King says: "There are many studies which show people who cycle regularly to work take fewer sick days and are more productive, so it makes economic sense."
The number of people cycling to the central city for work or study has doubled in the last three years and King says AT's goal is to increase another 30 per cent by 2018 (this would lift the number from 2400 to over 3100).
Over 320 km of cycle paths now exist in Auckland with a further 40km to be completed by 2018, giving access to central Auckland from inner suburbs to the east and west. Access from the North Shore will also be possible once the proposed Skypath on the Auckland Harbour Bridge - recently approved by the Environment Court - is built. This will create a 1 km cycle and walking path across the water from Westhaven Marina to Northcote Point.
King, who has spent the last eight years in a similar role at the Kensington and Chelsea Council in central London, says many employers in London pay staff an allowance equivalent to around 30c per km for cycling to work while tax breaks are available for people to buy bikes.
This trend is occurring in many parts of the world. ScienceAlert, a leading international scientific publisher, says there are more than 1.2 billion vehicles on the world's roads and "it is safe to say we have way too many cars contributing unsustainable levels of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere."
To combat these problems, national and municipal leaders are targeting cycling as one part of the solution.
•In France companies can pay staff an allowance equivalent to 25c a km for riding a bike to work.
•In Milan, Italian officials are looking at trialling a scheme similar to the one in France.
•Programmes in Belgium and the Netherlands are being considered that would pay cyclists around 30c a mile (1.6km).
•Norway is spending $1 billion to build bike highways; Denmark is installing traffic lights giving priority to bikes and buses;
•In China, more bike lanes and stations are being constructed to combat pollution in Beijing.
•In London, thought is being given to constructing Skycycles - a network of bike paths elevated above the city's rail network.
People who cycle regularly also experience health benefits. A study published by UK charity Sustrans shows workers take an average 4.5 days off work a year; cyclists take only 2.5 days.
Auckland, like many cities around the world, is designed for the car. Weather, safety, pollution - even driver animosity to cyclists are all reasons people give for using four wheels instead of two.
King says offering incentives for cycling would help: "But we also need to use the road space we have more efficiently and, just like we have created bus lanes, in the future we need to look at providing safe, well -protected cycle lanes.
"Every week there are 800 extra cars on Auckland's roads; every year 40,000 people move here so we have to do something," she says. "Our long term goal by 2040 is to keep the number of cars coming to the city at the same level it is now (it is over 100,000) but to have additional growth taken up by people switching to walking, cycling and public transport."
Auckland Transport is also focusing on improvements to its bus services. In the 12 months to October this year 60.3 million bus trips were made says Mark Lambert, chief Auckland Transport Metro officer.
"Overall we had 84 million public transport trips in the last 12 months representing a four per cent increase on the previous year. Rail is our star performer though, with the 17.6 million trips a 19 per cent increase, while six million trips were made by ferry."
Lambert says the new southern bus network launched at the end of October is the first phase of creating an Auckland-wide network of connected bus/rail services modelled on networks in the London underground.
New routes are in place across south Auckland, Pukekohe and Waiuku. Included are three frequent routes (Mangere-Botany, Mangere-Sylvia Park and Papakura-Otahuhu) with buses running every 15 minutes between 7am and 7pm, seven days of the week.
Similar re-organisation of bus services will be introduced in west Auckland next June, central and eastern districts towards the end of next year and the North Shore in April 2018.
"We have introduced a simplified fare structure - people can now pay a single fare for a journey of up to five individual bus/train connnections within a four hour period," says Lambert.
