Editorial: Cycleways are part of a balanced transport system – and Auckland doesn’t have one

Nelson Street cycleway, with concrete separators laid directly on the roadway. Photo / Michael Craig

Editorial

EDITORIAL

Like it or not, cycleways have become part of the culture wars.

Just mentioning the word is usually enough to get a reaction on social media or talkback radio. Yet the arguments often seem based on visceral emotions rather than facts.

Last week two shopkeepers complained that a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/manager-of-aucklands-renowned-westmere-butchery-says-it-needs-car-parks-to-stay-in-business/UETNV4FKIRBAVFOIGIVHPFXLJI/" target="_blank">cycleway under construction in the Auckland suburb of Westmere threatened to ruin their businesses because motorists could not park near their shops. One declared: “This country doesn’t need cycle lanes”.

Government policy seems built on the same knee-jerk thinking. Announcing a $32.9 billion transport plan a few days earlier, Transport Minister Simeon Brown said: “New Zealanders are sick and tired of the amount of money going into cycleways”.

In fact, New Zealanders are evenly split on whether there should be more bike lanes on roads, according to a survey of nearly 2000 eligible voters in the New Zealand Election Study, conducted after the 2023 election.

It found 39% want more bike lanes and 39% don’t. Preferences were predictably split on party lines, with Green voters most in favour and Act voters most against, but as Victoria University academics Sam Crawley and Matthew Gibbons noted in The Conversation, even a significant minority (27%) of National supporters favoured more cycleways.

The authors noted that people’s opinions were often driven by opposing world views, linked to their political affiliation, age, and level of education.

Cycleways also make up only 1% of the land transport budget.

The big money still goes on roads. As the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan explained, the Government has a hospital-sized hole in its transport budget and its flagship four-lane highway from Auckland to Whangārei is predicted to swallow 10% of the entire infrastructure budget – not just roads but also money for schools and hospitals – in the next 25 years.

BusinessDesk writer Pattrick Smellie offered some valuable perspective in a column this week.

After returning from a long overseas holiday, he noted that potholes and poor water infrastructure are everywhere. Yet most European and even United States cities have embraced cycleways and their city centres are largely pedestrianised, creating a great experience for tourists and shoppers.

It helps that nearly all have light rail or an underground system.

Despite claims that Auckland does not have enough people to support light rail, he found several cities with less population density – including Dublin, Florence, and Berlin – where it is thriving.

No wonder a visiting American blogger recently wrote off Auckland, telling his huge international audience it was like the “outskirts of a small Canadian city”.

It’s time for everyone involved in the city’s transport debate to stop the cheap shots and consider how to build more affordable cycleways in the right places, so it’s safe and convenient for anyone to ride. This would make the streets less congested for everyone, including motorists.

If that was backed up by reliable mass transit, we might start to feel like a grown-up city after all.