News

20
Sep

A lot of Torontonians are wondering where they will move after the election in October, as the candidates race to the bottom to outdo each other in slashing services, getting rid of bike lanes, building underground highways that make Boston's Big Dig look small and cheap, and where the formerly leading candidate lost my vote with his rallying cry "Scarborough, not Copenhagen"! (Scarborough is a troubled, car-dominated suburb)

That rallying cry was particularly troubling because Toronto could use a little Copenhagen, and even more Jönköping, a Swedish city where Architects We...

September 20, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
20
Sep

Designboom has been spoonfeeding out the short list in the Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010 over the last few weeks. Some have been idiosyncratic and odd, but others, like this Bagbike from Francois Bernard, Sonja Breuninger and Marion Pinaffo makes a lot of sense.

The designers write:

'Our cities and awareness have evolved and influenced our behavior, but the urban bicycles have not evolved in the same way, so they no longer correspond exactly to our practice in town. 'Bagbike' is a proposition for what could be a natural evolution of bicycling, improving uses...

September 20, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
20
Sep

When you first visit Copenhagen, the first thing you'll notice after being mesmerized by the sheer number of cyclists on the roads is the eclectic kinds of bikes, especially ones that carry groceries, baggage, furniture or other people & children.  As Copenhagenize's Mikael Colville-Andersen happily points out: for many in his city, the cargo bike is equivalent to the SUV.

Thus, for this final chapter in Streetfilms' 2010 Copenhagen Triology (check here: for previous vids on bicycling & pedestrian space) we present this quirky look at some of the types of wonderful bikes...

September 20, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
16
Sep

Plans from employer Royal Mail to reduce the number of workers that use bikes to deliver post has been welcomed by unions but criticised by a cycling campaign group.

Royal Mail confirmed that modernisation proposals, which could see its fleet of 24,000 bikes reduced significantly, were part of a £2 billion modernisation of its entire delivery operation.

However, a spokesman for the employer explained: “It is certainly not a straightforward switch to vans for those postmen and women who currently use bicycles.

"We are not getting rid of all bicycles and they will...

September 16, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
16
Sep

Those on the sharp end of cycling injuries want to keep the laws, writes Steve Dow.

A COUPLE of times a month, the neurosurgeon Jeffrey Rosenfeld operates on a cyclist who has suffered a serious head injury. They've almost always been wearing a helmet, removed by paramedics who bring it into the hospital. The helmet is often "crushed and messed up".

In half of severe brain injury cases there is a poor outcome. Haemorrhaging is bad enough, requiring urgent surgery to relieve the blood clot, but brain swelling is worse, and 70 per cent of patients with...

September 16, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
16
Sep

There are more cyclists in NYC than ever before, and an increasing number of women using bikes are part of the story. The reasons are many. For one, NYC has added over 200 miles of bike lanes in the last three years making streets safer. Mothers are biking their kids to school and bringing home groceries on the backs of their bikes. More women are commuting to work and enjoying nightlife by bike. All the while, these women are getting more exercise and increasing their energy, saving money, protecting the environment, and getting things done more efficiently than before.  Yet there...

September 16, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
16
Sep

FROCKS on Bikes member Isabella Cawthorn is one of 10 (out of 12) submitters in favour of lowering speed limits along the Golden Mile. She believes it will make the city safer and more cycle-friendly.

“This is the kind of trend that Wellington would be wise to encourage,” she says. “[Cycling] saves money, and that disposable income can be spent in the local economy or saved. A policy that provides for increased urban cycling will be celebrated for generations to come.”

The proposal, which will be discussed by the Wellington City Council on Thursday, is part of the “...

September 16, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
15
Sep

Guidance on implementing slower speed limits:

New Zealand case studies

Contact us if you have additional information to add to this resource

All local Councils should now have a Speed Limits Bylaw detailing all of the different speed limits set in their District. This Bylaw usually has a Schedule or Register of the specific locations where each limit has been enacted. Accurate details in this Bylaw are necessary for any speed limits to be enforceable by Police.

TypeLocationDetailContact...

September 15, 2010 Patrick READ MORE
15
Sep

Commuter on Victoria St

CAN's Annual General Meeting will be held on the Saturday afternoon (30 October 2010) of the CAN Do.

The venue will be the Petone Central School, 16 Britannia St, Petone, Lower Hutt. For more details, see the CAN Do page.

For your information, here are the minutes from the 2009 CAN AGM.
Also, here is a copy of CAN's Rules (aka Constitution).

#Agenda Item1Welcome/Apologies/Proxies.2Review of Previous Minutes.3Matters arising....

September 15, 2010 adrian READ MORE
14
Sep

Go car free on 22 Sept.

In Wellington? Join a grupetto near you on World Car Free Day, Wed 22 Sept.

Island Bay and Newtown: from Island Bay shops, outside the video shop at 140 The Parade. Meet at 7.45am. We'll ride The Parade, Luxford St, Rintoul, Riddiford, Adelaide, Basin Reserve, Cambridge Tce, Courtenay Place.
8am outside McD's on Riddiford St.
Wear something green
Map here: http://tinyurl.com/23gfder

11 more grupettos here.

Invite your buddies.

September 14, 2010 Patrick READ MORE
13
Sep

Google the phrase "war on cars" and you will find that across North America, people are using the phrase to defend the happy motorized way of life. As one blog put it:

Hiding behind the veil of environmentalism and "sustainability," a small number of activists are having a big influence on tax policy, urban planning, and government regulation with the hope of shifting our society away from the individualism and freedom afforded by the automobile.

Yup, that's us, and a whole lot of urban types in a fight with suburban types who we slow down with our streetcars and bike lanes....

September 13, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
13
Sep

From the fancy electric YikeBike (also described as a barstool on wheels), to bamboo bikes, Treehugger is used to covering the stranger end of cycle transportation. (Let's not even talk about the 24-carat gold-plated folding bike!) Yet we tend to focus on the future of the bike, not the past. Nevertheless, it's important to honor the heritage of our favorite low-impact mode of transport. And that's where The Great Knutsford Race—a gathering of "penny farthings, hobby horses and bone shakers"—comes in.

Held in a town just South of Manchester, England, The Great Knutsford Race...

September 13, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
13
Sep

I've had a soft spot for Puerto Rico since taking a work trip there four or five years ago. I'd heard some negative things about the island, which many people seemed to think of as a third-rate part of the Caribbean, but I found much to enjoy -- the natural beauty of its coastlines and rainforests, the charming and lively capital of San Juan, not to mention the mofongo and the rum. Fending with the traffic, however, was hardly a highlight. "People complain about traffic jams, but they see congestion as a sign of progress," an environmentally minded priest told me at the time...

September 13, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
13
Sep

The Retroreflector Tie by Jasna Sokolovic and Noel O'Connell is a somewhat subtle fashion statement for the safety-minded cyclist. And it is one of thousands of entries in Designboom's Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010. For this tie, the designers wanted to add something useful to the options on store shelves for reflective clothing for cyclists -- something that was more than just functional. It's a statement many designers are making in a competition sure to add more flare to a functional activity -- getting to work on two wheels.

The design competition is themed around "...

September 13, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
13
Sep

When the New York Police blamed cyclists for causing 75% of accidents -- without offering supporting data, the organization Right of Way struck back with a report showing only 25% of bikers at fault, and that only on the assumption that the drivers responsible for bicycle fatalities testified fairly, in the absence of the victim's point of view. In a Toronto study, a convalescing bicyclist demonstrated that cyclists cause less than 10% of bike/car accidents. The Berlin study delivers another big surprise -- that blows in the face of common perceptions.

So how did a...

September 13, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
10
Sep

Cycle Aware Wellington is here.

September 10, 2010 Patrick READ MORE
10
Sep

Cycle Aware Wellington is here.

September 10, 2010 Patrick READ MORE
9
Sep

European cities, which have been promoting bicycle-sharing programs as a way to cut pollution and ease traffic, have another selling point this week: transit strikes, such as those hitting London and Paris.

When London rolled out Europe's latest bike-sharing program in July, environmental and public-health groups embraced it. Mayor Boris Johnson called it a "revolution in cycling" and said he hoped it would lead to tens of thousands more bike trips in the city every day.

London officials are expecting huge demand for its so-called Boris bikes on Tuesday, a spokeswoman...

September 9, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
9
Sep

8 Sep 2010

Scotland’s first public bike hire scheme that is backed by the Government was launched in Dumfries yesterday in a bid to mimic the success of similar initiatives across Europe.

Under the Bike2Go scheme, 30 bikes have been made available at nine automated docking stations around the town, which users can access on a 24-hour basis by entering a PIN and riding them away.

After a faltering start in the 1960s, bicycle-sharing schemes have enjoyed a comeback over the last five years as cities in Europe and North America have developed...

September 9, 2010 Alex admin READ MORE
9
Sep

What makes a supercity?

http://cyclingauckland.co.nz/front/2010/07/what-makes-a-super-city/

 

September 9, 2010 Patrick READ MORE