Poor excuse for shoddy city cycling
Having ended up stopped at traffic lights beside a cyclist who had cycled through students crossing a pedestrian crossing, I felt compelled to point out to him that people like him give cyclists a bad name.
The older gentleman in work attire sheepishly responded ‘‘yeah, I was half asleep’’.
I then also pointed out to him that the street I had patiently followed behind him on (due to traffic on a very narrow road) did in fact have a double-width shared cycleway running alongside.
To this he responded that the cycleway was ‘‘useless’’ and he’d ‘‘fall off it’’, and that he was ‘‘entitled to use the road any time he wanted’’.
Is it truly the case that we spend all this money on cycleways to keep cyclists safe for them to legally be allowed to disregard such safety measures? I think perhaps if you are unable to safely cycle on a double-width path, a bus would be a safer option for you.
Nina Lees, Casebrook
Head counts
With the Christchurch City Council proceeding on the Harewood Rd cycleway, before overspending on anything other than road paint, I’d suggest doing monthly head counts of cyclists, to test whether or not new kerbing and seven new traffic lights are justified.
Meeting the market that exists is better than trying to artificially create a market while making expensive assumptions about the future.
Phillip Rex Robinson, Waltham
Gold-plated
Gold-plated is what the new cycleway is, and 300 car parks lost as well. Expensive traffic lights we don’t need. Traffic flows fine in Harewood without them.
The way the world is going, cycles will probably be taken over by something else, small fold-up hovercraft perhaps! There are enough nearly empty cycleways in Christchurch without making any more.
The new Stadium will be an asset for Christchurch even though the price is horrendous. But don’t worry, the poor old Christchurch ratepayers will pay for all of this.
A lot of them are retired and won’t use these cycle lanes and stadium, but will still have to help pay for them.
There should be a citizen tax so that
Media Council
The Press is subject to the New Zealand Media Council. Complaints must be directed to letters@press.co.nz. If the complainant is unsatisfied with the response, the complaint may be referred to the Media Council, PO Box 10-879, Wellington, 6143 or info@mediacouncil.org.nz. Further details at mediacouncil.org.nz when people get employed they also contribute through a tax and not just leave it all to the ratepayers. Suzanne Roberts, Bishopdale
Lottery ticket
Reading about the recent decision by the Christchurch City Council to press on with the construction of a new stadium has amazed me. I no longer live in your fair city, but I still wish it well.
Anybody spending their own money would consider the following points.
The costs are real, they are inevitable, they are ongoing. The $683 million is just the beginning.
The projected income has not a single dollar that is guaranteed.
Christchurch is about to buy a $683m ticket in a lottery with no prizes. Harvey Barraclough, Waihi
Elderly miss out
While married working couples can individually earn $65,000 each, with a combined income of $130,000, they as individuals are eligible to receive the Government’s cost of living payments coming through this week, yet elderly couples living on the pension will receive nothing apart from the winter energy payment, which is already swallowed up by rising inflation costs.
This Government is really out of touch and is not reaching some of our most vulnerable people, who will continue to struggle.
Wayne Hawker, Phillipstown
Shallow political move
As someone who has lived on both sides of the Official Information Act, I find the National Party commitment to a review of it a shallow political move.
The act itself is quite fit for purpose. It’s how it’s administered that needs a bullet.
Talk of penalising agencies is also wasted breath, because those penalised will end up being the ones who miss out on other services that are thereby compromised.
The single most potent stick is to make chief executives of agencies accountable under their contracts of employment, and hit them personally in the pockets for failures/breaches.
Oh, and remove the ministerial political advisers from the equation – their interest is not the public interest. Graeme Buchanan, Wellington
Look elsewhere
James Shaw accepted a ministerial position (Minister for Climate Change) which, although outside of Cabinet, seems to have required him to support the Government’s insufficient and ineffective policies on climate change.
The Greens need a co-leader who will actively and aggressively challenge the Government to take really effective action on reducing carbon and methane emissions and not to grant more oil leases and coal permits.
They are unlikely to find such a coleader in the current group of Green MPs, so once again should look outside Parliament for a co-leader, as they did when electing Russel Norman.
Charles Drace, Christchurch Central
Sound analysis
Josie Pagani’s column on James Shaw on Friday was a great analysis of the thinking of the Greens and those who vote for them.
Her comment about compromise not being a flaw but the point of democracy is so true, and one reason why under-18s should not get the vote, as they have yet to learn that lesson.
The fact that the two main outriders of the left and right, the Greens and ACT, are level-pegging at between 8 and 10% shows the majority like the compromise displayed by Labour and National and vote their leader into power, rather than the policies they represent.
Trevor Sennitt, Avonhead
Car park pond
My wife and I attended a recital of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra at the Christchurch Town Hall on Saturday evening. A very pleasant event.
However, parking the car at the Wilson car park opposite was not so pleasant.
It was essentially a duck pond, with dips, mud and rock spread around.
Combine that with only one ticket machine, meaning a queue standing in the dark and rain trying to work out what details to enter, as it was not fully lit, meant it was not a happy experience.
To think this is the standard of car parking opposite our town hall; what an absolute disgrace.
Dave Adamson, Roimata
Inequality and violence
Reading on page A17 of The Press (July 30) I could not help noticing on the left a photo of a young African boy collapsing from malnutrition, while to the right was an article headed Asia’s richest woman loses billions in property collapse.
Both articles spoke of collapse, but the unfortunate woman lost only half of her $31 billion fortune (I’m sure she will cope).
Eventually, there will be a reaction to the inequality of the world, and violence could easily result, especially with the situation aggravated by Russian policies.
I am all for improving one’s life standard, but $31b is a disgusting personal fortune.
More must be done to help the world’s poor, before ‘collapse’ refers to Western economies overrun by the starving.
Governments need to wake up and act. Vic Smith, Halswell