Contents:
- Panel recommends safer cycling rules
- Walking or cycling to work 'improves well-being'
- CAN policy on health and wellbeing through cycling
- Presentations from 2Walk&Cycle Conference 2014 now available
- Shift away from cars could save US$100 trillion by 2050
- Cyclists to become pedallers of power at Victorian election
- Bike lanes speed up car traffic in New York City
- Europe's cycling economy has created 650,000 jobs
- Weblinks
Panel recommends safer cycling rules
27 September 2014- A cycling safety panel is recommending the Government look at bringing in minimum passing distances for vehicles overtaking cyclists, and separating those on bikes from other traffic.
The independent panel was appointed by the Transport Agency after a coronial inquiry last year, which called for an investigation into cycling safety following 13 deaths in 2012.
The group's other suggestions included on-road training in schools and more consideration of cyclists in transport decisions.
Read more here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/255638/panel-recommends-safer-cycling-rules
Walking or cycling to work 'improves well-being'
14 September 2014- Switching from driving a car to walking or cycling to work improves our well-being, a study suggests.
Active commuters felt better able to concentrate and under less strain than when travelling by car, University of East Anglia (UEA) researchers said. Even going by public transport was preferable to driving, data from 18,000 UK commuters over 10 years suggested.
Researchers said policies encouraging people to leave their cars at home could have a big impact on well-being. The physical health benefits of exercise are already well known and this study reinforces the idea that there are positive psychological effects too.
The study, carried out at UEA's Norwich Medical School and the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York, used data on nearly 18,000 adult commuters from across the UK over 18 years.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29175088
CAN policy on health and wellbeing through cycling
CAN's new draft policy on 'health and wellbeing through cycling' is now available for comment from CAN members:
http://can.org.nz/canpolicy/health-and-wellbeing-through-cycling
Post your comments directly on the website, or email them to secretary@can.org.nz. Comments are due by 12 December 2014.
Presentations from 2Walk&Cycle Conference 2014 now available
The 2Walk&Cycle Conference 2014, with the theme "communities on the move", was held in Nelson on 29-31 October, in conjunction with the national Cycle Friendly Awards and their walking equivalents, the Golden Foot Awards.
Conference presentations have now been posted up on the conference website: http://2walkandcycle.org.nz.
Details of the Cycle Friendly Award winners, which included Dr Glen Koorey (Cycle Champion), NZ Bus (Commitment by a Business), and local authorities in Dunedin, Nelson and Auckland, can be found at http://can.org.nz/media/2014/best-cycling-projects-and-champions-announced.
Golden Foot Walking Awards winners are available at http://www.livingstreets.org.nz/node/4875.
Shift away from cars could save US$100 trillion by 2050
20 September 2014- A global shift to public transport, walking and cycling would save more than $100 trillion in cumulative public and private spending, and 1,700 megatons of annual carbon dioxide, a new study has found.
Research from the University of California also found that around 1.4 million early deaths could be avoided annually by 2050 with effective vehicle pollution controls and ultralow-sulfur fuels.
"Transportation, driven by rapid growth in car use, has been the fastest growing source of CO2 in the world, said Michael Replogle, the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)'s managing director for policy and co-author of the report.
"An affordable but largely overlooked way to cut that pollution is to give people clean options to use public transportation, walking and cycling, expanding mobility options especially for the poor and curbing air pollution from traffic."
Read more here:
Cyclists to become pedallers of power at Victorian election
10 October 2014- Pro-cycling groups are looking to flex their political muscles in Victoria, with the Australian Cyclists party registering 16 candidates for the upcoming state election.
The party is expecting to hear from the Victorian Electoral Commission on Monday that it has 500 verified members and therefore official party status for the 29 November state poll. It hopes it may be able to get one, or even two, seats in the upper house and potentially hold sway over legislation.
Omar Khalifa, president of the Australian Cyclists party, said many voters feel that the Liberal and Labor parties both lack any cycling strategy.
"We don't want to make any predictions of sure-fire success, but there is a lot of huff and puff from the major parties, while very little is actually delivered," he told Guardian Australia. "We need to take matters in our own hands and show there are votes in cycling".
Read more here:
or visit the ACP's website here:
https://australian-cyclists-party.org/
Bike lanes speed up car traffic in New York City
21 October 2014- Since 2007, New York City has added 31 miles of protected bike lanes - that is, lanes protected by a physical barrier, such as a row of parked cars or a curb.
The main point of building protected lanes was to make biking in the city safer. But when the NYC Department of Transportation recently studied the impact of the lanes, they found a secondary benefit: on several different avenues in Manhattan, the lanes actually helped speed up car traffic.
It seems that two factors were important. One is that, for the most part, driving lanes weren't actually eliminated when they bike lanes were built - they were simply narrowed. Additionally, the design of the bike lanes included a dedicated left-turn lane at most intersections, allowing cars to wait to turn left without holding up traffic.
Read more here:
http://www.vox.com/2014/9/8/6121129/bike-lanes-traffic-new-york
Europe's cycling economy has created 650,000 jobs
12 November 2014- Europe's cycling industry now employs more people than mining and quarrying and almost twice as many as the steel industry, according to the first comprehensive study of the jobs created by the sector.
Some 655,000 people work in the cycling economy - which includes bicycle production, tourism, retail, infrastructure and services - compared to 615,000 people in mining and quarrying, and just 350,000 workers directly employed in the steel sector.
If cycling's 3% share of journeys across Europe were doubled, the numbers employed could grow to over one million by 2020, says the 'Jobs and job creation in the European cycling sector' study which will be published next month.
Read more here:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/12/europes-cycling-economy-has-created-650000-jobs
Weblinks
The benefits of complete cycling networks: new NZ research shows that doing cycling infrastructure properly would give benefit-cost ratios between 10 and 25:
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1307250/
Cycling's benefit-cost ratio is off the scale: meanwhile, the UK's Department for Transport discovers that some cycling initiatives have BCRs of 35:
Australian Bicycle Council research: research on cycling from all over the world:
http://bicyclecouncil.com.au/research
Glowing Van Gogh bike path:
http://www.boredpanda.com/van-gogh-starry-night-glowing-bike-path-daan-r...
What happens to your bike after it's stolen:
http://www.seattlemet.com/articles/this-is-what-happens-to-your-bike-after-its-stolen-october-2014
Cycling backwards around the world:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29166172
Uncapping the potential of the private sector: how cycling advocates can team up with businesses:
http://www.bikewalkalliance.org/news/435-uncapping-the-potential-of-the-private-sector
New York City bans texting while biking: with people caught doing it having the option to take a bike safety course instead of getting a fine:
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