Nick Warren: For a quick rush-hour commute to work, get on yer bike

Opinion

My commute home takes me seven minutes every night. It never varies. But for the countless cars and buses I have passed on the way in recent days, it has taken a lot longer than usual because it was raining.

Rain, which happens an awful lot in Auckland, means nobody seems to move anywhere. Cars don't move much during bus driver strikes, either. If bus strikes become as common as rain in Auckland - a distinct possibility - commuters won't get home at all.

Yet it still takes me only seven minutes to get home whatever the conditions. Why? Because I ride a bicycle to and from work every day - a simple, cheap, easy-to-use machine that has been around since the 19th century.

Surely making cycling around Auckland a viable, safe transport option is a good idea. Not according to Herald columnist Jim Eagles, who said cycling was nothing but "the latest fashion" and cyclists themselves were "as aggressive as the average motorist".

Various grumbles by friends of Eagles painted a picture of cyclists as lawless, high-speed freaks without a care for their fellow man, rather like the bad guys out of the Mad Max films.

In reality, cyclists come from a multitude of demographic groups: accountants commuting to work, professional athletes out training, and children experiencing freedom for the first time. Clearly, not all cyclists are reckless lawbreakers.

Eagles' main cause for complaint seemed to be cyclists riding on footpaths. While it would be foolish to claim that this does not happen, the vast majority of cyclists ride where they should - on the road.

Unfortunately, "bike paths" are often a footpath with a white line down its middle. This leads to conflict, as Tamaki Drive users will testify, when invariably either a cyclist or pedestrian strays over the white line into the other's designated area.

Riding on roads isn't always much more fun. Like Eagles, I asked some friends about their cycling experiences on the road:

* "Pedestrians are always stepping on to the road before looking, often right in front of me."

* "I have had countless car doors opened right in front of me. If I shout a warning, they merely abuse me, sometimes jumping back into their cars to chase me."

* "Motorists always accelerate through amber lights or talk on their phones as they drive. It's as if my life means nothing to them."

While these are serious complaints, implying that all motorists or pedestrians do not care about the safety of cyclists would be totally inaccurate and mindless stereotyping.

Devonport, where Eagles says he sees cyclists "hurtling ... at 40-50km/h" (roughly the speed Sarah Ulmer rode to win her Olympic gold medal - there must be an awful lot of undiscovered Olympians in Devonport) is an excellent example of action being taken to reduce traffic levels.

North Shore City Council statistics show that two-thirds of all car trips are under 6km, a distance that could easily be cycled by most people. Amazingly, 73 per cent of North Shore students live within a kilometre of their school, yet 53 per cent of them are driven there.

As all Devonport residents know, there is one road out leading up to Takapuna or across the harbour bridge. A lot of the time it is a long, thin carpark full of people taking unnecessarily short journeys. To cut congestion on this road, North Shore City Council authorities are actively encouraging bicycle and bus use.

Alternatively, residents can catch a ferry across to the city centre. As part of an integrated transport system, the North Shore council hopes people will cycle to and from the ferry terminal, so cutting traffic in the area.

One of Eagles' complainants said, however, that cyclists "are a pest on the ferries. They clog boats up with their bikes". Regardless of all the other passengers contributing to "clogging", cyclists don't have a viable alternative. The harbour bridge does not allow for cyclists (or pedestrians) and it is a long difficult route around. If the North Shore council is successful, Devonport will have an integrated local transport system, reduced traffic levels and cleaner air.

Eagles said that after talking to local council officers, "they do not have the faintest idea how many people might use the cycleways they are rushing to build". Of course not. No one can predict that. But foreign examples provide a good indication of what might happen.

Austria is networked with bicycle-only lanes, bicycle parks and a reliable public transport system.

As a result, its main transport problems come in winter when avalanches cover roads and railways, a highly unlikely event in Devonport.

In the meantime, I shall continue my seven-minute commute, silently passing dozens of immobile cars and wondering if they will still be there in the morning.

* Nick Warren is an Auckland freelance writer. He is responding to Jim Eagles' view that new cycleways will be used by only a limited number of people, and create a whole set of new problems.