bicycle

In a very interesting initiative that began last January, a group of three non governmental organizations from Mexico City are organizing bike rides for the blind and visually impaired. The rides are guided by volunteers on tandem bikes, and are offered on Sunday mornings, when a few streets in the historical center of the city are closed for pedestrians and human powered vehicles. What does this do for these people? More than you would think.

When challenged to come up with a way to inspire more people to bike for transportation in addition to recreation, three three "former non-bikers" from New York City proposed a campaign to focus on mutual respect between drivers and bikers. The team, calling itself "!ola," was one of four competitors in a contest sponsored by Yoxi, a new site dedicated to social innovation. In its debut competition, Yoxi (pronounced yo-see) posed this question:

As bike culture comes into its own, many people switching to two-wheeled transportation want to ride with style.

In a city where bike theft is a very good reason to make you doubt about riding somewhere, providing parking facilities is almost as important as creating new bike paths.

Researchers have identified policies in Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands that have made cycling safe, convenient and mainstream in these countries. Coordinated transport, educational and land use measures have increased the popularity of this sustainable mode of transport over recent decades.

Download document here (PDF 100KB)

Hi all,

Just letting you all know that we now have information on Model Communities on our Website.

You can access the info at either of the two links below;

Walking & Cycling

Model Communities

It should provide you with a good overview of Model Communities but if you have any further queries don’t hesitate in touching base.

Gerry Dance

From Manhattan's Summer Streets to Bogota's Ciclovia, TreeHugger is a big fan of reclaiming asphalt in favor of human interaction. But I'm not sure we've ever seen anything on this scale. A town in Germany recently shut down an entire section of Autobahn—that's right, the famous German highways with no speed limit—in order to hold a gigantic party for upwards of 3 million people! But what was it all for?

More than $5 million is to be spent on four paths linking Hastings, Flaxmere, Havelock North and Clive.

Hastings is to receive funding under the New Zealand Transport Agency's walking and cycling model communities plan, which aims to encourage councils to integrate walking and cycling in transport planning.

From 22 council expressions of interest, Hastings and New Plymouth have received nearly $4 million each to complete their winning plans.

NZTA central regional director Jenny Chetwynd said urban centres across New Zealand would be encouraged to follow suit.

The biking boom, cycle trails, safety tips: Monday's One 2 One including news, advice and encouragement. Hear online Peter Shaw talk to a variety of guests about cycling. Also interviewed were:

Del Woodford from AvantiPlus

Kieran Turner Chief Executive of Bike NZ

Audio streaming on rhema.co.nz