Flashback Friday: Highlights from #2WALKandCYCLE Conference Auckland

Next week sees the return of the 2WALKandCYCLE Conference, hosted in Wellington. Partly due to lockdown disruptions, it’s been three years since the last one in Dunedin – quite the wait. Unfortunately I won’t be attending this one –

Flashback Friday: Cycle-friendly places vs People-friendly ones

If you’ve been anywhere near Cathedral Square lately, you might have noticed the works that have been going on in the southeast quadrant (near Distinction Hotel) to improve the look of the area. It’s part of a wider project to

Flashback Friday: Can e-scooters and bikes co-exist?

Perhaps I should have re-titled this “can e-scooters and pedestrians co-exist?”, as we’ve just heard that Waka Kotahi (NZTA) have decided to renew their Gazette notice declaring that “e-scooters (up to 300W) are not motor vehicles” and are thus able

Flashback Friday: New cycling research causes a flurry

It’s a busy time for me at the moment, as I frantically finalise two draft research reports and prepare to start another research project. Research work is a big part of what I do, and many of these projects relate

Flashback Friday – Highlights from #2walkandcycle Conference Nelson

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

Flashback Friday: What can Christchurch learn from The Netherlands?

This week we heard the fantastic news that a large chunk of local streets in Chch will soon see their speed limits lowered – bravo! For some people, speed management still seems like a strange (and unnecessary) facet of our

First Look: Rolleston Ave / Park Tce Cycleway

As mentioned briefly the other day, Rolleston Ave and Park Tce in the central city have had a bit of a rapid makeover in the past few weeks, creating a new interim separated cycleway while major refurbishment works are …

Flashback Friday – Photo of the Day: Rolleston Ave Shared Path

Anyone who has recently been along Rolleston Ave near Canterbury Museum and Christ’s College will have noticed a bit of roadworks there. Due to the major refurbishment of the Museum over the next few years, they’ve had to shift the

Cycling in Tauranga: Hits and Misses

Two weeks ago I was in Tauranga attending the annual NZ Transportation Conference (which partly explains the relative dearth of posts lately…). It was my first visit back to the Bay City in over 4 years, and over 6 …

Flashback Friday: Isabelle (necessary on a bicycle?)

I was showing someone around the city’s cycleways yesterday, always a fun exercise. There were a few busy sections where pedestrians and riders were mingling together and we had to slowly weave our way through. My colleague was probably better

Flashback Friday: Why Traffic Speed Matters for Walking and Cycling

This week I have been busy attending the Australasian Road Safety Conference, being held for the first time ever here in Ōtautahi Christchurch. It’s been a fantastic event, with over 450 people attending from the road safety sector in

Flashback Friday – End of Tour: Reflections on Cycling in Europe

Earlier this week I reported on the recent draft Chch Transport Plan, which has some great proposals in it. It’s stated that many of the ideas in it came from looking at best practice elsewhere in the world; many

Flashback Friday: Cycling in Amsterdam – does it live up to the hype?

Pay attention to some of the debates that occur in the media comments sections about cycleways and at some point a naysayer is invariably going to say that “[NZ town X] is not like Amsterdam!” Ignoring the fact that a

Flashback Friday: Another look at Auckland: Shared Paths

Another week, another out-of-town trip limiting my spare hours… This time, the work topic vexing my mind is shared paths (or not shared paths). We’ve touched on the question before and it’s an area of evolving best practice in New

Flashback Friday: Cycling in Bristol

Any time that someone claims their city is too hilly for lots of cycling (and conversely, that’s why everyone bikes in Chch…) I invariably think about all of the hilly cities I have visited around the world that somehow buck

Flashback Friday: Construction starts on Avon River Promenade

The rebuild of Christchurch post-quake has been a bit hit and miss sometimes (and certainly not quick…), but there have been some wonderful urban design successes. One of them I would say is the Avon River Promenade, which has created

Flashback Friday: Where should our next Open Streets be held?

Cycle infrastructure is a key part of the biking renaissance here in Chch, but it’s also important to have a variety of events and other initiatives supporting these activities as well. We’re fairly lucky to have a pretty good selection