Welcome to today’s daily kōrero!
Anyone can make the thread, first in first served. If you are here on a day and there’s no daily thread, feel free to create it!
Anyway, it’s just a chance to talk about your day, what you have planned, what you have done, etc.
So, how’s it going?
Thought for the day
I did something today; that I have been meaning to do since starting my new job (6 months ago). I biked to work, it took 29 minutes; I plan to ride at least twice a week. I hope to get the time down to around 20 minutes.
I have a nice bike path to ride on pretty much from where I live to right next to where I work. If I worked in the middle of town, I wouldn’t have the same access to a bike path. How is the infrastructure in your area, that caters to non-car users?
Update: 28 minutes back.
I also have easy access to a shared walking/biking track, but biking to the office is a bit far. I work from home most of the time though.
I only got a bike earlier in the year (once the kids could bike faster than I could walk), and got in the habbit of lunchtime bike rides a couple of times a week, but over winter I stopped and haven’t started back up again.
Got an eBike a few years ago and use it whenever I commute, as well as around town. It’s about a 20 minute ride to the office for me. I have 0 cycling infrastructure on my route though (apart from a short stretch of bus lane which cyclists are allowed to use, although it’s on one of the most dangerous stretches of road in Wellington, so not sure it makes us much safer). There are plans to add cycle lanes along some of my route, but I would be surprised if it’s done this decade (not exaggerating).
There are a few good cycle lanes around Wellington now, and they’re great to use. Some of them are massive compromises though, clearly designed to try not to piss off drivers too much… which tends to lead to the worst of both worlds.
NZ is miles behind most of the rest of the world in terms of transport… and it’s probably not going to change any time soon unfortunately.
I used to bike every day but kinda fallen out of the habit of late as I mostly work from home. There’s been some good improvements to the both the cycle, and general road infrastructure recently which has made it a lot safer for me going into to work.
That said with the narrow winding roads in my area, there’s not really any room for further cycle lanes. So unless they introduce lower speed limits, or remove on street parking, then it’s probably as cycle friendly as it’ll get - which is still not super friendly.
I get by because I have an e-bike and can mostly keep up with traffic if I go hard out (except for uphill), but I wouldn’t recommend cycling on those roads to more casual / younger riders.