New Zealand parliament and the Beehive.
Apparently, there is some interest from an international audience about how cycling in Auckland is doing. It will be my pleasure to give a brief summary.
First of all, it would be helpful to provide some background…
New Zealand is spoilt with a wonderful natural environment and a mild climate. This natural asset is branded as ’100% Pure’. We locals have known for some time that it is not quite the reality but nonetheless, it is a great marketing strategy and New Zealand does rely heavily on the tourist dollar to pay for all that imported oil that we use. Just don’t encourage those tourists to dig too far below the surface.
New Zealand has a relatively stable political system. The current Prime Minister is hugely popular due to his uncanny ability to present himself as ‘the bloke next door’ and the ‘President in waiting’, all at the same time. He doesn’t always get it right, though. As well as being susceptible to awkward handshakes, the Prime Minister is also known to be easily influenced by his Minister of Transport’s love affair with road building. This heavy reliance on a fossil fuel based transport system has put him on a collision course with Auckland’s knight in shining armour, Mayor Len Brown. Len was elected on a platform of taking public transport seriously. Currently, there is a plan to take action on reversing the decades long trend of urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is, of course, an essential argument in the sustainable transport debate.
New Zealand’s long term love affair with cars also means that New Zealand now has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world. It is becoming apparent that this country’s addiction to cars is damaging to the nation’s economy, environment and health. Cars are cheap, plentiful. It’s easy to get a licence and the requirements for owning a car a far from onerous. Cars are in our blood. Habits remain hard to shift. At the current rate of change, a faster onset of peak oil may be New Zealand’s only chance of salvation. It may be this external influence that trips the wire.
Thanks to the world wide web and the access available to a growing body of international research on transport issues there are a growing number of voices within New Zealand, talking quietly amongst themselves about a need for change. There is some resistance. Cycling and public transport advocates as well as some politicians make up some of those voices. Jan Gehl was in town not so long ago. He did very well to get the ball rolling, at a local level. But we are told that transport is not an election issue. With all the money that transport sucks up, I would have thought that it would be easy to claim that transport is the economy. And the economy is definitely an election issue.
So where does cycling fit into the transport landscape? Very poorly, is the short answer.
Firstly, cycling is not taken seriously as a transport option. The lack of clear data makes it hard to know but it is safe to assume that it makes up less than 1% of modal share. Efforts at a governmental level to change this situation are poor, to say the least. Cycling is not taken seriously so no investment is made. No investment is made so it is not taken seriously. Catch 22. Any efforts to build infrastructure are met by lack of funding and a lack of political will. The car culture dominates. It’s hard to see a way through. A dedicated cycle path on an arterial route is routinely blocked by local retailers and residents who fear the loss of parking space.
Secondly, cycling in New Zealand is dominated by the sports and recreation elements. That’s the reality and the reality sustains the image. The message that cycling can also be a simple and effective transport tool seems is missing. The image of cycling as being for the sports mad or the fearless also perpetuates the myth that cycling is dangerous. But we now know that’s not true. Why? Because we can look at cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen that have successfully embraced cycling as a normal everyday activity.
There have been recent attempts to normalise cycling in Auckland. There are individuals and groups who are modeling a cycling culture that says cycling is as normal as …brushing your teeth. Check them out here, here and here.
Now please feel free to ask any questions.
Cycling-the non-vehicular way.
I think it's a bit of flawed logic to say cycling is safe because it is safe to cycle in Copenhagen. It would be more accurate, I think, to say "We know that we can make cycling safe because that is what they did in Copenhagen and other places"
@Lucy – just saying the word safe is problematic. What is safe? Where are you drawing the line? Cycling is definitely more safe than smoking, or being really fat, or being in water (boating and swimming cause a lot of deaths each year in NZ), or driving drunk, or too fast, or in a ratty car, or being in an abusive relationship (the numbers of people that die each year from family violence is truly horrifying), being at home is really dangerous as this is where most accidents happen and playing sports is really dangerous and rugby in particular is responsible for a great number of ACC claims every year. If you suggested that we shouldn't let our children play rugby because it is dangerous, you'd be lynched!
"As well as being susceptible to awkward handshakes…" Overseas visitors may have to look at this article http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10761453 to understand what this is all about.
Thanks for this article. My husband is from NZ and we will be moving to Auckland next year. I am a bit concerned about my options to move around and have been paying close attention to your blog just to keep in touch with what's going on. I've been living in Europe my whole life and anywhere I lived (Lisbon, Vienna, Brussels, Brighton) I could either walk, cycle or take reliable trams/bus/train to work or anywhere I needed to go. Walking and cycling are particularly important for me. In fact, one way I measure my personal quality of life is by how feasible it is for me to walk/cycle to work. If I can't do one or both of those things then I have a problem. I will definitely join the "cycling is normal" movement when I get there. The more people do it, not only will they be living the "change" but also pushing "change" forward.
@Rita It would be interesting to hear your international perspective when you get to NZ. ie. How does Auckland compare to other cities you have lived in? There are certainly parts of Auckland that provide better mobility options than others and choosing the location of your employment and place of residence is a very important consideration.
Rita, great to hear you plan to keep cycling when you move to Auckland. It'd be very worthwhile doing some research before you decide what part of town you will live in. Some parts (like where I live, in Morningside/Mt Albert) are fairly good for cycling, as we live near a good cycle path route along the Northwestern motorway, and for going in other directions, there are plenty of minor roads that make it possible to avoid the unpleasant arterial roads. Some parts of town would be extremely difficult to live car-free in – although I wouldn't want to list them here, since I haven't lived in those areas myself and would only be basing on what I've observed. The fact that the Auckland Harbour bridge doesn't allow cycling pretty much rules out all of the North Shore for me, although no doubt some people manage (by taking bikes on ferries etc).
Yes, the "cycle friendliness" of the area is a big aspect I consider when choosing where to live and work. Every time I think about Auckland that is no different. That is why I have found this site and search for blogs and other sites that may help me find out which areas could be more friendly, but from the accounts of people who live there. It's a big help! Especially when you're planning from afar!
Rita, please come. We need more people like you who want to see the change you have seen overseas. Remember we are the vocal cycling community here so generally a pretty critical lot. This is good because it allows us to check our perceptions out. If you are looking to live in a place that will have momentous change in the next ten years Auckland has to be the spot. The economic arguments for attracting people such as yourself in to help pay our rates and taxes and invest in our economy are surely the biggest reasons that any sensible politician (thankfully our mayor included), will support the change away from car domination.
If not you could always go live in Portland, Oregon. They have a head start on us. Auckland -First city of the pacific- maybe one day
Tom