LocalBodies: Transport Poverty, Bicycles Needed.

20 comments on “LocalBodies: Transport Poverty, Bicycles Needed. ”

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1. Ad 1

   1 April 2014 at 6:04 pm

   Excellent regional regional reality.
   Transport in cities can get to $150 a week with parking factored in.
   In Auckland it’s calculated as 15% of weekly spend as a household average.

   You are the first here to describe transport as a marker of class. Transport poverty is not only about daily stress, and ones defined spatial and mental realm, it’s also a threshold of personal freedom. Very real. Well cashed black economy workers in Kaitaia roll their v8 hemis through town as a grand signifier. Year 8s say it with a freestyle dirtbike with trick accessories.

   You ain’t moving into upper working or lower middle class without wheels – without them on many levels you are stuck.

   By the way, even Gerry gets this. Watch this space when his next govt policy statement comes out.
   • weka 1.1

     1 April 2014 at 8:42 pm

     “Excellent regional regional reality.”

     Yep, very good post.

     Is there a recyle centre in Invers? What’s happening to the bikes no-one wants?
     • Dave kennedy 1.1.1

       1 April 2014 at 9:42 pm

       Yes there is, but the bikes at the recycle centre are generally in poor condition and would need attention to get properly roadworthy again. Our Environment Centre bike doctor has bikes donated and he ensures that they are functional and safe before passing them on.
2. Stephen Judd 2

   1 April 2014 at 6:05 pm

   In Wellington, check out the Mechanical Tempest (Abel Smith St) and the Aro Valley Wunderbike programme:

   http://wunderbike.blogspot.co.nz/

   In Christchurch, get in touch with Icecycles:

   http://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/bike-maintenance/
3. karol 3

   1 April 2014 at 6:24 pm

   Here out in West Auckland, I also see young people using other modes of transportation: scooters (of the engineless type where you paddle along with one foot), skateboards.

   Sometimes I see youngest getting up a bit of speed with wheels on the bottom of their shoes.
4. Overcache 4

   2 April 2014 at 9:54 am

   While well meaning, there are couple of logical flaws in the way this article is structured.

   Firstly, why build bike lanes if the poorest of the poor cannot afford bikes? I think you are inferring that the government should subsidise bikes, as a means of granting greater access to the poor. If so, doesn’t that prejudice people like young mothers and the elderly, for whom a bike is not a viable option? How should this be balanced out? Consider is a country like New Zealand, particularly down South, weather is a huge determinant of cycle use.

   Secondly, you make the assumption that the poor cannot afford bikes. A quick scan on Trade Me shows you can buy functioning bikes for as little as $30 (buy now) on the South Island. This may be out of reach for some of the most disaffected, but these people are at the extreme margin (best served by targeted solutions not blanket subsidies). I would suggest that a targeted (as opposed to blanket) approach is needed, which is where organisations like the Bike Doctor come in. As for funding, the government is by far the biggest contributor to charities in this country, and I would suggest this is the route to go, or perhaps a wider community appeal.

   If you want an example of people living in extreme poverty, please check out this documentary (http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/dont-panic-truth-about-population/), and fast forward to the 38 minute mark. Here is a family of 10 living on less than US$10 a day, for whom a bike represents a transformative investment, which they have made at great personal sacrifice. We in New Zealand do not suffer from nearly the same deprivation.
   • Dave kennedy 4.1

     2 April 2014 at 1:20 pm

     Overcache, we need to follow Europe in their approach to providing real choice in transport options, we are lagging behind in this regard. Weather shouldn’t be a limiting factor, our climate is actually a moderate one and many more people in Invercargill used bicycles in the past. In cities with much more challenging Winters (like Zurich) bicycles are common.

     When motorways are constructed the volume of traffic increases and it generally doesn’t reduce congestion. If safe cycle lanes are provided, people will use them and the cost benefit ratio of cycle lanes are hugely positive. People will use cars less, there will be a reduction in road congestion and there are savings in health costs.

     I definitely didn’t infer that the Government should subsidise bikes, if anything I was pointing out how inadequate many incomes are. I would rather see the adoption of a living wage. I am sure that for many of the children who didn’t have bikes it was priorities not price that was the determining factor. If children couldn’t use their bikes as transport to get to and from school safely then they would become purely recreational in their use and therefore a luxury. If children could cycle to their school safely it would free up parents and save on the petrol used to drop them off each day.
5. shorts 5

   2 April 2014 at 10:01 am

   new bikes seem very expensive – so many aimed at the very well heeled and a growing number of bike shops seem to focus on only these customers

   It seems there is very little in NZ these days that isn’t slowly but surely being denied those with less

   Where we are out west (akld) its very hilly and our youngsters would rather walk than bike as they spend a lot of time when biking pushing them up hills
   • Draco T Bastard 5.1

     2 April 2014 at 10:19 am

     new bikes seem very expensive – so many aimed at the very well heeled and a growing number of bike shops seem to focus on only these customers

     That’s the NZ market. It’s very small and so the stores have to go for the things that they can make a large profit on as they’re not going to get the turnover necessary to support a low profit per item model.

     Where we are out west (akld) its very hilly and our youngsters would rather walk than bike as they spend a lot of time when biking pushing them up hills

     I’m pretty much the same.
     • karol 5.1.1

       2 April 2014 at 10:22 am

       A lot of roads out west are not very bike friendly – steep hills (also dangerous for going down too fast on roads built for cars more than bikes – one lane roads, sometimes without footpaths), etc.
       • Draco T Bastard 5.1.1.1

         2 April 2014 at 12:40 pm

         http://cargobikes.co.nz/

         Depends upon the bike.
   • Saccharomyces 5.2

     2 April 2014 at 10:58 am

     Bikes have never been cheaper. Yes there are some extreme high-end models out there at specialist stores for many thousands, but there are really cheap options out there too. Under $100 at the likes of The Warehouse and KMart.

     Contrast that to the early ’80s when even the most basic Healing Cruiser would set you back $216! Inflation adjusted that’s near $600!

     I think one thing that has happened is our disposable culture has people chucking older bikes out when they could probably be repaired and on-sold. I hate to think how many bikes with perfectly serviceable frames, rims and hubs get sent for scrap just because the brakes are work/our of alignment or the gears need servicing.
     • shorts 5.2.1

       2 April 2014 at 11:10 am

       no disrespect to the warehouse and cheaper retail focused outlets but I have little faith their bikes would last long which is something I want in a childs bike – I got a new bike when I was 13… and was still riding it daily when I was in my early 30s
       • weka 5.2.1.1

         2 April 2014 at 11:18 am

         Yes, but we can’t have it both ways. It costs to build product that will last. We could demand cheaper, better bikes, but I’d hazzard a guess that the people making the bikes are facing their own set of poverty problems so how is that fair or reasonable? I like Draco’s and Sacc’s ideas – let’s make things here again, pay the real costs for them, and then instead of throwing things out, focus on building a re-use culture. There is plenty to go around, we are just pretty shit at doing it.

         I noticed this recently with clothing opshops that are packed with far too many clothes. When I commented on this, I was told that they get more than they can sell. FFS, set up a system where the people with no money get given clothes. And educate the rest of NZ that their clothing that is so cheap they can throw it away faster than it can be reused, is being made with slave labour.
         • shorts 5.2.1.1.1

           2 April 2014 at 12:31 pm

           “let’s make things here again, pay the real costs for them, and then instead of throwing things out, focus on building a re-use culture. There is plenty to go around, we are just pretty shit at doing it.”

           In total agreement with this, I just wish kiwi wages were such that the real costs didn’t make things unaffordable to so many of us
           • Draco T Bastard 5.2.1.1.1.1

             2 April 2014 at 12:48 pm

             I just wish kiwi wages were such that the real costs didn’t make things unaffordable to so many of us

             That’s not actually the problem. The main problem is that most of the money is going to the bludging shareholders while wages are kept down. Then there’s the rather expensive idea of competition which is aggravated by the large foreign factories that use cheap manual labour where economies of scale apply (an automated factory removes economies of scale but happen to be expensive).

             What I’d like is for the government to build such an automated factory that could produce any design from any material. Such a factory could be built to provide solely for the NZ market with the resources used by it also supplied directly from NZ.
             • Saccharomyces …

               2 April 2014 at 1:17 pm

               “for the government to build such an automated factory that could produce any design from any material”

               Do you mean specifically for bikes, or literally ANYTHING? Because if it’s the latter, there’s no way that I can see that would be possible.
               • Draco T Bastard …

                 2 April 2014 at 3:38 pm

                 ATM I’d say specifically anything that had similar construction to bikes. So, anything made out of metal tubes.

                 Actually, it’d be a complex I suppose with each main component being specialised for a part and then brought together in an automated assembly line.
6. Tracey 6

   2 April 2014 at 10:08 am

   children dont vote.
   • Ad 6.1

     2 April 2014 at 11:21 am

     Give them a few years.
     Even young people have memories.

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