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THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2025
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SEPTEMBER 11, 2025
On the wrong path By Mary Anne Gill
Cambridge students can expect a “telling off” at upcoming school assemblies about riding bikes and scooters on footpaths in the town’s central business district. Principals at two schools Cambridge High and Cambridge Middle – say they have been reinforcing the message with students for years but will deliver it again. Earlier this year senior constable Deb Hann warned in her regular The News column that cyclists, and electric scooter riders, travelling at speed – often weaving through groups of pedestrians, was a continuing problem. Police blitzed the CBD during Road Safety Week in May. The issue persists, despite the presence of a $10.2 million cycleway designed to safely guide cyclists through town via Wilson, Duke, and Bryce streets. Informants to The News are frustrated. Over the course of a week,
photos were taken before and after school showing how frequently cyclists and scooter riders - especially those on motorised scooters - opt for footpaths over the designated cycle lanes. One woman said she tells students to get off their bikes and scooters but many just ignore her. It is not only students on bikes and scooters – older cyclists on e-bikes have also been snapped riding on both sides of Victoria St through the CBD. Cambridge High School principal Greg Thornton said he would reiterate expectations at assembly: students should not be riding on footpaths. If specific students are identified, he said he is prepared to address the issue directly. Cambridge Middle School principal Daryl Gibbs said the school has long operated under an unwritten rule: no riding through town on the footpath. “At the start of the year, and other times through the year, we talk to the children about it to reinforce
the message. We made a big deal out of it. We didn’t tend to hear of any problems unless members of the public identified kids on the pavement as being from our school.” Since the cycleway was installed - partly to help Cambridge Middle School students travel safely to and from school - the message has been clear: use it. Gibbs gives a talk at the start of the year and distributes maps showing the cycleway. The message is reinforced during the year. Cambridge Community Board chair Jo Davies-Colley has been a long-time supporter of cycleways so children can safely go to and from school and enjoy the freedom of their own wheels. “We love seeing our young people out and about, but to keep everyone safe we’d like to see bikes and scooters walked, not ridden, in this shared space.” The cycleway is a safe and protected A woman takes evasive action as student cyclists approach her on the eastern option where kids can enjoy the side of the Victoria St footpath. Photo: Supplied freedom of their wheels, she said.
School vaping cases decline By Viv Posselt
Cambridge Middle School principal Daryl Gibbs has backed a call to tighten legislation around vaping but says his and many other intermediate-level schools had noticed a significant drop in vaping by students over the past two years. Gibbs told The News, after last week’s Cambridge Friendly Forum hosted by Taupō MP Louise
Upston, that that in his capacity as president of the New Zealand Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools he was familiar with the issue in schools across the country. There had been a massive increase in vaping following Covid, but most schools have reported a drop-off. He said when at its worst, his school had adopted strategies to counter the problem. One was the
installation of a vape monitoring device in one of the toilet blocks, and around 2023, principals got together to find a way to resolve the issue. He attributed the drop-off to one of two things. “Either the kids are getting better at hiding it, or there is noticeably less vaping going on. This year we are only dealing with about three or four kids and they are repeat
offenders.” Gibbs agreed with Upston’s comment that families bear the primary responsibility around restricting vaping in their children and said Cambridge Community Board chair Jo Davies-Colley’s call to toughen legislation around availability and types of vapes, and proximity to schools, was valid. • See Vaping, economy debate, Page 5
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