Posts by Stephen Judd
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Southerly: Village People, in reply to Deborah,
You say it’s not for economic reasons, so I’m guessing it’s for the cycling.
The Beloved wishes to return to her ancestral homeland and be among her people. I'm not sure here and today is the right place to list all the positive reasons I have for moving to Chch, but I do see some, indulging my cyclemania being one.
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But the long-term recovery aspects (planning and regulation and large-scale rebuilding) seem as far away as ever. How can you expect the recovery of a city when one of the conditions imposed by the insurance companies for rebuilding is that insurance will be cancelled – thus instantly placing the owners of the homes or buildings in breach of their mortgage conditions?
How can you expect people to move to Christchurch when they can’t get insurance for rental accommodation? Not just the denial of earthquake insurance, but also the denial of fire and theft cover. Who would come to Christchurch under such conditions? I wouldn’t.
Well, we would, and we are, but I must admit it's not for economically justifiable reasons. And I hadn't realised insurance against theft was unobtainable. WTF.
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I would like an opposition politician to ask a parliamentary question about what disciplinary measures would be taken against a senior civil servant who sent confidential/secret communications to a private email address, and then ask how McCully has been disciplined.
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I am at once delighted to read this, and saddened to discover I don't even have the building prowess of a four year old boy.
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Hard News: Media Mathematics, in reply to Kumara Republic,
Seconded. To have senior journos respond to criticism is a very welcome development. And disagreeing with criticism is everyone's prerogative. I hope this becomes a conversation.
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This thread is incomplete without Kate Beaton.
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IIRC in Germany the license test is so onerous that it is just impossible to pass without professional instruction, which typically will cost thousands.
It's an interesting thing, because the high cost of gaining a license is a barrier to poor people, but in mitigation it's much easier to be a non-driver there. Here, I expect that mandating professional lessons or making the test stricter would have unpleasant social consequences without further changes to make being a non-driver easier. Another chicken and egg problem...
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to James Butler,
Gah, I used to live nearby. I hated Wheturangi Road -- especially the pedestrian crossings with their effective pinch points that came out into the cycle lane, so you'd have to stop or swing into a car's path.
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Hard News: Staying Alive, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Gotta say that one of the things I've been looking foward to about our impending move to Chch is a flatter landscape more conducive to cycling. This thread is rather giving me pause.
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To add a note from a Wellingtonian perspective: the waterfront along Oriental Parade has a similar problems. You can ride on a shared path, where pedestrians wander and safe speed is probably not much above walking at busy times; or you can ride on the road, where there is angle parking and cars back out without warning or cut you off suddenly. The continuation along Evans Bay isn’t much better. On the landward side, at some points it seems less than half a metre wide and it’s choked with gravel and detritus.
To date, the council’s response has been to put large signs on the footpath asking cyclists to be considerate. (I would love to know why on a similar principle all the road surfaces aren't plastered with signs asking car drivers to be more considerate...).
I don’t know to what extent people at the council have thought about the way their own design choices created the incentives for cyclist-pedestrian-motorist disharmony. I doubt very much that anything useful will arise from signage though. Human behaviour needs more cues to change.
I think councils are still struggling with the distinction between cycling as a sight-seeing recreation, and cycling as a normal mode of transport..
I agree with Ben that the presence of even an unusable cycle lane is likely to lead to resentment of cyclists on the road. Likewise, another problem with riding on the footpath is that it encourages motorists to believe that’s the right and only place for bikes.