KEY POINTS:
Free spinal checks and hair-styling are among incentives to draw commuters out of their cars for the 11th Bike Wise Week and its centrepiece Go-by-Bike Day breakfasts on Wednesday.
Stylists will attack outbreaks of "helmet hair" and masseurs will ease muscles on cyclists whom the North Shore City Council - one of at least 39 local bodies organising Bike Wise Week activities throughout the country - is inviting to a free breakfast in Takapuna.
Convoys of cyclists will receive police escorts from Mairangi Bay and from Devonport via a new bike lane that the council has, to the annoyance of some motorists, opened along congested Lake Rd.
Not to be outdone, the Auckland City Council has arranged for spinal checks from the College of Chiropractic as well as a puncture-fixing contest at its traditional breakfast in Aotea Square, where more than 540 cyclists attended last year's event.
Cyclists will pedal in groups from Pt Chevalier, Balmoral and Orakei and there will be a 50km ride from Devonport via Upper Harbour for a more serious sweat on the way to work.
Vouchers will be offered for post-ride showers at the BikeCentral service centre in Britomart, a new multi-functional cycling terminal that is co-sponsoring "commuter challenge" races on the day between bikes, cars and buses.
Large screens will chart the progress of contestants, including staff of Urgent Couriers, another event sponsor, which will use its GPS tracking system to follow them from four points of the compass.
Cyclists won three legs of a similar challenge two years ago, losing only a race from Birkenhead, which they blamed on having to catch a slow ferry because of being barred from the Harbour Bridge.
Although the Ministry of Transport says there are as many as 1.3 million cyclists in New Zealand, most are just recreational pedallers, as only 1.9 per cent of commuters biked to work on Census day in 2006. In car-dominated Auckland, just 5016 people cycled to work then, accounting for 0.8 per cent of commuters. That was marginally above a low of 4923 cycling commuters in 2001 and followed a rise of almost 60,000 - to 393,648 - in Aucklanders driving to work.
Statistics NZ reported a healthier rise of more than 5000 Aucklanders walking or jogging to work - to 24,048 - on Census day in 2006.
Even so, a quantum leap will be needed to meet a Government target for 30 per cent of urban trips to be by bike or on foot by 2040, compared with 17 per cent now.
Ex-courier cyclists Paul Sumich and Clinton Jackson hope their new BikeCentral terminal will help to turn the tide by offering storage facilities, showers and refreshments to workers who might find these lacking at their inner-city offices.
Mr Sumich said the pair believed there was a strong latent demand from those who would cycle to work if offered secure storage and warm showers at the end of their trips.
"Over the past few years, we've heard hundreds of people ask where can I go in town to leave my bike," he said.
Mr Jackson, a former single-gear mountain-bike world champion, said he was confident "bike culture" was on the rise.
Auckland City is organising a children's bike ride at the Western Springs playground from 5.30pm on Thursday, when there will be helmet checks, obstacles courses and prizes.
