around Europe, I noted that lower speed limits were prevalent virtually everywhere I went. Yet, in New Zealand we are still only taking a few hesitant baby steps towards similar environments. There are a …

Progress on Cycle Safety Panel Recommendations

There wasn’t a lot of fanfare, but just before last Christmas the final Cycle Safety Panel report was presented to the Government. You will recall that this came from the national group of experts convened by NZTA and the …

Feedback Needed: Dyers Pass Rd Cycling Survey

Thanks for all your feedback! This survey has now closed.

Following on from recent discussions with the Spreydon-Heathcote Community Board (and partly spurred on by the recent Alex Mann case), it looks like a workshop will be organised …

Bus-Bike Workshop a Success

Last Wednesday saw the previously postponed Bus-Bike Workshop finally happen in Riccarton. Organised by the Cycling Advocates Network (CAN), this was an opportunity for some urban bus operators to join with some regular bike riders to compare notes and …

Safety Improvements on Dyers Pass Road

Discussions are happening with the Spreydon/Heathcote community board about how to improve safety on the section of Dyers Pass Road where it is narrow from Sign of the Takahe up to Sign of the Kiwi and Worsley’s Spur. Suggestions on …

What the Alex Mann case has taught us

It was fascinating to watch the furore erupt regarding Alex Mann’s conviction for impeding traffic while cycling on Dyers Pass Rd. Only two weeks ago, this was all over social media (and was easily our most viewed blogpost in a …

Bus-Bike Road User Workshop – Wed 8th July

We’ve mentioned in the past the great initiatives by CAN, the Cycling Advocates Network, to run “Road User Workshops” around the country targeted at bus and truck safety with cycling. Coming up soon is a new Workshop here in Christchurch …

Groningen and Zwolle – the best for cycling?

My final visits in The Netherlands were to two more northerly cities. Groningen (pop. 200,000) is often considered by many to be the best cycling city in The Netherlands with over half of all vehicle journeys made by bike (unfortunately …

Cargo Bike Blind Spots

The have been a number of articles (here) recently about large trucks and how scary their blind spots are – a bike parked in front or to the side just can’t be seen. Large trucks have turned up …

Reflections on a Month in the UK

My time in the UK during my sabbatical has now come to an end and I’ve moved on to the Netherlands (more on that in the future!). I’ve provided a few thoughts and photos on London and Bristol specifically …

Happy Cycling New Year – 2014 in review, 2015 in preview

Another year ticks over and so, here at Cycling in Chch, it’s time to reflect on what has happened over the past year for cycling in the city and what’s to look forward to in the year to come.…

Defensive cycling: Looking left

I’ve been cycling around many different place in New Zealand for quite a few decades now and over time I’ve become aware that there are things that cyclists can do to make themselves safer on the road. So I thought …

Do we see each other? Check again

When I investigated cycling fatalities in NZ a while back, a striking feature I noted was that more than half of the collisions involved a driver who did not even see the cyclist beforehand (or in a few cases, saw …

Trucks and Bikes – Learning how to Share

Earlier in the week, we talked about the current angst over cycle safety in the presence of trucks, especially following last week’s tragic incident. A lot of vitriol has been flung back and forth accusing both truck drivers and …

Would the Draft Cycle Safety Panel Recommendations make a Difference?

It seems like a long week since the tragic events of last Monday when a cycle tourist lost his life in Hornby courtesy of a turning truck. As timing goes, it was intriguing that this was also the same week …

Perceived Danger or Actual Danger?

Following last month’s tragic cycling incident in Hillmorton, yesterday’s Press reports (on the front page no less) that the victim’s father is now too scared to ride himself. It’s perhaps an understandable reaction, although I wonder whether the real …

Guest Post: We Share the Road?

Here’s a guest post from reader Dan Hanson:

We Share the Road: A road safety campaign from CCC and NZTA

I found myself doing a double take at the Springs Road/Main South Road intersection last week, at this perplexing …

How should we tackle Cycle Safety in NZ?

So you may have heard that I got myself another little job to do in the next few months – help the Government formulate some proposals about what to do about cycle safety in this country. The NZ Transport Agency …

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 …

Tag: Cycling safety