Rumour mill: Goodgear bike hire

There's some potentially good news on the horizon for cycling in the CDB, with rumours that GoodGear rental bikes are apparently interested in setting up in Christchurch.

The company use an innovative system whereby the lock combination is retrieved by making a call from your mobile phone. You lock the bike back up when your finished, make another call from your mobile, and are charged according to the time you had the bike. The initial plan is to introduce 100 bikes in October 2008, and the company already have operations in Auckland, Hamilton, Roturua, Tauranga and Mt. Maunganui.

Although the bikes will probably be aimed at tourists, this may not be a bad thing as the council often seem to place a high priority on tourist facilities, and a good uptake may cause the council to think a little harder about cycling access in the CBD. Keep an eye on a street corner near you.

Of course, if you can't wait for these bikes to arrive, there's already a great hire option available from City Cycle Hire, who can deliver one or more bikes to your door anywhere in Christchurch. We've used them, and think they're great!

Waste of money?

Picked up this interesting story from The Nelson Mail on the radar.

An Atawhai resident watched in disbelief as a Nelson City Council staff member left her home on a bicycle after carrying out a resource consent inspection.

To summarise, this resident was disgusted that a council representative rode a bike to their property to carry out an inspection.

According to Google maps, the trip is a distance of 5.3km, and would take around 8 minutes in a car. At 15km/h, the trip would have taken around 20 minutes by bike.

The council has two fleet bicycles and encourages sustainable practices where possible but these had to be balanced with efficiency and cycling to out-of-town jobs wasn't appropriate, Mr Johnson said.

The fact this made the news (although I guess even hot spots like Nelson get slow news days) shows that there's a long way to go in NZ for cycling to be accepted as a normal form of transport.

We'd like to send a message of support to the councilor, and hope they keep on using the most efficient means of transport available to them.