Contents:
- CAN Do 2016
- 2WALKandCYCLE 2016 Conference: get your papers in
- Cycling gets safer as popularity increases
- Why does the government invest in cycling?
- February is BikeWise Month
- Keep up to date with CAN
- Danes try giving bikers the green light
- Germany gives green light to bicycle highways
- Weblinks
CAN Do 2016
Are you passionate about getting more people on bikes, more often? Want to supercharge your effectiveness as a cycling advocate? Come to the 2016 CAN Do, our annual national summit. Learn new tricks, celebrate, and ride.
This year the CAN Do will be held on March 18-20 in Hamilton. There'll be speakers, discussion, good food and biking.
More details are here: https://can.org.nz/cando2016
and you can register online here:
https://can.org.nz/can-do-registration-2016
Early-bird discounts on registration are available up to 14 March.
Assistance with travel is also available- contact Patrick Morgan: patrick@can.org.nz.
See you there!
2WALKandCYCLE 2016 Conference: get your papers in
A reminder that abstracts for the 2WALKandCYCLE 2016 Conference (to be held in Auckland, 6-8 July 2016) are due on Monday 1 February.
This will be the third premier NZ national conference addressing walking and cycling issues. The theme this year is 'Moving towards healthy communities': active, human-powered transport to achieve healthier, smarter and more liveable cities, and how this can be achieved through balancing our extensive car travel network with better provision for walking and cycling.
The 2WALKandCYCLE Conference will showcase strategies to enable us to achieve these goals. International and national researchers, practitioners, and health professionals will speak about the methods, policies and programmes that have been used to promote walking and cycling, and that can inform our journey towards better transport systems in the future.
The conference will be attended by engineers, town planners, architects, academics, politicians, advocates and others from a broad range of organisations such as local and central government, consultancies, health boards, universities, and advocacy groups.
The keynote speaker is Gil Penalosa, who was instrumental in transforming public space and sustainable mobility in Bogota during the late 1990s. In the past eight years, he has furthered this work in over 180 different cities across six continents.
More information here:
http://www.2walkandcycle.org.nz/
Cycling gets safer as popularity increases
8 January 2016- Cycling advocates are welcoming news of more people cycling, and a fall in injuries.
Cycling Action Network spokesman Patrick Morgan says both numbers are moving in the right direction.
"Increases in cycling and a fall in injuries are consistent with the 'safety in numbers' effect. It appears that as more people cycle, it gets safer.
"More journeys made by bicycle eases congestion for those who need to drive."
Auckland Transport records show a 20 percent increase in cycling in December 2015 compared to 2014. Census figures from Wellington show a 76 percent rise in people commuting by bike, from 2006-2013. In Christchurch during December, an average of 590 people cycled across the new Matai Street crossing into Hagley Park every weekday, up from 280 in September.
Mr Morgan says cycling is getting safer.
NZ Transport Agency road death statistics show six fatal crashes in 2015, down from 10 in 2014. Injury figures show a similar trend over the past five years. Serious crashes have dropped from 190 per year to 150, while minor crashes have fallen from 660 to 580.
"Cycling has impressive health benefits, which far outweigh the risks," says Mr Morgan. "Cycling reduces your risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and depression. It's great news that more people are discovering the simple pleasure and convenience of riding a bike."
Why does the government invest in cycling?
Why do the government and local councils invest in cycling? The NZ Transport Agency's new benefits tool explains why, providing information about the key benefits of investing in cycling, for councils, communities and individuals.
The benefits include:
- more liveable towns and cities
- improved conditions for travelling within towns and cities
- stronger local economies
- reduced costs for councils
- less impact on the environment, and
- healthier and more productive people.
Check it out here:
February is BikeWise Month
February is Bike Wise Month and during this time and beyond, there are many community and school events that include Big Bike Tune Ups, Go By Bike Day events and cycle-skills training.
More information can be found here:
Keep up to date with CAN
Remember, aside from reading e.CAN you can keep up to date with CAN and developments in the world of cycling by:
- joining our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cyclingadvocatesnetwork/
- following us on Twitter (@CyclingANZ)
- checking out our website (https://can.org.nz/)
Danes try giving bikers the green light
7 December 2015- If you're a cyclist in Aarhus, Denmark, you might soon be able to pedal from home to work or school in the morning without stopping at a single red light.
As part of a pilot program to encourage biking, the city has engineered a popular intersection to be responsive to bikers. Riders carrying an RFID tag that triggers a sensor, turning the light green in their favor. By making the streets more bike friendly, city planners hope that they can cut car congestion and pollution.
The city's bike program has given 200 bikers the tags and installed the sensor at the very first intersection. Rita Westergaard, the business solutions manager at ID-Advice, the Danish company that built and installed the system, says they’re planning to have more sensors up and running at a couple of other intersections by the middle of 2016.
Read more here:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/danish-city-giving-bikers-green-light-180957452/?no-ist
Germany gives green light to bicycle highways
29 December 2015- It's every cyclist's dream: no red lights, no trucks, just a clear, smooth lane to zoom down with the wind in your face. Welcome to Germany's first bicycle Autobahn.
Fans hail the smooth new velo routes as the answer to urban traffic jams and air pollution, and a way to safely get nine-to-fivers outdoors.
As a glimpse of a greener urban transport future, Germany has just opened the first five-kilometre (three-mile) stretch of a bicycle highway that is set to span over 100 kilometres. It will connect 10 western cities including Duisburg, Bochum and Hamm and four universities, running largely along disused railroad tracks in the crumbling Ruhr industrial region.
Read more here:
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/transport/germany-gives-green-light-to-bicycle-highways
Weblinks
A global high shift cycling scenario: the potential for dramatically increasing bicycle and e-bike use in cities around the world, with estimated energy, CO2, and cost impacts:
https://www.itdp.org/a-global-high-shift-cycling-scenario/
Reallocating parking for multi-modal use and placemaking: new report from NZTA on the costs and benefits of inner-city kerbside parking vs. other things it can be used for:
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/research/reports/575/
Dutch bike lanes now overcrowded:
The four types of cyclists:
http://www.citylab.com/commute/2016/01/the-4-types-of-cyclists-youll-meet-on-us-city-streets/422787/
The transformation of Tel Aviv: how cycling got cool in Israel's hippest city:
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jan/27/cycling-tel-aviv-israel
About e.CAN
e.CAN is distributed approximately every 1-2 months to CAN members, Friends of CAN and other interested people. CAN members also get our bi-monthly magazine, ChainLinks.
To check back issues of e.CAN, go to http://www.can.org.nz/ecan .
About CAN
Cycling Action Network (CAN) is New Zealand's voice for cyclists. We want to see cycling become an everyday activity in NZ. CAN's membership includes experienced cyclists, advocates, engineers, planners, local and regional councils, bike shops, and local advocacy groups throughout the country.
To find out more about CAN, go to our website, http://www.can.org.nz.
Sign up to CAN online via credit card at http://www.can.org.nz/join-can/. Join us!
We also welcome donations to support our work. You can donate online at: http://can.org.nz/donate
address: PO Box 25-424, Wellington 6146 email: secretary@can.org.nz
website: http://www.can.org.nz