Share the Road

CAN's Share the Road Campaign is about raising awareness and empathy between cyclists and the drivers of large trucks and buses. Keeping up with international best practice is important, so we know we’re offering the best possible guidance to our workshop attendees.  Campaign Manager Richard spend a hectic two weeks visiting cycle safety trainers in Los Angeles and Vancouver, and then attending the International Cycling Safety Conference in Bologna. Here are some of his top lessons.

CAN's Share the Road Campaign is about raising awareness and empathy between cyclists and the drivers of large trucks and buses.  To learn more, Campaign Manager spent a day in a Southland Logging truck on the 19th Oct.

Andreas Rohl hails from Copenhagen, a city with 400 kilometres of bike lanes, foot rests for riders waiting at intersections, and a "highway" that whisks cyclists from the suburbs to downtown.

"I like to say we have no cyclists in Copenhagen," Mr. Rohl, manager of the City of Copenhagen's bicycle program, told about 200 people at the Ontario Bike Summit at the Hyatt Regency on King Street West on Tuesday. "We have citizens who use bikes to get from A to B."

NZTA Safer Cycling Programme
Since early 2011, the Cycling Advocates' Network (CAN) and Cycling New Zealand (formerly BikeNZ) have been working with the New Zealand Transport Agency on three projects, aimed at creating a safer environment for cycling.

We've created over 25 kilometres of new cycle lanes connecting our iWay commuter routes and making it safe for cyclists and motorists to use our roads.
A good cyclist will:

- Make eye contact with drivers and communicate with hand signals
- See and be seen
- Use lights at night

A safe driver will:

- Ease the pace and give cyclists space
- Look for cyclists before opening car doors, and
- Keep cycle lanes clear

Share the Road
Report on campaigns already in existence both NZ & international

1. What works?

Bicycle Safety Campaign Review
What do successful bicycle safety campaigns have in common, and what tactics should be used in the future to achieve success? To help answer this, Bikes Belong (USA) conducted a review of campaigns, primarily used in the U.S.

TV3's Campbell Live does "share the road" including:

• Taking the lane
• Look, signal, move
• courtesy

Angry and inconsiderate drivers have no place on our roads.

Following last weekend’s carnage in which three cyclists were killed by cars, the chief coroner is reportedly considering an investigation into cycle safety. Judge Neil MacLean’s willingness to look into the issue is welcome. An inquiry by a member of the judiciary might just jolt motorists into awareness that bikes are entitled to be on the roads, and remind them how vulnerable cyclists are to a tonne or more of speeding metal.

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.