There are bicycles in Auckland

I was blown away just recently when I spied a selection of very styley bicycles on Queen Street all on the same day ... and there was no special event that I was aware of ...

I've seen this a few times and I just love the graphic simplicity

A Pake - I've seen these in the shop but never in the wild so to speak!

Look at this little cluster - a Velorbis Scrappy Delux and a Pashley just hanging out together

This is something I spied in Pack and Pedal in Newmarket ... they're really starting to get the hang of this bicycle thing!

And of course this is my bicycle ... fully restored and out for a spot of people-watching.

Going somewhere?

In Auckland, we're going places ...

To a friends house?

Missed the bus?

Late for work?

Should be somewhere else?

(or just really freaked out by the number of signs at the extremely dangerous ferry terminal!)

For a coffee?

To post a letter?

Winners

It was difficult to call but here is the winner of our recent Frocks on Bikes photo competition

This is a photo from the beginning of a Critical Mass gathering taken by Warwick Sickling - congratulations!

We also had two runners up (sorry, unfortunately no prizes for 'runner up' - just the glow of knowing that you placed in this highly prestigious competition!)

This is a photo from the open day on Mangere Bridge by Ruth Barton - congratulations! ... Here's hoping many other roads in Auckland start to look like this

This is a photo taken by Antoine Pethers whilst riding home from work on East Coast Road - congratulations!

Thanks everybody for sending in your entries!

Right or Wrong

When I see people with their bicycles, it makes me happy, it just seems so very right and natural.

I generally stop for a chat ... as you do ...

This gentleman was just getting on the ferry back to Waiheke Island

This gentleman was bringing some stuff back from the shops

This is Alex, and he was coming back from work at Uni

This guy was just hanging out in Queen Street, checking out the shops

And then there are some things that are just so very wrong ....

I popped into a bicycle shop to see if they had any frock-friendly bicycles, and a keen young salesman tried to persuade me to buy these as 'they are the latest thing' ... it didn't work ... I was not persuaded.

Parking for Dummies

Parking in the city can be an absolute bitch (so I'm led to believe!) ...

Even when you find a park ... it's tight

It looks like this silver car won't be going home any time soon!

Or, of course, it can be an absolute breeze ... thirsty?

Back to it

Our trip to Melbourne ended with Mikael's speech of course, but I am waiting until this is put online before I post ... so ..... back to it in Auckland

Interesting pink handle bar and pedal thing going on here

I just love this colour combination ... it makes me wonder why both my bikes are black

This lady is 'owning' the road

This lady is 'owning' the pavement

What can you say - this is just so cool on so many levels!

Melbourne - who me?

.... so, the police arrived

As soon as we left the grounds of the University we were 'nabbed!'

There was some discussion about what to do with us ...

It's a fair cop guvnor ... we'll go quietly

Some brave soles received tickets for the dastardly deed of riding without a helmet ...

where will it all end ... people might start to think for themselves - shock horror! (like they do in the rest of the world)

Mikael was obviously fascinated by this ludicrous sight and will no doubt put something on his highly popular websites about these daft countries in the Southern Hemisphere with compulsory helmet laws

I generally have a bit of a thing for a man in uniform, but honesty ...

What were they thinking!!!!

Like father ...

... like son!

However, Felix obviously doesn't get what all this fuss about bicycles is all about - presumably if you live in a city with a strong bicycle culture, trams are much more interesting!

I gave my camera to the Husband as I very rarely have any photographs with me in them ... so these are the tights I was wearing!

And this is the top of my head ... sigh!

Following the ticketing process, we decided to walk ... this actually made a really strong statement, as the sight of all of us WALKING perfectly good bikes as we were unable to ride them, was utterly ludicrous and very eye catching!

This is Mike Rubbo who came up with this delicious idea of the protest ... and the maker of this little video ...

There is further coverage of this event over at Copenhagenize.com and Situp-cycle.com

Melbourne - Day two

On day two the plan was to join in with some civil disobedience, some good old fashioned law breaking ... it just had to be done.

Melbourne has these beautiful pristine rows of bike share bikes ...

Beautifully branded and an eye catching statement for all to see ...

High tech machinery is clear and elegantly simple

Everything has been thought out in detail (of course it has as, this system is highly successful and well used in many other countries) ... but Melbourne has something these other countries don't have ...

These stickers, and all that they stand for ...

While I was photographing these facilities a couple of tourists came over with the obvious intention of taking some bikes out ... they read the instructions and then one of them said "oh, you need a helmet". The other one said "oh well, never mind, we'll get the tram" and they walked away. It's logical really - it doesn't take much to put something in the 'too hard' basket.

We were not the only people to realise how farcical this situation is ...

The Age newspaper ran an online poll:

Should public-bike scheme users be excused from wearing helmets? There were a staggering 13,885 votes leading to the following results:

71% Yes, public-bike scheme users should be excused from wearing helmets
29% No

So, we turned up at the appointed time and place to meet the other reprobates ...

Mikael and Felix were already there kicking the proverbial bike share tyres

And not long after the press turned up in droves ... this is Mike Dubbo being interviewed. The young camera man in the foreground obviously takes after his dad!

Here is Paul Martin ('the doctor' from Brisbane) with his own entourage of paparazzi

And a bit of a 'pose' with the bikes

So why were we here ...

because the bike share looks like this ...

... not like this. You see nobody is using it ... people peer and prod, read the blurb and then walk away.

There should be dapper gents such as these checking out the city life and getting from A to B in style

Ladies should be hopping on these bikes in their stylish street wear to be 'seen' around town. Ladies such as Saskia from Cycle Chic Sundays in Sydney, and her friend, who were raring to go on these fabulous blue bikes!

The exact same bikes in London are simply flying off the stands and Londoners are lovin' it.

When I gave it further thought, I realised that actually we really have to thank Melbourne bike share for being so noble! It occurred to me that for valid robust scientific research you need a control group against which the true success of the other bike share systems can be measured, and Melbourne has set itself up as the perfect control group. As far as I can see there are no other barriers to the bike share being successful except the helmet law - the weather and terrain are both highly conducive to cycling and the traffic is no worse than in Paris or London. Australasia is already held up as an example of what not to do if you want to reap the societal benefits of getting more people on bicycles, so this latest pantomime should pretty much clinch the deal and provide a robust case study ... the 'F' grade for promoting bicycle use.

Anyway soon after, the police arrived ... watch this space for the next thrilling instalment ...