The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together.
Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the village to make this possible. Chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together.
Takes me back, it does.
Back to the day we took the trainer wheels off and rolled down to the school netball courts and off she went, all grim concentration and then a delighted smile.
Back to a holiday in Southern California and the coolest of rides.
Back to Clyde, and Wedderburn, and Middlemarch, with the quiet crunch of gravel, fierce winds, mean cold. She dug in and pressed on.
The wheels on the bike go round and round, and the little girl keeps pedalling.
And the bikes get bigger, and on she goes, and she’ll always be a biker.
Very soon now, she’ll be taking us biking in London, and we will be chattering, laughing, happy and having a bloody great time together.
Hello reader Roger Lacey, I told you I loved your clipping and your suggestion, and this feels like the perfect day to mention them.
Study: E-bike owners use their cars less, some get rid of their car completely
Researchers from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland found that over half of e-bike owners use their cars less after getting an e-bike, and almost a fifth get rid of their car completely.
The results demonstrate the major impact e-bikes could have on congestion and pollution within towns and cities worldwide. Subsequently, the authors argue that e-bikes should be at the core of planning for decarbonised travel in modern towns and cities.
Damn straight, they should be.
Roger has a modest proposal:
By my rough and dirty calculation, for the cost of the proposed East West link (1.9 billion) you could give every household in Auckland (540,000) a free $3,500 e-bike.
Imagine the transformation this would have on transport, the extra disposable income from the money saved on fuel and general well-being of the community?
Then you can spend the $1.3 destined for Mill Rd on bike infrastructure and bike friendly buses trains and ferries for the longer trips.
I could not love this more.
Never mind a tunnel that goes under Wellington and a massive fault line and would cost more than the Cook Strait ferry project, all for the sake of something that changes the way we do things not one lick.
How about this for a vision, Mr. Transport Minister?
Take off your trainer wheels, Mr. Transport Minister!
Wobble your way forward!
I promise in no time at all you’ll be having a bloody great time.
David Slack
