Cycling Action Network (CAN) is a national cycling advocacy group founded in November 1996 in Wellington, New Zealand. They lobby government, local authorities, businesses and the community on behalf of cyclists, for a better cycling environment. It aims to achieve a better cycling environment for cycling as transport. Major initiatives are the annual Cycle Friendly Awards and support for a biennial Cycling Conference. The organisation was originally named Cycling Advocates' Network until it was formally changed at the annual general meeting on 20 March 2016.

Goals

CAN's goals are:

Chairpersons

The group is led an executive committee. Chairpersons of these committees are shown in the table below.

Activities

NZ Cycling Conference

CAN has made a major contribution to the establishment and ongoing success of the NZ Cycling Conference series (15 October 1997, Hamilton; 14–15 July 2000, Palmerston North; 21–22 September 2001, Christchurch; 10–11 October 2003, North Shore; 14–15 October 2005 Hutt City; 1–2 November 2007, Napier; 12–13 November 2009, New Plymouth). Since 2012, the conference series has been combined with the previous NZ Walking Conference series and rebranded "2WALKandCYCLE" (February 2012, Hastings; October 2014, Nelson; July 2016, Auckland; Jul/Aug 2018, Palmerston North; March 2021, Dunedin).

Cycle Friendly Awards

Since 2003, CAN has been organising the annual Cycle Friendly Awards, celebrating initiatives to promote cycling and create a cycle-friendly environment at both a national and local level in New Zealand. The event has since received public recognition, with government representatives attending the award ceremonies.

Chainlinks

Chainlinks is the magazine of the NZ Cycling Action Network (CAN), which is published three times a year as an electronic newsletter. About a 1000 copies are distributed to members of CAN and a number of supporting organisations such as local government authorities and cycling industry organisations. Published since 1997, until 2015 it was a full-colour paper magazine, whose back issues are available online.

Association with other groups

CAN is the parent organisation for some 20 local cycling advocacy groups around the country, including Bike Auckland and Spokes Canterbury. CAN was a member of BikeNZ and provided one board member from BikeNZ's inception in July 2003. CAN resigned from BikeNZ in October 2007, but continues to work with BikeNZ on advocacy issues. CAN works closely with Living Streets Aotearoa, the national walking advocacy group.

Footnotes