rachel.blog

Tag: traffic

  • How to make roundabouts safe for cyclists

    The bridge crossing where I have to dash out in front of four lanes of traffic just to cross the road joins a roundabout which is partly why it’s so unsafe. Cars come racing around the roundabout and onto the bridge. By the time they join the bridge they’ve left the roundabout and are usually…

  • Star Wars and cycling

    We took the kids to see Star Wars today. On the cycle ride home I had to dash across four lanes of traffic to get across a bridge that has no crossing for pedestrians or cyclists. I did the same thing yesterday only yesterday a gallant young man stood in the middle of the road…

  • Inverness

    We’re in Inverness. My Mum and Doug are still here and we thought it would be nice to go away for the weekend. I have been wanting to explore the countryside in this part of Scotland as it’s particularly beautiful but a bit too far for a day trip. We decided to spend two nights…

  • Roads, traffic and Braess’s paradox

    I understand that we all have differing ideas about what we find beautiful and pleasing to the eye, but is there anyone who would choose the first photograph below over the second? The two photos are before and after pics from the Cheonggyecheon Stream restoration project in Seoul, South Korea. The concrete highways were built…

  • Phones calls, traffic, the bridge and beards

    Daniel, who is 7 years old, got his first phone call the other day. I answered the phone and heard a young boy politely introduce himself and then ask to speak to Daniel. Completely stunned, I handed the phone to Daniel who was just as surprised as I was and then I heard them discuss…

  • 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…

  • Parking for five cars

    There’s an article in the NZ Herald this week, Auckland house prices vs world’s, which compares the median house price in Auckland – a whopping $670,000 – with other similarly priced homes around the world. The house chosen for comparison in Auckland, is a $675,000 five-bedroom, three-bathroom house in the suburb of New Windsor. New…

  • 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…

  • 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,…

  • The Coromandel

    We are in the Coromandel with Mum! She and Doug arrived at the last minute on Thursday and we all decided it would be nice to go away for the weekend so here we are. The journey here was a little stressful. We left Auckland at 4pm yesterday afternoon. All the tourist info states it…