Back Benches current affairs TV show - Cycling stories start half way through chapter 1:
Russell Tregonning on Great Harbour Way.
Stephen Franks, Rajen Prasad and Gareth Hughes on road behviour, helmets, and riding in France.
CAN's Alana Joe on share the road.
Peter Sheppard on driver training.
Stream it here tvnz.co.nz/back-benches
Five cyclists killed in six days - including British tourist Jane Mary Bishop, run over by a truck after she swerved to avoid a car door a motorist opened on Tamaki Drive, Auckland - has fuelled debate over road safety in New Zealand and the rights of cyclists versus motorists.
I find myself in two worlds about this matter: in both camps.
I drive the V8. I am the man who honks. I love the car; the car rules the road.
Elly Blue for Grist: Metal drain covers, stray gravel and potholes – all villains in a unique study of cycling accidents in Portland.
New Zealand's cyclist crash statistics are among the worst in the developed world.
Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean's response - to consider if driving laws need to be changed - is a step in the right direction. Sadly, it has taken the lives of five cyclists to get to this point, despite more than 10 years of petitions and submissions.
OPINION: The appallingly high number of cyclists killed on New Zealand roads in the last few weeks might prove to be a statistical blip, but the probability is that it signals a trend.
That is the consequence of a deadly equation: more cyclists on the roads and roads ill-equipped to accommodate them safely.
The current proposal is for a shared path (for both cyclists and pedestrians like Ara Harakeke) to be constructed from Takapu Station through to Kenepuru Station and for most part following the railway corridor. Porirua City Council will pick up the pathway from Kenepuru Station north.
Advantages of the current proposal
a) Will travel past the existing MTB skills area developed by TORRC, hence there will be greater exposure and opportunity to use this cycling asset.
Those bereaved by the deaths of five cyclists in as many days over the last week may be assured of the sympathies of us all.
But in turning from individual tragedy to examine the wider implications for road-user policy, it is important to keep the matter in perspective.
This is not an epidemic, nor even an upsurge, but a statistical blip. On average, 10 cyclists die on New Zealand roads each year.
The Great Harbour Way will provide a cycleway and walkway to link Wellington and Lower Hutt, so it was logical that the newly-elected leaders of the two cities – Celia Wade-Brown of Wellington (right) and Ray Wallace of Lower Hutt (centre) – took part in this morning’s mayoral ride.
Several hundred cyclists accepted the invitation from Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown and gathered under the sails on Queens Wharf in readiness for the ride.
The death of a young woman cyclist, a visitor from Britain, on Tamaki Drive last week demonstrates yet again the need for a better accommodation of all the ways in which people enjoy this jewel of a road. Motorists, cyclists, joggers, strollers, are all drawn to the flat waterfront drive with its headlands and bays and sweeping views of the harbour entrance and inner gulf and deserve to be able to use it more safely.
Red double-decker buses and black cabs have long been iconic symbols of London, but Britain's capital may soon become just as famous for its distinctive blue and silver rental bicycles.
As its public transit system struggles to cope with growing passenger loads, London is starting to embrace cycling. This year it launched a new bicycle-sharing system that allows residents to rent a bicycle from hundreds of locations in central London.