Forums:
"A new direction is required !"
(Is this an admission that business as usual is not working?)
Cycle 'advocacy' by 'officer class' exponents of vehicular cycling only makes provision for the likes of 'officer class' vehicular cyclists,- but not for the rest of us (unathletic risk-averse vulnerable road users)-who may otherwise choose to take up riding bicycles for transport within our urban areas.
Give us 'slow' cyclists somewhere to ride!:
Maximise the potential use of our existing network of segregated/seperated shared-pathways (yes,footpaths!) for use for 'slow-cycling' for ALL demographic groups - by advocating for a repeal of the obsolete law prohibiting
cycling on footpaths and by advocating that our councils
change bylaws to allow (and encourage) slow cycling thereon.
Start promoting the hell out of bicycles like these:
http://urbanbicycles.googlepages.com/bicyclesnz
that make cycling practical and attractive by a much wider demographic than that willing to ride recreational style Mountain and Road Racer bikes.
The availability of appropriate styles of bicycles IS an essential part of the mix but cycle advocates in New Zealand seem to be oblivious to this aspect of cycling.
(Giving us somewheere to ride these kinds of bicycles 'slowly' is a prerequisite to the development of a market for them)
Stop persecuting people for taking up 'slow' cycling !
An estimated 86 million of Japan's 124million people 'slow'cycle for transport-in urban environments that are more similar than different to what we have here.
They choose to ride on the footpaths and are not persecuted for doing so and virtually nobody wears helmets and there is no requirement to do so.
( same goes for 110 million cyclists in the EU too ).
Consequently a culture has evolved to expect cyclists,-whereever you're walking,driving (or getting out of your car) and because as wide a variety of people ride bicycles in Japan as drive cars here, they would be, if they felt the need to be , an extremely powerful political force.
By enabling and encouraging 'slow'cycling by the vast majority of us for whom 'vehicular' cycling is just 'too hard/too dangerous to even contemplate, maybe we'll start getting somewhere.
If we won't (allow) change, we'll end up where we're going and if we're going to keep using the same authoritarian approach, we'll keep on getting the same results.
P.S. I've seen 3 different unhelmeted cyclists ride past my house on the footpath in the time it has taken to write this e-mail. (And the police station is just around the corner ! Time to join them.
Alan Preston in Mangawhai, Northland.
http://urbanbicycles.googlepages.com/
(Is this an admission that business as usual is not working?)
Cycle 'advocacy' by 'officer class' exponents of vehicular cycling only makes provision for the likes of 'officer class' vehicular cyclists,- but not for the rest of us (unathletic risk-averse vulnerable road users)-who may otherwise choose to take up riding bicycles for transport within our urban areas.
Give us 'slow' cyclists somewhere to ride!:
Maximise the potential use of our existing network of segregated/seperated shared-pathways (yes,footpaths!) for use for 'slow-cycling' for ALL demographic groups - by advocating for a repeal of the obsolete law prohibiting
cycling on footpaths and by advocating that our councils
change bylaws to allow (and encourage) slow cycling thereon.
Start promoting the hell out of bicycles like these:
http://urbanbicycles.googlepages.com/bicyclesnz
that make cycling practical and attractive by a much wider demographic than that willing to ride recreational style Mountain and Road Racer bikes.
The availability of appropriate styles of bicycles IS an essential part of the mix but cycle advocates in New Zealand seem to be oblivious to this aspect of cycling.
(Giving us somewheere to ride these kinds of bicycles 'slowly' is a prerequisite to the development of a market for them)
Stop persecuting people for taking up 'slow' cycling !
An estimated 86 million of Japan's 124million people 'slow'cycle for transport-in urban environments that are more similar than different to what we have here.
They choose to ride on the footpaths and are not persecuted for doing so and virtually nobody wears helmets and there is no requirement to do so.
( same goes for 110 million cyclists in the EU too ).
Consequently a culture has evolved to expect cyclists,-whereever you're walking,driving (or getting out of your car) and because as wide a variety of people ride bicycles in Japan as drive cars here, they would be, if they felt the need to be , an extremely powerful political force.
By enabling and encouraging 'slow'cycling by the vast majority of us for whom 'vehicular' cycling is just 'too hard/too dangerous to even contemplate, maybe we'll start getting somewhere.
If we won't (allow) change, we'll end up where we're going and if we're going to keep using the same authoritarian approach, we'll keep on getting the same results.
P.S. I've seen 3 different unhelmeted cyclists ride past my house on the footpath in the time it has taken to write this e-mail. (And the police station is just around the corner ! Time to join them.
Alan Preston in Mangawhai, Northland.
http://urbanbicycles.googlepages.com/
I think you're right. Those
I think you're right. Those utility bicycles are practical and non-threatening, and you don't need a foam hat to ride them.
30% of Copenhagens populaion cycle to work
Anyone see the news piece on TV last night.
30% of Copenhangen population cycle to work. A key cycling advocate in copenhagen said that if helmet wearing was compulsory that these numbers would dramatically drop.
The clip showed a wide cycle accessway on the side of a busy raod with dozens of cyclists going past every minute or so.
most of them were slowly pedalling 'urban' uprigh bicycles. No lycra in sight. They were all cycling along in what looked like their work clothes at a very sedate speed.
I am guessing Copenhagen is very flat.