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The industrial age of energy and transportation will be over by 2030. Maybe before. Exponentially improving technologies such as solar, electric vehicles, and autonomous (self-driving) cars will disrupt and sweep away the energy and transportation industries as we know it. The same Silicon Valley ecosystem that created bit-based technologies that have disrupted atom-based industries is now creating bit- and electron-based technologies that will disrupt atom-based energy industries.

Clean Disruption projections (based on technology cost curves, business model innovation as well as...

Got a chip on your shoulder? 

Or a ‘works end thank you’ sign blocking your shoulder? Contractors doing road repairs follow the Code of Practice for Temporary Traffic Management. The Code sets out where to put signs, temporary speed limits, cones and guarding around road works. It does ask contractors to look after cyclists’ interests but, too often, cyclists using shoulders get pushed out into the live traffic lane to share with motor...

Around the Network

News snippets & photos around who’s doing what, from Whangarei to Dunedin

Bike!Whangarei

Bike!Whangarei centres round the passionate Paul Doherty.  Paul runs a cycle touring business and is deeply involved in community and environmental projects.  Recent actions include detailed consultation with Council to maximise the usefulness of Te Matau a Pohe coastal path and, through Whangarei Cycle Commuters group, running Frocks and Fashionable Fellows on Bikes rides. UCP project- Northbound 6.5km off-road Kamo...

'B' is for Bicycle?  Yeah, nah

A white 'B' symbol, as a traffic light, normally relates to buses.  If you're cycling in a bus lane that allows bikes, it means you can proceed.  If you're NOT in that lane it doesn't apply to you.  

So 'B' careful - if you see a white 'B', and you're not in the bus lane, or there's a red traffic light applying to your lane, or a red 'bike' symbol, think twice before proceeding!

Worth being clear on this, since Councils often plan for buses and bikes to be in close proximity, and the...

NZTA’s ‘new approach’ to transport planning

NZ’s principal cycling group CAN are today hailing NZTA’s ‘new approach’ to transport planning...

Cyclists Applaud Massive Investment Programme.

Kiwis keen on cycling have hailed the biggest single investment in cycling in New Zealand’s history, announced today in Rotorua. Advocates for cycling have praised the scheme as ‘forward-thinking, clever groundwork’.

The Urban Cycleways Programme (UCP), managed by the NZTA, facilitates a record $333m million in spending for 54 selected urban cycling...

CGI models prompt Council to fix roadway for cycling

(Larger size images below)

Compelling evidence that concrete 'islands' on Broadway in Wellington made cyclists feel unsafe was created -and used successfully to improve conditions- by an architect and cycling advocate.

Travis Gray, a Registered Architect in Wellington, found that on his regular commute many motorists were passing way too close on the 350m stretch where concrete islands have been installed.  Following the 'occupy the lane' advice from the Road Code over a 350m stretch proved too...

Cyclist Really 'Impeding Traffic'?

Alex Mann made a legitimate choice when he decided to travel by bicycle the day a police officer fined him for impeding traffic.

He obeyed the road code by keeping left but not so far he was in danger of falling in the drain or becoming unstable in the grit and debris often present on road edges.

He was aware that there was at least one vehicle behind him and believes he rode in a fashion that most of us would...

OECD Report a Recipe for Cycling, say Advocates.

Advocates for better cycling facilities gave an unusual welcome to the recent OECD report, which called for action on two problems New Zealand faces- traffic congestion and obesity.

Release of the report from the international body, primarily concerned with promoting economic growth, was welcomed by national network body, Cycling Advocates’...