Dear CAN Members and Friends,
CAN's e-petition, part of our campaign on our Nine Point Plan for Cycle Safety, will be presented to Annette King, Minister of Transport, and Harry Duynhoven, Minister of Transport Safety, on 10 September. We have asked for a formal response to the Nine Points and will report this to you via our website (see http://www.can.org.nz/9PointPlan for campaign updates).
The petition calls (among other things) for government to take steps to reduce motor vehicle speeds through reducing the tolerance for speed enforcement and increasing the use of lower speed limits. It also asks for the balance of expenditure on transport to move away from building more road capacity (which often leads to more and faster traffic) towards more sustainable alternatives, such as cycling, walking and public transport.
Internationally and in this country (e.g. the NZ Transport Strategy) reducing motor vehicle volumes and speeds are seen as the two most important steps to take to improve the safety and appeal of cycling on our roads. These two steps need to form the core of any cycle safety campaign.
Thank you to those of you who have already signed the petition. Around 2,700 people have already shown their support for the CAN campaign, with many contributing thoughtful and interesting comments - you can read these on the petition website.
Given that CAN's combined financial and Friends membership is over 5,000, many members have yet to sign. It'd be great to get to 4,000!
Since we launched our cycle safety campaign a further cyclist death, that of road safety campaigner Fred Ogle, near Whangarei on 16 August has reinforced the urgent need for action.
If you haven't signed the e-petition, please do it now at
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/NZCycleSafety
Please encourage family, friends and workmates to do the same.
Best wishes,
Robert Ibell
CAN Chairperson
chair[at]can.org.nz
04-972 2552
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Cycling Advocates Network (CAN)
PO Box 6491, Auckland
CAN website: www.can.org.nz |
