![procrastination [davewalkercartoons.com]](https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/procrastination-davewalkercartoons-com.gif)
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Link received Wed, 3 Dec 2017 at 2:52 a.m.
Message: For Toll read Cycle
[Or, ‘Madhead’ Daaave plays Dunedin like Monopoly. We lose.]
### newsbiscuit.com Dec 1, 2014
Stonehenge development: ley lines closed during 2015 while toll lanes added
By Adrian Bamforth
The government has announced a radical up-grade to Britain’s dilapidated ley-line network with major closures on all lines and charges being brought in on certain routes when the network re-opens. ‘For years Britain’s natural mystic energy has been having to cope on an out-dated system,’ said David Cameron dressed in a rainbow baggy jumper wearing a large purple feather as an earring. ‘It might have been adequate for the Bronze Age when it was first laid out, but is entirely unsuitable to 21st Century new age Britain.’Executive ley lines with controversial tolls are to be introduced in 2015, for those who do not wish to wait for their intangible cosmic earth energy. ‘It will mean demolishing Stonehenge…’ said the Prime Minister, but we are confident that the British people will understand that this is definitely worth it.’ Read more
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QUIET STREETS and OTHER ALTERNATIVES TO SH1 SEPARATED CYCLEWAYS
### ODT Online Thu, 27 Nov 2014
Opinion: Your Say
Why Dunedin needs (some) separated cycleways
By GregDawes
Diane Yeldon raises some important questions. She aligns herself with the ‘vehicular cycling’ movement, which argues that the best place for cyclists is in among the traffic, obeying the same rules as all other road users. On this basis, she questions whether we really need separated cycleways.
As a cyclist I follow the vehicular cycling principles every day. I ride my bike in much the same way as I drive my car, claiming the space I need on the road, while trying to share the carriageway considerately with other road users.
On roads with low traffic volume, relatively slow speeds, and no heavy vehicles, this works well. But it requires a lot of confidence to ride this way on busy roads, when cars are passing at speed and there are trucks and buses.
Read more + Comments
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Related Posts and Comments:
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6.5.14 Roading network screwed by council staff
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14.1.14 DCC: Hospital area parking changes #cyclelanes
5.1.14 Norman Foster: SkyCycling utopia above London railways #ThinkBig
24.12.13 Daaave’s $47 million Christmas present to Jinty. We’re paying.
4.12.13 Dunedin cycleways: Calvin Oaten greeted by DCC silence
17.11.13 Dunedin cycleways: Calvin Oaten’s alternative route
17.11.13 Cull and MacTavish… “Have you fixed the debt crisis?”
14.11.13 Cycle lane explosions and puncture kits (SPOKES grenades launch)
8.11.13 Dunedin Separated Cycle Lane Proposal [how to make a submission]
29.10.13 DCC (EDU) invents new job! [GigatownDunedin]
19.10.13 Cycle lobby games and media tilts
24.9.13 Mediocrity and lack of critical awareness at DCC [council reports]
8.7.13 Bloody $tupid cycleways and Cull’s electioneering . . . [route maps]
28.3.13 DCC DAP 2013/14: Portobello Harington Point Road Improvements
26.2.13 DCC binge spending alert: Proposed South Dunedin cycle network
22.2.13 DCC: Council meeting agenda and reports for 25 February 2013
31.1.13 Who? 2010 electioneering
21.11.12 Safe cycling -Cr Fliss Butcher
5.11.12 DCC, NZTA: Cycle lanes controversy
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Received from Anonymous. Source not declared – apologies to the cartoonist.
Tue 9 Dec 2014 at 9:13 p.m.
Mrs Cull doesn’t look happy.
If Dave sees this he’ll be feeling all philophallic, not sophic.
;D
BROADCAST NOTICE
Radio New Zealand National – 14 December 2014
Sunday Morning – http://www.radionz.co.nz/sunday
11:05 Bikenomics: What’s cycling worth?
A report published this month estimates cycling contributes $350 billion to the European economy annually and employs more people than mining and quarrying combined. And a University of Auckland study released earlier this year found that every dollar invested in improving cycling infrastructure results in $20 of economic benefits. Sunday Morning producer Jeremy Rose takes a look at the cycling economy both here and abroad and visits Hawke’s Bay where cycle tourism is booming.
11:35 Chris and Melissa Bruntlett – Vancouver Cycle Chic
Chris and Melissa Bruntlett sold their car in 2010 and have become two of Vancouver’s leading cycling evangelists. They and their two children cycle virtually everywhere in the city and say they’ve never missed having a car. They blog about their experiences at Moda City and have made a series of award-winning Cycle Chic short films.
Moda City http://www.modacitylife.com/
Cycle Chic Vancouver https://www.youtube.com/user/vancyclechic
The ‘cycling issue’ here in Dunedin is not about the merits, or not, of cycling as seems to be espoused by the DCC and ‘Spokes’ et al, but in my opinion it is the banality of thought being applied to the issue here. I doubt anyone would have objection to the rights of anyone to cycle or not. I certainly don’t.
No, it is the way it is being ‘foisted’ upon the citizens at large that irks many. Firstly, what is being contemplated and implemented is a serious cost to all, both financially and in services and conveniences. By this I mean the threat to inner city parking which is important to those not so able to walk or cycle.
And there are plenty of those.
Secondly, there is the issue of safety which Dave Cull from the outset claimed was the prime reason for the proposals. Then comes the determined move to institute dedicated cycleways along both the SH1 corridors traversing town. That is the issue which causes the most unease and angst. It seems to many to be the option most designed to cause the greatest upset to current services and still leaves the cyclists on the most dangerous routes where the recent fatalities have occurred.
That is where the opposition comes from, plain and simple. The fact that there are alternatives to obviate both convenience loss and safety aspects are continually ignored is both hard to understand and indicates a hard nosed, “my way or the highway” attitude from the promoters of the whole ‘boondoggle.’
Surely the smartest way to get the people alongside is to listen to comments, consider, and be flexible. Not dogmatic, pigheaded and obdurate as the promoters are proving to be in this case, not least by our Mayor Dave Cull.
Calvin, not hard. DCC wants the NZTA funding. Plain and simple.
+1 Elizabeth.
Without NZTA funding the DCC roading & so called Transportation Planning outfits would be pretty well defunct. Ain’t that a shame. But he that pays the piper calls the tune. Hello Jim.
Yes, Mick. James the devil incarnate.
This letter sent to the ODT failed to be published!
The editor, The ODT
Last Saturday, driving to golf along Highcliff Rd, I had an experience which demonstrated to me the futility of social engineering.
48 cyclists on the top road.
There were no cyclists on the Portobello Rd, on Sunday morning whilst off to Yum Cha. There was however an idiot in a black SUV who drove straight at me on the wrong side of the road for 40 metres stopping one foot (approx 1/3 of a metre) from my front bumper as I had stopped some seconds before having planted considerable rubber in an evasive action.
What these incidents tell me is that you cannot legislate for idiocy (drive on the left side) and you cannot put cyclist lanes on every road, and thus councillors and council staff who believe that cyclists will ride where cycle lanes exist are sillier than King Canute’s advisors. For those who don’t know the story King Canute’s (or Knut) ‘advisors’ suggested that King Canute was so powerful that he could stop the tides. The King who was smarter than most today scoffed at the idea, took his throne down to the seashore and watched his feet get wet. One would hope he fired immediately the advisory staff.
Interesting article in the ODT today under the subheading “Benefits of walking/cycling outlined”. “Official figures cited in the study show that walking or cycling comprised 25% of overall trips taken by Dunedin people.” Is this the sort of crap that academia are coming up with in the support of cyclists. By joining them up with walkers to fudge the real numbers of cyclists. If the real truth was known cyclists in Dunedin would not even register a decimal point in the 25% of walkers/ cyclists in Dunedin.
“25% of overall trips taken by Dunedin people.” True.
When I call in to say a cheery what-ho to Gussy Fink-Nottle three doors down I seldom bother to get the chauffeur away from his online porn collection.
Unless there’s rain or it looks like it might turn drizzly, of course.
Fri, 26 Aug 2016
ODT: Inclination to walk in Dunedin
A new national study highlights the relatively high popularity of walking as a form of transport in Dunedin, and suggests big health benefits would flow from further increasing such exercise. Official figures cited in the study show that walking or cycling comprised 25% of overall trips taken by Dunedin people, between 2010 and 2013, second only to Wellington (28%) among our main cities. Dunedin’s walking and cycling activity level for that period was also well ahead of that of four other cities — Hamilton (13%), Tauranga (15%) Auckland (17%) and Christchurch (21%). Cont/
It’s another Academic Dodo piece of research that states the obvious and, as well, confuses quantified research with (merely) a personal tirade to boost (health via) cycling… When, we at Dunedin already walk safely on footpaths (as opposed to being cyclists sharing roads with maniac drivers) for our health and to reduce our costs of living on a needs-must basis as it is for many.
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C O M P A R E
Sun, 7 Aug 2016
ODT: Half of pupils driven to school – via The Star
Half of Dunedin high school pupils are driven to and from school, while 30% walk and just 1.5% ride a bicycle, the latest results from the Beats Study show. The multidisciplinary study, which focuses on the “built environment and active transport to school” (Beats), has surveyed the physical activity, transportation and health status of 1800 Dunedin high school pupils during the past three years. Data is still being collected from parents. The flood of data is being analysed by the Beats Study research team, led by Dr Sandy Mandic of the University of Otago School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, and is being gradually released through symposiums, reports and scientific papers.
Sandy is not quite so manic. She has determined the nub of truth in the stats that record 25% of all trips are walkers and cyclers. When one considers that drinks with the neighbours is a walking trip, walking up the hill behind the house (which does not have a road) skews the stat further as does taking out the rubbish bin and bringing it back in later in the day. One can extrapolate from the Star article of 7 August that 1/20 riding whilst 19/20 walking that less than 2% of cyclists and walkers travel by cycle anywhere in Dunedin at any time. In fact less than 0.5% cycle on these stats.
So it is clear we need walking tracks (footpaths) which we’ve got and for some years yet we won’t need a cyclelane. This has of course already been proven by the Baron de Gurglars’ various visits to the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sydney and Melbourne where cyclists were rarer than a Cull voter in Dunedin according to his own facebook and the ODT.
Well done Gurglars! Now you put it like that. Unfortunately NZTA has the bit between its teeth for SH1 cycle lanes through the CBD. Er, thanks to the current bunch of green-tinge no-hopers on Council. Some of whom have stood over past Transport officers (and amongst whom are those who have now set up in the private sector to grab council contracts….). This needs rather more unearthing than we have time for as we examine ‘things’ like Delta, DCHL and Co.