Posts by Glen Koorey
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Speaker: Shenzen's hire-bike explosion, in reply to Allan MacLachlan,
There is Nextbike in Auckland - those schemes in Shenzen seem a bit techier.
I'm curious as to how Nextbike works with the helmet laws in NZ - is there a helmet with the bike, or do riders just use their own, or just ride without a helmet?
Nextbike have been operating in Christchurch CBD for nearly two years now too - as a pilot called SparkBikes. Six stations with 30-odd bikes spread around them. $4 registration; free for first half-hour (or hour if you're a silver member) then $4/hr. System is easy; download the app; scan the QR code on the chosen bike, and receive the bike lock combo; report in the app when done with it. All the bikes have a helmet locked to them, which is regularly sanitised (BTW, it's hard for nits to be transferred via helmet). The usage has been fairly reasonable and now the trick is to work out how to continue the ongoing funding support (and hopefully expand the system) when Spark sponsorship ends in August - possibly by being considered part of the public transport network and subsidised accordingly.
Helmet laws in Australasia don't help the usage rates in places where they have been introduced, but it's not necessarily a deal-breaker either.
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Christchurch continues to roll out more cycle routes (separated cycleways, shared pathways or neighbourhood greenways); over 5km built this past year, another 11km currently under construction and about 20km out for consultation:
And if you want to check them out, you could always come to the Asia-Pacific Cycling Congress in October…
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Hard News: Change for the Better, in reply to izogi,
| results in no conviction for off-duty bus driver
Does anyone know why? The article doesn’t seem to make that clear.
The article was misleading; sentencing is not until March. The driver is likely to apply for discharge without conviction but that doesn't mean they will get it.
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I'm mostly fairly excited and impressed with what's been happening cycling-wise down our way in Christchurch lately (e.g. 9km of new separated cycleways so far this year), but I gotta say that I'm really keen to try out that shiny pink new ride you've got when I'm next in Auckland! Great stuff.
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Hard News: Change for the Better, in reply to Tom Semmens,
I guess driving is regarded by many drivers as not just a way of getting around, but a moral good and a human right - a triumph of western civilization which countless TV shows and advertisments tell them is an important status symbol in a values system they've totally brought into. Cyclists are seen as moral outsiders challenging their value system. On top of that, two other factors feed road rage against cyclists IMHO. First of all, cyclists are not just moral outliers, they are a highly visible minority moral outlier. Secondly, they are egged on by the public 2-minute hates of Hoskings, or Jeremy Clarkson, or any of a plethora of anti-cyclists.
Not sure that we can put Jeremy Clarkson in the "cycle-haters" camp these days; he's regularly seen riding around London on his treadly and has been known to sing their praises...
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I think you want to take the opportunity to be best-practice, and "fast/slow bike lanes" ain't it (who exactly is "fast" or "slow"?). But separation by direction and from pedestrians is. A couple of exhibits below from my recent trip through the Netherlands; basically treat the cycleway like a road (with a centreline for keeping left and overtaking in the opposing lane) and a stepped-up pedestrian area on either side. Throw in a few user symbols and direction arrows to help explain things to NZers. Ultimately though, the amount of width available here (compared to our usual anaemic shared paths) will be the biggest thing producing a good result - don't be coloured by your bad experiences on sub-standard paths elsewhere.
http://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/2015/06/01/cycling-in-houten-a-triumph-in-planning/
http://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/2015/06/07/cycling-in-amsterdam-does-it-live-up-to-the-hype/ -
I teach transportation practitioners about design of street environments for walking, and that includes discussion about consideration of universal access/mobility issues (e.g. kerb ramps, tactile pavement markings). While I can present the theory about how to provide for this, I don't think they fully get it until we have a session where they spend about 90 minutes exploring the street environment using wheelchairs, blind-vision goggles, etc (see http://www.comsdev.canterbury.ac.nz/rss/news/?feed=news&articleId=551 for more info). I know from my own experience that my perspective on how "good" a street is was changed after I undertook this training - I now see the various little obstacles that the average able-bodied person just blithely negotiates without thought. So there are circumstances where such "mile in my shoes" training can be of great benefit.
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Hard News: The Cycle Frolic, in reply to Stephen Judd,
Business in Auckland today. Suddenly struck me, taxiing back to the airport, how there are no cycle lanes on Pah Rd or similar arteries the way that there are on Harewood, Memorial Ave etc in Christchurch. There’s room for them – cut back some berm and put them on the far side of the parked cars.
Your memory is deceiving you; there are no cycle lanes on Harewood or Memorial (but there are on Wairakei and Fendalton). But it's certainly true that, more often than not, main arterials in Chch feature cycle lanes. Or at least space for cycling at intersections, which are often the most critical parts of the network (e.g. even Memorial Ave has cycle lanes approaching most signalised intersections). Just having some space (formal or otherwise) makes the world of difference for those already cycling.
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Hard News: The Cycle Frolic, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
You can on the ferries, and I understand most of the buses on Waiheke have bike racks. But it wouldn’t hurt anyone to suggest to Auckland Transport that would a useful piece of kit to make standard on new and upgraded fleet. (IIRC, Wellington and Christchurch have run pilots but don't know if that's gone anywhere.)
Chch ran the national trial for bikes on buses in 2007-08 (the then-legislation didn't allow for "protrusions" on the front of buses). Since then they've rolled them out on all their services as the contracts have been renewed. Currently they average more than 100 uses a day in Chch - see http://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/2013/04/10/bikes-on-buses-latest-stats/ for more details.
I don't recall Wgtn running any trials on buses; in fact they've gotten a lot of grief for delaying their introduction there. Meanwhile you can also find bike racks on buses in Nelson, New Plymouth, Napier/Hastings, Gisborne, Timaru and Dunedin.
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I think I follow many of the commenters here in saying "it depends". It depends on whether I shower at work (and therefore am happy to work up a bit of a sweat and exercise on my 6.5km in) or whether I am already showered and dressed for the day before I leave home (perhaps because I'm going to a meeting elsewhere first). It depends on whether I am just nipping down the road to the shops (and thus won't bother changing) or whether I've decided to go on a 30km tour of sites around town (occupational habit) and hence some lycra might be reeeaaalllyy handy to minimise the saddle-soreness.
"Lycra mode" would be some bike shorts probably underneath some "normal" shorts or trackies (pockets are very handy!) depending on the weather, with typically some breathable fabric on top or maybe a thermal if it's a bit nippy, some fingerless gloves, often a headband to keep the sweat out of the way, and some sneakers or black velcro shoes. "Normal mode" is of course whatever suitably formal or casual wear I am wearing or deem appropriate for my day, although my pace may be a little slower if I want to minimise the perspiration.
If it's a bit cold I have a GroundEffect Baked Beanie for my head, a terrific Polo Poncho to keep my chest/neck/ears warm on a frosty morning, some full-length gloves, and a toasty Columbia Interchange jacket. If it's really wet, I'll opt for my Kathmandu jacket (although even the waterproof-ness of this is not what it used to be), my ski-gloves, and perhaps some overtrou and my tramping boots. A real downpour might also sway my thinking to having the shower at the other end; then it doesn't matter if I get wet first.
In the case of trousers/trackies, I'm quite happy to let socks do their magic to protect them from the chain, although I do have a couple of reflective ankle snaps for wet days with my overtrou. And I will generally swear by my two panniers for carrying my stuff, although occasionally I'm also taking my laptop home in its own backpack as well.
As for the cycle lane discussion, could I commend to you the various posts at Cycling in Christchurch, including avoiding dooring, Chch cycleway designs, and the Ilam Rd cycleway under construction.