rachel.blog

Tag: cycling

  • Should helmets be compulsory?

    I thought I’d conduct a poll (see below) to see what readers of my blog think about legislation to make helmets compulsory. One of the things I like about living in York is that I don’t *have* to wear my helmet when I go cycling. I can just jump on my bike and dash out…

  • How the Dutch got their cycle paths

    A friend of mine shared this video with me which I found really interesting. It discusses the reasons why the Dutch have such brilliant cycling infrastructure today and you get to see some of it in action. I wish more countries would follow suit.

  • Yorkshire Museum of Farming

    We cycled to the Museum of Farming on Sunday. It was just outside York so a fair distance for me on the bike but easily manageable and very, very enjoyable. I feel truly alive at the moment with all this physical activity. The museum itself was a great deal more than just a museum. There…

  • I have great legs!

    I have great legs. Is it a bit conceited of me to say this? I don’t know, but I do know that cycling around for a month on Busby (my bakfiets) has given me really great legs and I don’t ever want to say goodbye to them.  Why, oh why do the politicians of Auckland…

  • Le Tour de York

    The Tour de France in 2014 will start from North Yorkshire and the people of York are starting to get excited about this. When I first heard about it I was puzzled because I thought this famous French cycle race was always held in France. It is called the Tour de France after all. And…

  • Cycling makes me happy

    Something I knew all along turns out to have some evidence to back it up: cycling to work makes you happier. Urban Studies Ph.D candidate Oliver Smith surveyed 828 commuters in Portland Oregon to determine commuter well-being among different modes of transport including cycling, walking, bus, rail and car. Here’s what he found. I am…

  • Cycling the Solar System

    Not often in my life, never actually, have I had people proclaim, “COOL!” just at the sight of me but when I go cycling on the bakfiets, it happens all the time. Ok, so they’re referring to the bike rather than to me but I’m not going to let the facts get in the way…

  • Cycling in York

      The ease with which we can cycle around York has surpassed all of my expectations. Perhaps this is because we have come from car-dependent Auckland where bicycles are not catered for very well, so I really didn’t expect much. In York, however, there are many completely off-road cycle paths like this one above which…

  • We’ve got a bakfiets!

    We have been very busy here. So busy in fact, that I’ve neglected my blog. But I have some great news to report today: we have wheels! Just two, completely carbon-neutral wheels. This is an original Dutch bakfiets, a second-hand one, built especially for lugging children and shopping around town and countryside. I have wanted…

  • In praise of change

    I’m an impatient person. I also relish change. I’m not one of those people who fears it and who rejects everything new. Perhaps this is partly why I have no objections to implementing the changes needed to stem global warming and am perplexed why so many people fight against them. I read this great tweet…

  • Auckland: city of sails cars

    I often complain about Auckland’s car-centric culture and a couple of recent events have emphasised just how dire the situation here is. A friend of mine was cycling to her home a couple of weeks ago when she was struck by a car from behind. Apparently the driver did not give way but will not…

  • The future of cycling?

    Could this bike be the future of cycling?   The levitating bike is an entry into the 2013 Hi-MACS annual design contest. It captures the energy from pedalling, stores it in a battery and then allows you to subsequently plug this energy back into the grid. It can also charge small devices via USB, like…

  • Bicycle versus helicopter

    Now that I no longer have a child under the age of three, I find myself re-engaging with popular culture after a six-year hiatus. So please forgive me for writing about an event from September, 2009. Back then, I was heavily pregnant and deeply buried in dirty nappies. Back in 2009, a challenge was presented…

  • Waitangi Day

    A friend of ours said to me this morning, “I read the article you wrote for Stuff Nation”. What!? A couple of weeks ago I made a blog post about how to save the world by bicycle.  I’m quite passionate about this  topic and really wanted to spread my thoughts and because I only have…

  • Road works and Daniel's party

    Street Maintenance Auckland Transport has spent the last week ripping up the footpaths and kerbs on our street and replacing them with new footpaths and kerbs. I can’t think why they’re doing this as the footpaths and kerbs looked fine to me before. What I find even more frustrating is the absence of a cycle…

  • How to save the world by bicycle

    I have a solution for all of society’s ills. It involves getting fat arses out of cars and onto bicycles. If I were Prime Minister, I’d redirect our colossal spending on roads and motorways to spending on cycling infrastructure instead. When I say cycling infrastructure, I don’t mean painted lines on roads or share-and-care footpaths,…

  • I want to ride my bike…..

    I want to ride my bike with my two-year-old sitting in her seat on the back. She loves it. I love it. I want to ride my bike to save money on petrol. I want to ride my bike to reduce my greenhouse gas emissions. I want to ride my bike to help prevent depression…