Contents:
- Wellington cycling numbers doubled since 2006
- Youth expose Government's unbalanced transport budget
- CAN is on Facebook
- Safekids workshops on cycling safety
- Why young people are driving less
- Want more bikers? Build more bike lanes, says study
- Welsh government gets serious about walking and cycling
- Momentum builds for 20 mph speed limits in UK
- Weblinks
Wellington cycling numbers doubled since 2006
18 April 2012- More people are biking to work in Wellington as it's convenient and free, the capital's mayor says.
Wellington City Council figures show the number of cyclists entering the CBD in the morning peak has more than doubled since 2006 to 1733 each day.
Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said it confirmed her anecdotal experience of seeing more bums on bikes when she cycles to the council chambers most days.
"Health and fitness and the environment are important reasons for some cyclists as well but for a lot of people it’s purely convenient and the price."
Read more here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington-central/6764169/Capital-cyclist-numbers-double
Youth expose Government's unbalanced transport budget
29 May 2012- Wellington public transport commuters got a surprise this morning when a group of 40 young people stripped down to their underwear on city trains to "expose the Government's unbalanced transport budget".
The stunt marked the launch of Generation Zero's 50/50 campaign, which is calling for the Government to allocate a greater share of its transport spending to "smart transport" options such as public transport and cycleways.
The group travelled to the Wellington Railway Station, where they set up a physical bar graph using cardboard boxes and signs showing the Government's plans to spend approximately $14 billion on new highways over the coming decade compared with just $0.5 billion for new public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure combined.
Generation Zero spokesperson James Young-Drew said: "It wasn't the nicest weather for stripping down to our undies, but we're willing to expose ourselves to expose this very important issue."
Read more here:
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/youth-expose-govts-unbalanced-transport-budget/5/124817
CAN is on Facebook
Cycling Advocates' Network is on Facebook - join the CAN group to be in touch with CANers around the globe, share photos and anecdotes, and generally keep on the cusp of the goings on in the cycling world:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/194231473991033/
Safekids workshops on cycling safety
Safekids are holding a series of workshops on "Cycling Safety & Safety Out and About".
Organised in preparation for the Safekids Campaign, the Information & Planning Workshop Series 2012 is an opportunity for injury prevention practitioners, agencies, community groups, volunteer services and organisations to receive up-to-date information, data and new resources on the new Campaign themes. Attendees are invited to network across sectors, engage in planning activities, and develop joint strategies for action in their local community to prevent unintentional child injuries.
Workshop dates:
- Porirua, Wednesday 13 June
- Auckland (Pacific), Friday 15 June
- Whangarei, Thursday 21 June
- Kawakawa, Friday 22 June
- Auckland (Maori), Monday 25 June
- Rodney, Tuesday 26th June
- North Shore, Wednesday 27 June
For queries, please contact Vikki Jarvis on 03 358 0712, victoriaj@adhb.govt.nz.
More information here: http://www.safekids.org.nz/index.php/page/Workshops
Why young people are driving less
5 April 2012- According to a new report released by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, "From World War II until just a few years ago, the number of miles driven annually on America's roads steadily increased. Then, at the turn of the century, something changed: Americans began driving less. By 2011, the average American was driving 6 percent fewer miles per year than in 2004.
"The trend away from driving has been led by young people. From 2001 and 2009, the average annual number of vehicle-miles traveled by young people (16 to 34-year-olds) decreased from 10,300 miles to 7,900 miles per capita - a drop of 23 percent. The trend away from steady growth in driving is likely to be long-lasting - even once the economy recovers. Young people are driving less for a host of reasons - higher gas prices, new licensing laws, improvements in technology that support alternative transportation, and changes in Generation Y's values and preferences - all factors that are likely to have an impact for years to come."
Read more and download the report here:
http://www.uspirg.org/reports/usp/transportation-and-new-generation
Want more bikers? Build more bike lanes, says study
16 April 2012- Is there anything cities can do to encourage cycling? Portland, for instance, has twice as many bike commuters per 1,000 people as Washington. But maybe that's just because Portland has nicer weather or more young people. It's not clear that there’s an actual policy issue here.
Yet in a new study in the journal Transport Policy, Ralph Buehler and John Pucher suggest that cities might actually be able to influence how many cyclists are on the road. Perhaps all they have to do is - and this shouldn't come as a huge surprise - build more bike lanes and bike paths.
Buehler and Pucher found that the presence of off-road bike paths and on-street bike lanes were, by far, the biggest determinant of cycling rates in cities. And that's true even after you control for a variety of other factors like how hot or cold a city is, how much rain falls, how dense the city is, how high gas prices are, the type of people that live there, or how safe it is to cycle.
Read more here:
or download the study itself here:
http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/bikepaths.pdf
Welsh government gets serious about walking and cycling
9 May 2012- Wales is set to become the first country in the world to make it compulsory for local authorities to provide safe and integrated routes for walking and cycling as part of an ambitious plan to boost green travel and end the hegemony of the car.
A white paper launched on Wednesday morning by the Labour-led government in Cardiff will oblige Welsh councils and other authorities to identify, plan and implement walking and cycling routes, and how they can be integrated. The hope is that creating a network of safe routes will tempt people out of their vehicles.
Councils will be obliged to consider how to improve walking and cycling when planning any new road schemes.
Read more here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/09/wales-gets-tough-green-travel?newsfeed=true
Momentum builds for 20 mph speed limits in UK
15 May 2012- Could a universal 20 mph (30 km/h) speed limit on residential streets soon be as widely accepted as the smoking ban in pubs?
It's too soon to talk about a tipping point, but more and more UK local authorities are taking a close look at a policy which is winning wider public support.
Portsmouth, Oxford and other cities have pioneered the switch within the past five years, and campaigners from the 20's Plenty For Us movement say 8 million people now live in areas which are committed to adopting the limit for residential roads. They include Newcastle, Bristol, Sheffield and a handful of London boroughs.
"I compare it to the ban on smoking in pubs," said one supporter at a conference in London this month. "That seemed controversial at the time and now it's accepted – and it's self-enforcing."
Read more here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/may/15/20mph-speed-limit?intcmp=122
Weblinks
Bamboo Bike Project: a project looking at introducing bamboo bikes as a sustainable form of transport in Africa:
The Hornster: a bike with a 178 dB air horn on it:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/tag/the-hornster/
London bikers and walkers to be rewarded: a scheme using a mobile app to give people points for walking and biking:
http://www.bikenet.com/articles/app-to-reward-cyclists-and-walkers.html
Bike lights tested: Greater Wellington regional council tests 50 bike lights:
http://www.gw.govt.nz/be-safe-be-seen
Whose roads?: evaluating bicyclists' and pedestrians' right to use public roadways in the USA:
http://www.vtpi.org/whoserd.pdf
About e.CAN
e.CAN is distributed approximately every 4 weeks 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 Advocates' 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