Posts Tagged ‘Cityhop’

Auckland Festival adds vitality and life

Sunday, March 24th, 2013

Phew its Day 18, the final day of the Auckland Arts Festival, our sixth festival and wow, what gems Carla van Zon has created for us. The finale was a family day in Aotea Square where children painted prayer flags to add to Tiffany Singh’s amazing artwork, watched the funniest clown, listened to music and practiced the ‘thriller haka’ ready for the flash mob!  Carla is pictured below with Victoria Carter, of Cityhop and also Chair of the Arts Festival and the star of One Man Two Guvnor’s, Owain Arthur.

Carla Van Zon, Owain Arthur and Victoria Carter

It began with a big bang, with Groupe F, the French Troupe and their ‘breathe of the volcano’ a stunning visual light and fireworks spectacular with images of Auckland using the museum as a back drop. We’ve had co-productions with ATC, APO, so many local artists as well as impressive international theatre companies.

We’ve been stirred as Kila Kokonut Krew told their story of living in the 70′s with The Factory, Hui,a moving story of the challenge of defying Maori tradition, we’ve sung along at Everything is Ka Pai, even the Governor General looked like he had a ball.

I’m hugely proud of this Festival and what the team have achieved. Festivals don’t spring into life, they take a lot of hard work, enormous co-oriundation and orgnisations, something our team is pretty experienced at. They make the job of running this HUGE event easy!

Thank you to the writer in the Central Leader ‘Off Pat’ who wrote, ” we are so fortunate to have creative inspired citizens who’re prepared both to organise these Festivals and donate their time and money to make them happen. We all know that Wellington – based governments starve Auckland – our biggest population centre – of money for cultural activities, and the success of the Festival is a real tribute to the public spiritedness of generous citizens, inspired and dedicated organisers, both paid and unpaid, who’ve made the Festival happen.

Now we have the challenge of persuading Auckland Council and others that it is time for Auckland to go annual. Brian Rudman of the NZ Herald  wrote a great piece on how Auckland could and should fund it. While Wayne Thompson outlined some of the reasons it makes sense. We’ll let you know what happens. And now Victoria can focus back on her othr job! Encouraging people to drive less and share more!

Oh and in case you wondered Auckland Festival use Cityhop!

Victoria with Patron Sir James Wallace after the exquisite War Requiem with the APO, Youth Choir, Voice NZ Chamber Choir and soloists.

 

 

 

 

 

Trying something new and New Years

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013

Yep it’s January 1 2013, and there have been plenty of tweets about new year resolutions, and blogs, and posts on Facebook. Victoria Carter co-founder of Cityhop says, “I have often thought you can make a resolution every time you think you have the commitment to make something happen. It’s all about your willingness to make it happen”

“I guess a New Year is a good time to start something but as we know from the statistics so many people say they want o do something and rarely do! What has this to do with car share? Well quite a bit! Probably lots of people made resolutions to get fit, save more money and the obvious way to do this is through carshare. But every step towards change truly occurs with a small step.

“Thinking about this I read one of my favourite author’s tweets, Gretchen Rubin on “Don’t let the perfect be the  enemy of the good.”

“It makes so much sense, it is so often how we sabotage our good intentions.  As Gretchen reminds far better to do a 20 minute walk than never do the 3 mile run. Have friends over for takeaways is better than having no people to a flash dinner party.

“It’s all about one’s outlook. Same applies to carshare; keep your car if you want but perhaps consider selling one in your family and get a carshare membership and give it a try.

See how easy carshare is, how convenient. First work out what your car really costs and then think about what you could do with that money (not just once but every year!)”

Earth friendly cars – great blog

Friday, September 7th, 2012

 

Yes this is Cityhop’s blog but when we saw this blog on the Earth Friendly Planet blog we thought we had to share it with cityhoppas and those who are interested in car share. Best of all it even mentions us here in New Zealand! Thank you Earth Friendly Planet.

It’s a great piece on how easy it is to share, where you can share and why you don’t need to own your own car!

 Interesting to read on the blog too about this pocket guide  on reducing reliance on cars. Cutting Your Car Use is a best-selling pocket guide written specifically for the UK (by the country’s only traffic reduction consultant) (plus a separate US version). Packed with tips, illustrations and success stories, it covers alternatives, changing travel habits, making better use of your car, living without a car and talking to your employer.

http://www.earthfriendlyplanet.com/earth-friendly-cars/

Don’t miss this movie – every council official must see!

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

Urbanized, a documentary about the design of cities looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers is being screened by Auckland Transport blog as a fundraiser. And cityhop is a big fan and supporter! Buy a ticket and you might even win a cityhop membership! Book now for 15 August 8 pm Capitol Cinemas, Dominion Road.

Says someone who has seen it, “this movie should be an absolute must see for anyone in local politics. The first comment from anyone in the audience after the premiere was: “I hope our god-damned mayor was here to see this” He should have been – together with his entire city council.”
Says another person, “What really took my breath away was how you can build a transportation system to address the needs of tens of thousands of cyclists or several hundred motorists and watching the mayor of Bogota Columbia explaining his priorities while giving an interview riding a bike in the heart of his city – amazing.”
“Another key element involved how small, close knit communities were destroyed at the dawn of the automotive era to make way for freeways between city cores and suburban sprawls where cars were necessary to travel the great distances between destinations largely because of the huge parking lots required at every place you wanted to go.”
To stay in touch with what the team are doing follow http://urbanizedfilm.com/

 

4800 trees planted in Carbon4good 100 tonne challenge

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sustainable Business Network’s (SBN) inaugural Carbon4Good 100 Tonne Challenge has proved to be a resounding success.  The 100 Tonne Challenge was designed to make it easy for businesses to get out and celebrate World Environment Day (June 5th) in a meaningful, tangible way.  The aim of the event was for teams of SBN members to plant enough trees to eventually offset 100 tonnes of CO2.  667 trees are enough to reach the magic 100 tonne offsetting figure so Mark Roberts, SBN’s Carbon4Good Programme Manager, was delighted with final amount planted.

“We’re stoked that 4,800 trees were planted across four sites in Auckland and Wellington.  Some great businesses got behind this initiative and really made it fly.  A big round of applause to Fulton Hogan, Microsoft and Vodafone provided a combined 135 staff members the opportunity to get involved.  And of course, projects like this wouldn’t be possible without the participation of planting sites so a big thank you to the Kaipatiki Project in Birkdale;  Blockhouse Bay Intermediate; Nga Uruora Kapiti Project in Paekakariki; and lastly Trees for Survival” he says. We are also grateful for the help received from Honda, Toyota, Cityhop, and Paradigm Design.

 

Free driving for Earth Day

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

To celebrate Earth Day on Sunday April  22  Cityhop is offering $75 driving credit to every individual member who signs up before April 24. Just put Earth Day in the comments section of the join up application. It’s easy, it’s all on line. See how much you’ll save and don’t miss out. Tell your friends this is their chance to see the benefits of carsharing!

Time magazine recently came out with an interesting article about how mainstream ‘carsharing’ is in the US. The article points out:

Last year, the average U.S. household paid $4,155 gassing up their cars, and when gas, insurance,  depreciation, vehicle payments, and other expenses are tallied up, the average  car costs $8,776 annually. These costs will only increase now  that prices for gas and new cars have risen substantially. There’s an obvious  alternative to owning a car—not owning a car—and the rise of car sharing makes  it increasingly feasible.
Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2012/04/16/whats-car-sharing-really-like/#ixzz1sQgKfPIr

With most cars sitting idle for 91 % of the time, now is a good time for you to ask yourself can you afford not to look at joining carsharing with this offer?

Earth Day coming up – eat green!

Sunday, April 15th, 2012

Earth Day 2012 is coming up on Sunday April 22. It’s an opportunity to think about the amazing job this earth does providing for us all. It’s also a chance to say thanks and practice an eco-friendly behaviour!

We are going to do a series of blogs on Earth Day and watch out, the closer we get Cityhop carshare could have some surprises for you!

With Earth Day in mind here are some ways to green up your diet.

Buy organic:  Yes it is a bit more expensive and can look a bit peculiar! But remember those veges that aren’t perfect are less tampered with! Buying organic usually means that those veges have been produced with health in mind. Choosing organic foods is reported to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 68 percent.

The following list means you don’t always have to buy organic! The US Environmental Working Group named a “Clean 15”  of veges and fruit  least likely to be contaminated with pesticide residues).

They are onions, corn, pineapple, avocado, asparagus, sweet peas, mango, eggplant, cantaloupe, kiwi, cabbage, watermelon, sweet potatoes, grapefruit and mushrooms.

Buy local: We all know the mantra, buy local because it cuts down on your food miles. I like the idea that someone locally (often a small operation)  has grown something and then sold it locally. Lots of people must agree with this which is why Farmer’s Markets are so popular. When we buy local we are reducing the journey food travels from farm to fork.

Typically small farms use sustainable agricultural techniques that protect water and build healthy soils. Their livelihood, depends on it. I read that small is also good because small growers  typically plant a variety of crops, whereas some large industrial farms, grow acres of the same crop. Crop diversity is a good defense against the spread of damaging insects and plant pathogens. If a problem arises in one crop, it’s unlikely to spread to others.

Grow your own: Whether it’s a pot of herbs or you replace a bed of flowers with dark leafy greens, a home garden is the ultimate local food source. Nothing beats the satisfaction of picking and eating something you have grown!

And don’t forget our friends at Hungry Bins, who have NZ’s best worm farm for feed your garden with.  Maybe just like a New Year resolution which you apply to your own habits you might consider an Earth Day resolution, start a worm farm, start growing your own veges, plant a fruit tree or join carshare!

Ecostore and Cityhop giveaway

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Our friends at Ecostore have given us a Healthy Home Starter Kit to give away to one lucky new member who signs up in March. So tell your friends and family and remember if they mention your name on sign up, you will get 2 hours Free Driving Credit.

If you have been thinking about joining cityhop, join now and you could get this amazing healthy cleaning gift. Tell your friends.

Don’t miss our other specials, like the Location of the Month – this month it’s K Road car park, pay only $10 per hour or $50 for the day if you hire from this park.

Carshare, making it easy to live without a car.

Carshare and bikes

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Go Get, Australia’s largest carshare company had a neat story in their latest newsletter.

The City of Sydney is helping to make carsharing even more convenient, by adding bicycle parking rings to some of the sign poles next to carshare pods.

So if you need to cycle to a  car that might be a little far to walk – say you want a car to shoot out shopping- you can lock up your bike while you drive out there.

You can then drop your new flatpacks, rugs, scented candles, and ergonomic pillows at home, and then return the car back to its pod, before cycling back home!

We’ve sent the idea to Auckland Council, so hopefully the new onstreet car park signs might have a bike ring! Did you see the brightly painted carshare space! COOL

 

Fewer cars drive over Harbour Bridge

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

Auckland has fewer cars driving over the Harbour Bridge and this is put down to higher fuel costs and better public transport.

A recent report shows  almost 900 fewer cars a week travelled over the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 2011 compared with 2010.

NZTA figures show 1,684,601 cars crossed the bridge in the year to December, 44,545 fewer than in 2010.

Figures provided by New Zealand-owned petrol retailer Gull from local authority levies on petrol sales in the Auckland region showed 19 million fewer litres of petrol were sold in the year to June 2011 - a two per cent drop on the previous year.

And Auckland Transport Authority figures show there were 68,590,762 passenger trips on buses, trains and ferries for the 12 months to October 2011 – an increase of 6,033,457 or a 9.6 per cent rise for the year.

“That’s good news for those who want to make the city more liveable,” says Victoria Carter, co-founder of Cityhop carshare, fewer cars mean less emissions, cleaner air and waterways, and most importantly safer streets for those who walk or bike.

“All the cities in the world that are becoming more liveable are reclaiming their streets and saying the streets have to have fewer cars on them.”

Carsharing makes it much easier for people to deliberately choose not to own a car. Now that Auckland Transport has put cars on street in parts of the city with more to come it really is viable for people to sell their car and use car share when they need wheels.”