Cyclists feel their roading needs ignored

Cyclists are annoyed costings for bikeways and other improvements needed to make pedalling around Auckland less dangerous are missing from the region's draft land transport strategy.

Lobby group Cycle Action Auckland has also told the Regional Land Transport Committee that hefty investment in public transport risks failing unless people are offered a full set of alternatives to owning cars.

Spokesman Michael Lynch described cycling as a medium-range travel option, supplementing public transport and offering a link between walking and using buses, trains or ferries for longer trips.

Mr Lynch said providing more public transport, for which the committee wants to allocate $3.75 billion over 10 years amid overall transport spending of $10.7 billion, would not in itself persuade enough Aucklanders they could do without cars.

"Any improvement to the uptake of public transport will depend upon creation of a city where car ownership is no longer essential," he said in his group's submission on the draft 10-year transport strategy.

He said cycling provided the freedom of movement non-car-owners needed as well as those services provided by public transport.

"Until public perception that life in Auckland without ownership of a car is something to be esteemed, public transport is likely to remain a second-rate option."

The draft strategy proposes spending $420 million between now and 2016 on what it calls "travel demand management activity," which includes school and workplace plans to increase transport efficiency.

That spending category also includes proposals to complete 50 per cent of a regional cycle network and to improve "walkability" in 16 town centres.

But Mr Lynch said cycling should be allocated its own budget as the cheapest form of mechanised transport, both financially and environmentally.

He said a proposed cycleway from Esmonde Rd almost to the harbour bridge was scrapped because planners allegedly feared it would scare dotterels away from Shoal Bay.

He suspected it was because Transit feared it would fuel calls for cyclists to be allowed on the bridge.