After founding the Bike On New Zealand Charitable Trust in 2010, Havelock North man Paul McArdle has been tireless in his mission to get more kids on bikes, more often.Driven by the desire to see more children cycling, Paul said it was a real honour to join the other New Zealanders on the 2018 New Years Honours list. 'It's not just the work I've done. It's a whole lot of other people who have supported this over the years. It's recognition for them also and different groups who have supported bikes in schools in particular.' Paul has been the driving force behind a range of programmes that worked to encourage people to cycle. So far he has helped more than 25,000 school children in 90 schools get access to a bike on a regular basis through Bikes in Schools. While the number of supporters of Bikes in Schools were too many to name, he said what was most special about the charitable trust...
News: January 2018
Jan
CAN Project Manager Patrick Morgan is swapping an office chair for a bike saddle for the next month. Starting on 10 February, he's riding the 3,000 km Tour Aotearoa from Cape Reinga to Bluff.. 'You might be surprised how sedentary my work can be.' he says. 'Although I love what I do for CAN, there's a lot of keyboard bashing, phone calls and meetings. I can't wait to start the ride.' More than 600 people will line up for Tour Aotearoa, starting in six waves over a 2-week period. It's not a race. Riders have up to 30 days to reach Bluff, following cycle trails, quiet roads and a few highways. They must carry all their own gear. Patrick's goals are to complete the event and to raise $20,000 for CAN. Patrick will carry a Spot Tracker device, which enables people to follow his progress in real time at the MAProgress site. CAN works hard to improve cycling. We advocate for...
Jan
GIRL POWER PAINTING CAMBRIDGE PINK This week Cambridge turned pink when Far North Flash, the under 13 girls racing team from Kaitaia led by coach Phil Gibbs, took to the roads of Waikato. After taking out top spots in the under 19s 30km race at the SRAM Tour de Ranges on Saturday, the girls carried on their cycling road trip to Cambridge to complete their accreditation to race at the Avantidrome. The girls train regularly together both on Zwift and in real life. They have mastered the roads, become very aware of their environment and most of all they look out for each other. It’s not just about winning though, its about using cycling to build character for life. Many of these girls come from a background where cycling would never have been possible without their coach Phil (also a teacher at Kaitaia Primary School), believing in them as young people and providing them...
Jan
Last week a car didn’t give me 1.5 metres clearance when it was overtaking me on my bikeWhy is that so news-worthy? Because it happened in SpainAnd in Spain the drivers are so aware of and so courteous towards cyclists. I spend about six months a year in a very touristy town called Calella, an hour by train north of Barcelona. Every day I get on my bike and ride to the shops or to visit friends or go for a ride just for fun. I am never alone. There are people heading to work or, like me heading off to do their shopping with their panniers on their bike and a backpack on their back, kids off to school, some serious riders out on their daily training session. “Hola”, “Bon dia” or just a flick of the hand. Everybody acknowledges the other riders. I am not the fastest rider out there but I have never had a car toot at me or get impatient. The car will sit behind me until it...
Jan
Hamilton has made rapid progress towards ratifying Vision Zero as City policy.Here are highlights from the timeline: May 8th - Cycle Action Waikato (CAW) Submission to Draft-Waikato-Regional-Road-Safety-Strategy-2017-21 asking to bring NZ Safe System in line with Vision Zero, a plan for NO fatalities or serious injuries in road traffic. Outcome: ’By 2040 there will be no more than 39 deaths per annum in the region’ (p21)May 9th – CAW ask elected city councillors for Access Hamilton to use the word ‘eliminate’ (not reduce) ‘fatalities and severe injuries’ in line with HCC health and safety policy of Getting all people home healthy and safe. Response: 'Road safety is top-down, HCC can ask if it is allowed to measure/set a target in different way that regional/ Government does'.June 5th – Councillor Mark Bunting has drinks with team from CAW. Here Cr Bunting sits next to one of our traffic...
Jan
Toward Vision Zero in Christchurch Perceptions of safety are a serious barrier to people taking up cycling. Vision Zero is an approach to road safety that has, as its aim, zero fatalities or serious injuries.CAN and Living Streets Aotearoa together endorsed Vision Zero at the 2 Walk and Cycle Conference in mid-2016, and local councils and community boards are beginning to pick up the idea. Halswell Residents Association (Inc.), of which I am Secretary, approached our Community Board in Christchurch in November 2016 seeking their endorsement. Despite reluctance from City Council staff, Community Board referred us to City Council’s Infrastructure, Transport and Environment Committee in December 2017. They have requested a workshop in early 2018, following which we hope that there will be a recommendation to the full Council for adoption and implementation. ...
Jan
New research from 'Journal of Transport & Health' makes some startling findings.In NZ we hear a continuous media narrative of cyclists being injured and killed, and while 2017 was an appalling year for fatalities, increases in injury levels were not nearly as great. A new study from England clarifies the figures, finding travel fatality rates vary more by age and gender than by transport mode.The study finds, for example, that young men are safer cycling than driving, that males have higher fatality rates than females for cycling, driving and walking; pedestrians and cyclists have similar risks; older people have the highest fatality rates, regardless of travel mode. And strikingly, fatality rates for pedestrians and cyclists are the same. That's according to Department for Transport figures for Great Britain in 2012: one death for every 26.3 million miles walked or...