KEY POINTS:
An estimated 540 cyclists turned up for the Bike for Breakfast Day organised by Auckland City Council on Wednesday morning at Aotea Square.
Starting at 6.30am, anyone cycling into town before 9am could - in addition to a free breakfast - enjoy competitions, prizes, goodies bags, music, fitness demonstrations and bike checks while enjoying stunts performed by Avanti Plus Mt Eden stunt riders and Urgent Couriers' unicycle team.
The Bike for Breakfast Day is part of the national Bike Wise week, February 24 - March 4, a week containing hundreds of events and activities across the country serving to encourage more people to bike and to promote safe cycling.
The Bike for Breakfast event is also part of Auckland City Council's cycling awareness campaign "Cyclists - Auckland needs you".
Transport and Urban Linkages Committee chairperson Councillor Richard Simpson says it is vital the council does its bit to encourage Aucklanders to consider cycling as a safe and economic way to commute.
"The cost of congestion in Auckland is now estimated to be approximately $1 billion per annum. Cycling can increase the patronage catchment of bus, rail and ferry interchanges" he says.
On the basis of a typical walking journey time of 10 minutes to get to public transport, cycling increases 15-fold the catchment area for public transport services.
The council looks to constantly enhance and develop new cycling facilities such as an increasing number of dedicated cycle lanes, specialised bike parking, enhanced street lighting for cyclists, and safer cycle access and storage facilities at train stations to accommodate new bike commuters.
During the Bike for Breakfast event Councillor Richard Simpson led one of the two 'cycling buses' arriving at the Aotea Square from the east, via Tamaki Drive. The other cycling bus, led by the Mayor Dick Hubbard and Mark Roberts of Greenfleet, came in from the north-western cycleway.
Auckland City's monitoring of cycling shows a 6 per cent increase between 2005 and 2006, on top of a 19 per cent increase between 2004 and 2005. Mark Taylor from cycle specialist Avanti confirmed that more people seem to take up biking, especially women.
