cycling Archive

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  Cyclists frock up for a safe climate - by frog

  
  
  
  On an awesomely clear Saturday in Wellington, around 150 cyclists gathered on the waterfront to show their support for the 350.org campaign and better cycling infrastructure, and to celebrate having fun on bikes while saving the planet. Cyclists of all persuasions showed up, from glamourous frocks on bikes through to the lycra set, families with [...] read more
  August 24, 2009 11:58 am - No Comments
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  Cycleway shifts up a gear - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  A journalist remarked to me on Monday that they found it strange to see John Key and I sitting together (one green tie, one blue) to answer media questions about the New Zealand Cycleway Project. My position is that when the Memorandum of Understanding with National was signed he (correctly) indicated that there were some [...] read more
  July 29, 2009 1:30 pm - 21 Comments
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  Pedalling to save some health dollars - by frog

  
  
  
  While I’m on the topic of cycling there’s a another survey here at Vorb, New Zealand’s most popular website for cyclists, Mountain Bike New Zealand posed a quick set of questions to all the political parties. As yet they have only received a response from Kevin Hague of the Greens. Given his background in both [...] read more
  November 6, 2008 4:47 pm - 1 Comment
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  Cycling to the polling booth - by frog

  
  
  
  The Cycle Advocacy Network has released the results of its poll on which candidates are cycle friendly.  And again the results are fairly compelling: The results relied, at least in part, on parties and candidates willingness to engage and respond, so I am sure some parties on that list fared worse than they felt they [...] read more
  November 6, 2008 2:57 pm - 9 Comments
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  Labour plans to invest in transport look familiar - by frog

  
  
  
  As part of its response to the impending economic crisis Labour yesterday announced changes to it planned expenditure on roading.   Like Act they recognise a good idea when someone else has it and appear to have drawn heavily from the Greens: An enhancement of the existing Financial Assistance Rate for funding local roading would be [...] read more
  November 3, 2008 3:13 pm - 3 Comments
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  Bike helmets - by frog

  
  
  
  Transport safety Minister Harry Duynhoven’s comment about bike helmets, “I wonder if we never had helmets what our cycle population might be … I’m not advocating getting rid of helmets, I’m just saying I wonder what the social effect of helmets has been,” is interesting but basically irrelevant to the important debate about promoting cycling [...] read more
  October 23, 2008 11:05 am - 20 Comments
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  A will but no way - by frog

  
  
  
  Today’s Shape New Zealand poll asked respondents a series of questions about what actions they have taken personally in the past year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help manage climate change.  Some of the transport answers are: Used alternative everyday travel options rather than use a vehicle – 25% Walked (rather than using the [...] read more
  October 15, 2008 11:23 am - 5 Comments
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  Subsidising the oil burning industry - by frog

  
  
  
  George Monbiot has this story from the northern hemisphere about ‘the other bail out’: Last week, George Bush agreed to lend $25bn to US car manufacturers. It’s a soft loan, which will cost the government $7.5bn (1). Few people noticed; fewer fought it. The House of Representatives approved the measure by 370 votes to 58. [...] read more
  October 14, 2008 3:21 pm - 9 Comments
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  A bicycle story - by frog

  
  
  
  The pictures were taken in Odense, Denmark. Freiburg, Germany, Stockhom, Sweden, and Vienna, Austria. read more
  October 7, 2008 6:22 am - 1 Comment
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  Walking to work - by frog

  
  
  
  It was fairly impressive this morning to see swathes of people people enjoying the Wellington spring sunshine as they walked  to work along the waterfront.  Sadly this massive increase in pedestrians was all due to entirely the wrong reasons.  No matter what you may think of Go Wellington’s industrial dispute with its bus drivers, a [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 8:13 am - 33 Comments
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  The Harbour Bridge debate - by frog

  
  
  
  The internet seems to be awash with Aucklanders contesting the great ‘cycle across the harbour bridge’ debate (e.g Public Address and the Herald).  Or at least the debate that’s not happening because it seems the Auckland City council is not to keen to have it.  Not hard to guess my view obviously. Keith notes: This [...] read more
  September 4, 2008 2:15 pm - 11 Comments
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  Cycle safety - by frog

  
  
  
  Without knowing anything more about the circumstances than what has been reported, it was pretty disturbing to hear multi sport’s Coast to Coast star Steve Gurney was involved in a car accident while cycling in Christchurch. However, it’s a good reminder that there is only one day left to sign the Cycle Advocacy Network’s 9-Point [...] read more
  August 30, 2008 7:36 am - 13 Comments
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  A week of g.blog - by frog

  
  
  
  g.blog was busy over the weekend with Ari joining to report on an innovative new solar glass technology that concentrates different colours of light into a focused border around the edge of the glass: …part of what makes solar power so expensive is that the light that we collect for it is very unfocused, and [...] read more
  August 18, 2008 11:06 am - 10 Comments
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  Why hide your sound system in a car? - by frog

  
  
  
  From Treehugger: Now that fuel is so expensive, a kid can’t cruise the streets in his car with the sound system turned up so high that the road vibrates. Instead, a group of Trinidadian teenagers in Queens are customizing their BMX bikes. Hmm, I’m not sure this would work in Wellington without some sort of [...] read more
  August 15, 2008 2:20 pm - 12 Comments
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  From different corners of the internet - by frog

  
  
  
  Food Democracy covers a new European study, published by the Food Commission, claims that the heavy use of antibiotics in livestock farming is the cause of many superbugs, including salmonella, campylobacter and E.coli. worldchanging.com shows how two views of the same data on climate change can lead to very different solutions. In one set of [...] read more
  August 14, 2008 8:16 am - No Comments
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  Cycling in Hungary - by frog

  
  
  
  The Cycle Advocates’ Network‘s latest newsletter had a link to this Hungarian cycle promotion video, which goes to show there are health as well as environmental benefits to cycling. read more
  August 13, 2008 9:31 am - 5 Comments
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  Cycling hints - by frog

  
  
  
  There’s some helpful cycling advice from Treehugger this week on making sure you claim back tax deductions for extra food as fuel expenses incurred while working – this might be particularly relevant to those many cycle couriers who burn extra calories whizzing about town all day long: And there’s also ten tips to ugly your [...] read more
  July 31, 2008 12:14 pm - 7 Comments
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  Happy Birthday Velib - by frog

  
  
  
  Streetfilms has a video celebrating the first anniversary of Paris’s famous Velib system: On July 15, 2007 Paris debuted the world’s largest self-service “bicycle transit system” called Vélib outdoing previously designed bike share programs. Vélib is a balance of scale and functionality, clocking in with more than 20,000 bikes, and 1,451 docking stations, which are [...] read more
  July 16, 2008 9:12 am - 12 Comments
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  ‘I stood there with my mouth open like an ape’ - by frog

  
  
  
  Indeed you would. A senior council planner from the Nelson City council is being ‘dealt with internally‘, after he or she chose to cycle to a building site to inspect a resource consent application rather than drive. Apparently cycling was ‘not appropriate’. Interestingly the Nelson Mail article reports that the time wasting journey was probably [...] read more
  July 3, 2008 10:50 am - 14 Comments
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  No longer alone - by frog

  
  
  
  My trusty bike and I got pulled over by the cops yesterday evening.  It was part of a friendly check to make sure cyclists all had the enough lights and reflective gear to be seen in the gloaming.  I passed the test thankfully. But isn’t it nice that there are now enough cyclists on the [...] read more
  June 26, 2008 9:36 am - 17 Comments