KEY POINTS:
Cycling in Auckland is ready to grow with a new approach to transport. Anyone who has spent time cycling in Auckland knows how it feels to be treated as a trespasser on our streets.
And now Brian Rudman has added his negative opinion to the recent critical clamour in his column. "Roads are paid for by motorists, get off the road!" is the standard line from irritated drivers stuck in traffic, ignoring the fact that approximately 99 per cent of adult cyclists also own cars. During road widening projects, we regularly hear that "there aren't enough cyclists here to warrant cycle lanes" or that "we don't want to encourage cyclists here - it's too dangerous".
As traffic congestion worsens, competition over road space grows bitter. "Go join a gym!" the commuting cyclist may hear from a passing car.
Even town planners, traffic engineers, and councillors encourage "cyclists getting exercise" - as if that is the only reason people might cycle - to stick to residential areas and stay away from roads that actually go anywhere.
Mr Rudman's main criticism is that cycling is an obsolete mode of transport. In reality, cycling is the most efficient transport mode available in today's world of rising oil prices and soaring CO2 emissions.
Cycling is still a preferred transport option in Auckland by students going to school and university, by a growing number of commuters, by people on weekend outings to the beach and cafes, quite apart from those who use cycling for exercise - so it is self-evidently not obsolete.
More bicycles are now sold each year than cars. It's becoming trendy, and it's a great way to combine getting to work with staying healthy and saving your money.
For more than 50 years, Auckland has been following the same pattern of development as many North American cities where the popularity of motoring has outstripped population growth because transport planners have attempted to deal with congestion through more roading. Meanwhile, the more sustainable transport options, such as quality public transport, walking and cycling have been neglected and are now often unpleasant or unsafe to use.
If Auckland has world-class aspirations, it only has to learn from how the leading international cities are responding to the transport challenges which now include growing CO2 emissions, exposure to rising oil prices, congested roads, community severance, traffic noise and dangerous roads for vulnerable users.
From the lessons learned in Europe we know that two of the most effective ways to meet these challenges are to slow traffic speeds down in residential and retail neighbourboods and reduce the amount of traffic by greatly improving the quality of the public transport service.
Reduced traffic means fewer roading projects and this financial reward can be diverted into improving Auckland's public transport network.
Given the ever-rising price of oil and the pending carbon taxes, Auckland needs to adopt a new "European" approach to transport. Such an approach would bring back the balance in Auckland's transport mix that was evident up until the late 1950s when Auckland's extensive tram network was removed.
We can get the balance back by prioritising walking, cycling and public transport; these are the modes of the future. So rather than taking cheap pot shots at cyclists, we encourage more people to give cycling a try - you might just like it!
* Bevan Woodward is a retired accountant, chair of Cycle Action Auckland, and a member of the ARC's Regional Land Transport Committee.
