SPOKES CANTERBURY CYCLING NEWS - MARCH '07

This month’s contents:
1. COMING SPOKES SUBMISSIONS
2. NEXT SPOKES RECREATIONAL RIDE - SUN APR 8TH
3. LETTERS TO EDITORS - PUT YOUR PEN TO PAPER!
4. BIKE TAUPO’S SUCCESSFUL GO-BY-BIKE BREAKFAST
5. INFORMATION ON DYNAMOS REQUIRED
6. NZ CYCLING CONFERENCE 2007 - CALL FOR PAPERS
7. HANDY TIPS: BIKE PARKING
8. COMING EVENTS FOR YOUR CALENDAR
· MAKE YOUR OWN BIKE TRAILER WORKSHOP, SAT 17 MARCH
· “TRANSPORT MATTERS” – WEA ROOMS 5:15 PM TUE 27 MARCH
· LE RACE, SAT 31 MARCH, 8AM ONWARDS
· MERIDIAN ENERGY KIDS BIKE JAMS, SUN 1 APRIL, 9.30AM
· GROUND EFFECT 12-HR MTN BIKE RACE, SAT 14 APRIL
· BIKE BLAST 2007, SUN 22 APRIL
9. RECENT SPOKES ACTIVITIES
10. e.CAN - THE EMAIL BULLETIN OF CYCLING ADVOCATES' NETWORK
11. CANTERBURY REGIONAL ACTIVE TRANSPORT FORUM

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1. COMING SPOKES SUBMISSIONS
Kerb and Channel work:
Rattray Street, Riccarton
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/WebApps/ProjectNotices/ProjectView.aspx?ProjectId...
Murchison Park upgrade, Shirley/Papanui
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/WebApps/ProjectNotices/ProjectView.aspx?ProjectId...
Richmond Park Development Plan, Shirley/Richmond
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/WebApps/ProjectNotices/ProjectView.aspx?ProjectId...
Fitzgerald Ave (River Road - Harvey Tce)
The objective is to improve safety and turning options
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/WebApps/ProjectNotices/ProjectView.aspx?ProjectId...
Plan Change 12 - Wigram
84 ha of land being set aside for residential development
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/WebApps/ProjectNotices/ProjectView.aspx?ProjectId...
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2. NEXT SPOKES RECREATIONAL RIDE - SUN APR 8TH
Bikewise Week saw another successful Spokes Ride completed last week; fourteen Spokesters travelled from Hagley Park out through the quiet streets and pathways of Fendalton to Canterbury University and then returned via similar routes in Riccarton. Along the way we proved that not all "No Exit" signs should be taken at face value when you're a cyclist, and even a few of the locals were surprised by some of the shortcuts hidden away. Some punters then retired to Le Cafe in the Arts Centre for a cuppa and some conversation. We'll look to get some photos and the ride map on to our website in the near future.
There's only one Spokes Ride left during this "Season of Cycling"; next month we head over to Shirley to take in some of the interesting sights from the Avon River in the south to QEII Drive in the north. The ride will feature the Horseshoe Lake area and a number of other reserves and even the infamous Marshland Road where all the cycle moratorium troubles began.
DETAILS:
Sunday 8th April 2007 (Easter Sunday)
(Easter Monday, will be the postponement date)
Meet 12.45pm at the Shirley Service Centre & Library (next to the Palms)
Ride time 1pm-3pm (with plenty of stops!), followed by refreshments at a local cafe
It's been good to see a number of unfamiliar faces (young and old) come along for the rides so far. So come and join the fun and make a few new friends (or bring your existing friends too!). More details can be found on our website www.spokes.org.nz, or contact Glen at spokes_rides [at] can [dot] org [dot] nz, ph.3317504.
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3. LETTERS TO EDITORS - PUT YOUR PEN TO PAPER!
The recent media fuss about cyclist injuries saw a good number of letters from fellow cyclists, some of them countering the inevitable responses from motorists. While we will often draft a reply under the Spokes banner for issues like this that crop up, we urge you all to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) as well, so that the cycling voice is definitely heard! (besides, you might disagree with us...) It often seems too that our elected members are swayed more by a large number of individual responses from "Jo Public" rather than just from Spokes on behalf of all of you.
Here are the email addresses for the main local publications:
- The Press: letters [at] press [dot] co [dot] nz
- Chch Mail: themail [at] press [dot] co [dot] nz
- The Star & Community News: http://www.starcanterbury.co.nz/info/letters/
(for some reason The Star doesn't actually publish an obvious Letters email address)
Remember to provide the required contact details and to abide by their word limits. And stick to the point; a well-focused letter has a much better chance of seeing the light of day!
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4. BIKE TAUPO’S SUCCESSFUL GO-BY-BIKE BREAKFAST
Spokes members may like to visit Bike Taupo’s website for some great pictures of the Go-By-Bike Breakfast this group helped organize: http://biketaupo.org.nz/content/view/262/1/
Thanks to Thomas Schwarz for this.
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5. INFORMATION ON DYNAMOS REQUIRED
Katie Nimmo is tired of buying & disposing of batteries for her bike lights. “I’m investigating buying a dynamo, but supply and range seems to be limited, and cycle shops try to talk me out of them!”
Can any Spokes members make any recommendations for both type and source (even ones that can be sourced overseas) of a decent dynamo system? Contact her at Community Energy Action
Ph (03) 363 9854
katie [dot] nimmo [at] cea [dot] co [dot] nz
http://www.cea.co.nz/
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6. NZ CYCLING CONFERENCE 2007 - CALL FOR PAPERS
What: NZ Cycling Conference 2007, "Getting There By Bike"
When: Thursday 1st - Friday 2nd November 2007
Where: War Memorial Centre, Napier, NZ
The 6th New Zealand Cycling Conference will be a time for celebrating our progress so far, and will help to map out future paths for cycling.
New Zealand now has a cycling strategy (Getting There - on foot, by cycle) with a plan for its implementation. Local authorities and Transit NZ are looking for ways to include cycling in their work programmes, and consultants are grappling with planning and designing in the new policy environment.
More people are buying bikes than cars, and want to find safe and pleasant places to ride them. Workplaces are looking for ways to reduce emissions and costs, and encourage employees to be active, healthy and productive. This conference will bring these themes together, alongside international experiences.
Presentations are now being sought from transport professionals, policy makers, advocates, elected representatives and researchers.
Deadlines:
- Abstracts (up to 300 words) must be received by Friday 20 April 2007.
- Notification of acceptance and 'Instructions to Authors' will be sent by Monday 21 May 2007.
- Full papers must be submitted no later than Saturday 1 September 2007.
Please send to:
Cycling Conference 07
PO Box 25-424
Wellington
phone/fax: (04)9722-552
e-mail: cycleconference [at] can [dot] org [dot] nz
Further information about the conference will be put on
http://www.can.org.nz/events/conf2007/
{Spokes will be sending representatives to this conference, but if you have the chance to get up there via other means (e.g. work-related), we highly recommend it!}
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7. HANDY TIPS: BIKE PARKING
It's great to see the various city bike stands very well utilized recently (memo to Council: provide some more!). If you're after something a little more secure and sheltered than the average "inverted staple", the Council has a number of covered cycle areas within the inner city. Many are housed within cages and you can use your own lock to secure the cage for your bike and any other gear you have with you.
The bike parks are inside Council car parking buildings and are subject to their operating hours (usually at least 7.30am - 6.15pm weekdays). You will find covered cycle parking at:
- Lichfield St carpark building (Plymouth Lane, City Mall west)
- Bus Exchange carpark building (Kivers Lane off Lichfield St), ground floor
- Hospital carpark building (Antigua St between Tuam - St Asaph Sts), up steps to 1st floor
- Rydges Hotel Car Park Building (Oxford Tce / Worcester St), talk to kiosk attendant
- Manchester St / Gloucester St carpark building, talk with kiosk attendant
- Art Gallery carpark building (Gloucester St off Montreal St)
(These buildings have signage at their entrances showing a cycle symbol under a roof on a blue sign)
We're also trying to convince the Council to build a "Bikestation", similar to overseas facilities where you can find secure bike parking connected to lockers, showers & changing facilities, bike repairs, coffee shop, etc. Watch this space!
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8. COMING EVENTS FOR YOUR CALENDAR
Well BikeWise Week saw a huge number of bike events over the past few weeks; we hope you got out and enjoyed some. Now things are down to a somewhat more sane level over the coming month. Apart from the aforementioned Spokes Ride, here are some of the other interesting events coming up:
MAKE YOUR OWN BIKE TRAILER WORKSHOP, SAT 17 MARCH 9AM - 5PM
Ever wished you could carry more on your bike? Bring along old bike wheels and bins to Christchurch Polytech (Madras St) and construct your own load carrying bike trailer. You can make use of our prebent aluminium pipe frames and hitch mechanisms, or make your own with pipe benders and welders on site. After a couple of years' practice the designs are improving and a light-weight, robust trailer can be made in a day. Download the registration form at www.cyclingchurch.org.nz or
contact Steve Muir (thepope [at] cyclingchurch [dot] org [dot] nz) for more details.
“TRANSPORT MATTERS” – WEA ROOMS 5:15 PM TUE 27 MARCH
Lecture and discussion by Spokes Core Group members Dr Dave Kelly and Andrew Macbeth at the WEA rooms, 59 Gloucester St, Christchurch.
This talk is part of a lecture series on climate change, run by the WEA in association with Sustainable Otautahi Christchurch. A small cost (under $5) will apply. Tea and coffee served after 5 pm; lecture starts at 5.30 pm; evening concludes 7 pm. Dave and Andrew will review the contribution of transport in New Zealand to climate change, and show how you can save money and reduce your transport fossil fuel use (thus helping save the planet) even if you can't afford to buy a hybrid car.
LE RACE, SAT 31 MARCH, 8AM ONWARDS
One of the country's leading hill climb events, Le Race is a 100 km cycle race of fast flats, challenging hill climbs and exhilarating downhills that take you from Christchurch City to the French settlement of Akaroa. Enter in one of the team options or as an individual and be crowned King or Queen of the Mountain! Visit www.lerace.co.nz for more info.
MERIDIAN ENERGY KIDS BIKE JAMS, SUN 1 APRIL, 9.30AM ONWARDS
A fun bike event just for kids held at Bottle Lake Forest with a range of categories and distances from 3.5km (child 5-6yrs with parent) through to 9.5km (11-13yrs). You need to register by Mon 26 Mar; contact info [at] kidsbikejams [dot] co [dot] nz or visit www.kidsbikejams.co.nz for more details.
GROUND EFFECT 12-HR DAY/NIGHTER MTN BIKE RACE, SAT 14 APRIL, 10AM - 10PM
A not-to-be-missed event bringing together several hundred like-minded mountain bikers. Simply ride as many laps of the 9km loop course in Hanmer Forest as you can in 12 hours. You can ride solo or in a team, be competitive or be relaxed. Email: blue [dot] dog [at] clear [dot] net [dot] nz or visit
www.bluedogevents.co.nz for more info.
BIKE BLAST 2007, SUN 22 APRIL
Try out the new Waimakariri River Regional Park (McLeans Island). The Bike Blast has 5km-30km ride options open to anyone over the age of 6 who wants to take part in a social mountain biking event. This event is fantastic for children and families, with loads of spot prizes to give out at the end of the event! See http://www.barefootevents.co.nz/events/bb07.htm for further details.
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9. RECENT SPOKES ACTIVITIES
In the past month Spokes, YOUR local cycling advocacy group, has been
busy with various initiatives:
- Taken part in the inaugural Canterbury Regional Active Transport Forum
- Presented a submission in person on the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy
- Helped plan/organise various BikeWise week events
- Held our regular "core group" monthly meeting
Spokes Core Members have also been active recently in various cycling roles assisting BikeNZ, Land Transport NZ and Ministry of Transport.
If you'd like more details on anything mentioned, let us know.
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10. e.CAN - THE EMAIL BULLETIN OF CYCLING ADVOCATES' NETWORK
Cycling Advocates' Network (CAN) is our parent organisation. In future, we will include the table of content of the latest newsletter in our Spokes newsletter. Please find the latest e.CAN (issue 145) online at www.can.org.nz/ecan/. You can receive the e.CAN newsletter directly by subscribing as a friend of CAN – simply send an email to Friends_of_CAN-subscribe [at] yahoogroups [dot] com
Contents (available online at www.can.org.nz/ecan/):
- New cyclist guide supports Going by Bike
- Shock at cyclist deaths
- MoT 'Choke the Smoke' campaign continues
- MAXX Bike and Ride broadens choice for Auckland cyclists
- Naked cyclists decry a bum rap
- 1.5m signs for Christchurch
- Job vacancy- exec director, Obesity Action Coalition
- South African Govt to hand out million bikes
- Chasing stolen bikes in San Francisco
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11. CANTERBURY REGIONAL ACTIVE TRANSPORT FORUM
As part of the CAN Networking Project CAN staff Fiona and Simon, helped organise and facilitate a Forum for Active Transport Stakeholders in Canterbury. There are three similar forums meeting quarterly in Auckland, Greater Wellington, and the Nelson-Tasman Region.
The Networking Project aims to strengthen the capacity of national and local cyclist user groups to participate effectively in transport-focused planning and decision making processes. Forums are one way of strengthening cycling networks. Regional forums should enable better communication and networking regionally, and thus best practice and greater efficiencies and effectiveness for walking and cycling initiatives.
Canterbury participants came from Waitaki in the South to Hurunui in the North. About sixty key walking and cycling Stakeholders networked over lunch and participated in three hours of presentations, brainstorming, and discussions. The Forum then voted to endorse the principal of a forum. A dozen or so people volunteered to be part of a working sub-group to draft the detail for future forums.
Posted on the CAN website are three of the Forum presentations: the Ministry of Transport update on the Getting There Strategy & Implementation plan (National Walking and Cycling Strategy); Living Streets Aotearoa (LSA) presentation; Environment Canterbury (ECan) update about the Regional Land Transport Committee (RLTC) and Strategy; and ECan progress on the “Cycling in Canterbury: Strategy for the development of a regional network of cycle routes”.
(The RLTC Strategy & Annual Monitoring report, and the Cycling in Canterbury all interesting reading are available on ECan's website).
There are still a lot of cycling issues in Christchurch and around Canterbury including for the latter the bridges across our braided rivers being long and too narrow for cycle lanes.
Feedback about the forum has been very positive. Post forum a sub-group (with group members involved in education, health, sport, and transport) has meet twice to write a draft Terms of Reference. A funding application to resource the Forum is underway. The next Canterbury Regional Forum is on the afternoon of Tuesday 15 May.
Thanks to Living Streets Aotearoa (LSA), LTNZ, ECan, CAN Executive, Spokes, and others for their ideas and help with the planning for the Forum. It took a lot of time, energy, and resources to achieve this but it should pay great dividends for Canterbury pedestrians and cyclists.
Fiona Whero
(CAN Project Officer)
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P.S.
With recent press about drivers and cyclists, plus at least one inquiry from a member, I thought we should include the following links available on the CAN website. Unfortunately it seems that sometimes we do need to take our complaints to the police. There is a user friendly way of doing this and the more incidents that get reported, the more accurate a picture will be painted of driver behavior.
Information on a police reporting page can be found here:
http://www.can.org.nz/mainpages/bad_driving.htm
Of you can go directly to the reporting page here:
http://www.police.govt.nz/service/road/roadwatch.html
Happy, and safe cycling,
Matthew Cutler-Welsh – Chair
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SPOKES CANTERBURY Inc - "A Voice for Cyclists"
- Post: PO Box 4536 CHCH
- Email: spokes_chch [at] can [dot] org [dot] nz
- Ph: (03) 942-2939
- Web: http://www.spokes.org.nz/
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Sign up to the Spokes email network - it's free!
- see http://www.can.org.nz/spokes_chch/spokes-emails.htm for details
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Join CAN (Cycling Advocates' Network) today!
- Email: secretary [at] can [dot] org [dot] nz
- Web: http://www.can.org.nz
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To report road hazards, potholes, broken glass, contact Chch City Council
- Phone: (03)941-8666
- Email: streets [at] ccc [dot] govt [dot] nz
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For reporting traffic light faults ring City Streets Signals Section
- Phone: (03)941-8622
- Email: Bruce [dot] Kelly [at] ccc [dot] govt [dot] nz
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For general city cycling comments contact Christchurch City Cycle Planner,
Michael Ferigo
- Phone: (03)941-8925 - Fax: (03)941-8864
- Email: cycling [at] ccc [dot] govt [dot] nz
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To contact Chch City Councillors refer to
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/Council/Members/
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To contact Chch Community Board members refer to
http://www.ccc.govt.nz/Council/CommunityBoards/
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For general regional cycling comments contact ECan Transport Planner, Nick
Bryan
- Phone: (03)365-3828x7328 - Fax: (03)365-3194
- Email: nick [dot] bryan [at] ecan [dot] govt [dot] nz
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For State Highway problems/comments contact Transit NZ 'cycling champion'
Tony Spowart, Chch Office
- Phone: (03)366-4455 - Fax: (03)365-6576
- Email: tony [dot] spowart [at] transit [dot] govt [dot] nz