CYCLISTS: KEEP OFF
The life-changing damage done to an elderly woman in the Nelson area a day or so ago by a cyclist peddling into her whilst she walked on a normal pedestrian footpath, strikes home the fact that cyclists must keep off the pavements and ride their bikes on the sides of the roads or in cycle lanes or on cycle tracks.
Cycling is illegal on footpaths in NZ apart from the likes of postal services and young children's bikes and trikes. But the laws or local council regulations regarding this are not enforced.
Pavements are for people walking and jogging, for people with dogs, for people in wheelchairs and for people who might be unstable or disabled.
Kids scooters, skate boards and roller skates are bad enough and don't get me "talking" about escooters which should be off everything.
There are as many nasty and thoughtless cyclists as there are drivers of vehicles on a proportional basis. At the very least cyclists should have warning bells or horns attached to their handle bars and operated loud enough for people of all sorts to hear.
I am a cyclist (with a racing bike and a rough surfaces bike), a motorist, a jogger, a hiker and a dog walker.
We're talking new year resolutions...
Tidying the house before going to bed each night, meditating upon waking or taking the stairs at work.
What’s something quick, or easy, that you started doing that made a major positive change in your life?
GOODBYE THE POST - NOT QUITE.
Finally joined the large throng of former The Evening Post, The Dominion and DomPost home and office delivery subscribers and cut out a delivered newspaper. Well almost.
This follows in the footsteps of the Upper Hutt Leader being scrapped from weekly delivery.
Now I am among those who receive a digital copy of The Post on a computer and smart phone and a delivered Saturday- only copy of the same. The savings in costs is close to $800 per year. But that is not the real reason for my cancelling delivery.
The delivery wrapped-up newspaper (which can occur as early as 11pm) was being thrown either onto the driveway and skidding onto flowers lining the driveway or direct hits onto the sunflowers.
The Post has become a shell of a major capital city daily newspaper. It is almost not and local regional news - especially sport - is usually non existent.
The name is not good. Google The Post and you get a host of NZ Post sites which are entirely unrelated. The Post is a featureless name. The Dominion (or The Dom for short) had character as a name and a history as a newspaper in Wellington.
Just a thought: The Harvey Norman News Bulletin sounds relevant.
The Evening Post at its zenith and even with the competition of the morning paper (The Dominion) was NZs best selling newspaper with a relative huge home delivered demand.
But where I have lived for the past 4 years or so, I may have been the sole resident receiving The Post in a radius of 300 metres of housing north, south, east and west.