Students cycling to class at Oxford University
I blogged last week about how when we’re promoting cycling in Auckland it is probably useful to think about who our target market is, i.e., who is most likely to take up cycling in the short term.
We’re probably at a stage where right now most people cycling in Auckland are the “Strong and Fearless” group that Portland identified in their market research. The next group we need to target are the “Enthused and Confident”. i.e., people who are almost ready to cycle but just need a little push.
We’re probably most likely to have success in increasing cycling rates if we can target our infrastructure upgrades, social marketing etc specifically to this group. But the kind of questions you need to answer to actually design a campaign to target these people are things like – what age(s) are they, what gender, what do they do for a living, where do they live, where they do they work, why do they want to cycle and what is stopping them? Right now, we don’t know the answers.
Obviously, of course, if I had access to funding, then I could probably do some market research and answer these questions. But since I’m just a blogger, I’m going to go ahead and make some wild guesses. So, here is who I think are the most likely prospects:
- university students. They’re young, which means they’re probably physically fitter than most and they’re also poor so they probably can’t afford to pay for petrol or parking. They don’t have such high expectations on them in terms of their appearance as adult professionals (e.g., they don’t have to wear a suit or smart casual to work) so they may not find a lack of facilities such as showers or lockers such a barrier. It’s a little bit unfortunate that the roads around so many of our biggest campuses (Unitec, Albany, University of Auckland) are so un-cycling friendly, but if market research did identify students as the best target market then a big, targeted investment in infrastructure around universities might help.
- people who live near our existing off-road cycle ways. It seems likely many people would cycle to work, the shops etc if they could do at least half the journey on an off-road cycle path. Obviously, we need to build more off-road cycle paths but perhaps it would also be worth doing some really targeted promotion to people near the airport cycle way or North-Western? In many cases people probably have no idea these paths even exist in their neighbourhood, or if they do they’ve never considered using them to actually get places (rather than just go for a stroll in the evening). Cycle Action Auckland already promotes these when they take people for rides in summer along these paths which is great - but what else could you do to target people living near these cycle ways?
- people who already cycle recreationally. If you look at reports on cycling in New Zealand it seems like there must be some people who only cycle recreationally but not for transportation purposes. I think this because around 3% of people report having cycled on 20+days in the last month but only around 1% of trips to work in most of our cities (except for Christchurch) are made by bike. Also around 55% of time spent cycling in NZ is for recreational purposes. Recreational cyclists clearly like to ride, so, the question is, what’s stopping them from riding to work? Maybe it is traffic or a lack of end of trip facilities? For example, perhaps they like cycling at 6 am when the roads are virtually empty, but don’t like doing a stop-start trip down the Great South Road at rush hour? Or maybe there are no showers at their work or safe places to park their bike?
Some more speculative groups to target:
- shift workers? My sole reason for suggesting them is that shift workers often aren’t paid very well and they work irregular hours. Public transport options in Auckland are often very poor late at night, in the weekends etc. These people might find cycling cheaper than driving a car and more convenient than public transport
- primary and intermediate students? The big thing these groups have going for them is that they are generally commuting quite short distances and they often express a willingness to cycle in surveys. Kids also just often don’t care (until they hit adolescence) about getting to school a bit sweaty. However, unlike the other groups, children and teenagers don’t have control over their transport choices. This is why I’ve put them in the marginal category -  in many cases, it may just not be possible to overcome their parent’s fear of traffic until Auckland has gone significantly further down the path to becoming a cycle friendly city.
- people working in areas where you have to pay for parking. The CBD, Newmarket, our big shopping centres etc. They might be won over by the convenience and money savings of taking the bike instead.
So who do you think the target groups are and what is stopping them giving it a go? Have you ever seen any research on this topic?
I think you first need to identify those who are passionate evangelists of cycling. Those of us whom have the ability to talk to people everywhere they go about how they cycle, why they cycle, how easy it is, etc etc… people who can inspire their family, friends, and neighbours to get on their bikes and ride. People who will call up their friends on friday night and organise them to go for a ride along the waterfront on a saturday, or some other place.
There is no point targeting “groups”, converting people from one way of thinking to another does not work like that. Christianity, for example, exploded in the first few centuries AD because regular joe bloggs went around living a kind of life (s)he was passionate about. Other people saw that passion, and listened, and then joined in.
Sure, there is a point for a “crusade” – but generally, especially in this day and age, it does not work. Giving Joe and Joette bloggs the tools they need, the information, the places to ride, and the occasional “event” to bring mates along to.. that is what will work..
When I tell people that I used to be 210KG+, and that I am now 110, and that I cycle from manurewa to the cbd 3x a week, and then take my daughter for rides on the weekend. They can see my passion, and half a dozen people now cycle because of it. If we all do that.. then.. it grows.
Yes but Geoff, while I as a commuting cyclist commend your cycling… no disrespect, but average Joe is is just as easily going to put you in the freak category for cycling from Manurewa to the CBD 3 times a week! You may well be too much of an enthusiast for them, easy to be marginalised so as not to take seriously.
hmm, I dont know… its only 25-27km each way, and takes me an hour, give or take.. that’s nothing really.. about the same as a 5km run. It “sounds” like it is a lot.. but in reality on a decent bike, its nothing..
And then I say… “come on.. I’ll come pick you up on saturday and we’ll go for a ride. I’ll take my 4 year old on the back of my bike, so we’ll have to go slowly..” and off we go
hi Geoff. I don’t agree. Most of the successful behavioural change campaigns I know of defined quite narrowly the group that they were targeting and then found out what was most likely to get them to engage in a particular activity. in the case of cycling in Auckland, it’s pretty clear we don’t have the resources or funds to get 1.5 million people to start cycling, so I think a targeted approach to some groups would be more effective than a general scatter gun approach.
although I think it’s awesome you take your friends cycling on the weekend – don’t get me wrong
Lucy,
This is my point. You dont _need_ money to have passion for something, to tell people about it, to encourage them in it, and to find ways to get them involved in it.
Sure, target groups etc.. but in my experience, people are more likely to follow an example of a friend or family member. I dont expect people to ride like I do when I am alone.. so I make time to try and get them out and about too.. I want my son and daughter to see me training for fitness, AND enjoying fun rides it as well.
Off topic, but does anyone know what the cycle parking facilities are like at Eden Park?
Bryce, they are good. Near the old cricket stands on the Sandringham side of the Stadium. Don’t worry about space- you will be the only one with a bike.
Good summary of next adopters… So what initiatives will spin the wheels of this next group
@Decanker. I agree. Passion bordering on freaky is not going to do it. Cycling is a normal way of getting about on a daily basis for short trips. That is how it needs to be presented for greatest impact.
Its not freaky.. honestly, if you enjoy something, you want other people to enjoy it too.
A large percentage of Auckland’s workforce make more than 30 minute commutes to work.
A quick look at the statistics show that the most commuters (75% of all workers in the area) into the CBD come from Manukau (thats a minimum of 20km). About 50% of the employed in the West commute to the CBD (6-25km) and from the north shore its about 25%
28,000 people who live in North Shore City work in Auckland City, with only 7,000 doing the opposite.
Almost 31,000 people who live in Waitakere City work in Auckland City, with only 6,000 doing the opposite.
41,000 people who live in Manukau City work in Auckland City, with only 16,000 doing the opposite.
This seems to have been forgotten by the idiots who are trying to build this new train loop too… the people who need the trains DONT live where the train loop is. Likewise, most of the commuters in Auckland need to get into the CBD, and they DO NOT live “short rides” from their destinations.
What we NEED is to make the CBD accessible by bike from Papakura, Howick, Kumeu, and Albany. Its possible, and THAT will get the numbers of cyclists up.
Hey Lucy, I love the energy and time you put into your posts. Thank you so much. Richard
awww, thanks Richard
@ Geoff. i think personal advocacy and encouraging people to give it a go are really important at an individual level. I was more thinking of groups like Auckland Transport in terms of targeting their efforts most effectively. You said:
“most of the commuters in Auckland need to get into the CBD, and they DO NOT live “short rides†from their destinations.”
Most studies I’ve read about this assume that most people won’t consider riding more than about 5 to 7 km on a bike to get to work. This assumption seems logical to me – I wuold probably not cycle more than 10 km to work on a regular basis and I am a keen cyclist. It also fits with the fact that the average commute time in a lot of studies I’ve read from different cities tends to be about 25 minutes. I think the solution is not to try and change how long people are willing to take commuting (or cycling), but instead to make the distances people need to commute to work/school/play shorter.
In Auckland we can do that by intensifying development around our existing town centres and by planning our new developments better so people don’t have to travel so far to get to the shops/school/work
You also said:
“This seems to have been forgotten by the idiots who are trying to build this new train loop too… the people who need the trains DONT live where the train loop is.”
I can understand why people think the CBD rail linkk is a project that will mainly benefit those living in central Auckland because it is a project that has been rather poorly communicated but it will benefit exactly the type of person you are talking about – somebody who lives in Manukau or West Auckland and wants to commute a relatively long distance into the CBD. Just to explain why it is needed and what it will do:
Right now, Britomart is only a one way station. That means the trains go in and then they have to back up to get out again. This is quite a slow process and because of it Britomart can only accommodate about 24 trains/hour. If you consider that there are trains coming into Britomart from 3 lines (West, South and East) you can see that means we can only run about 8 trains at most on each line during peak hours. Also, the more our train system relies on one central point, the more unreliable it becomes – if a train breaks down or stops at Britomart, that delays ALL the trains on the network, as we saw on the Rugby World Cup opening night.
The one way nature of Britomart means that the number of people who can commute from West Akld, Manukau and East Akld into the CBD by rail is limited by the number of trains available. We can’t have trains every 5 minutes on each line, because that just wouldn’t work. We also can’t add in more rail lines, like out to the airport or North Shore, because there would be no point right now as we could only run 1 or 2 trains/hour from these destinations into the CBD – as Britomart is too congested to take more.
If we build the CBD rail link Britomart will become a two way station. It will be able to handle more than twice as many trains per hour. This is the MAIN reason for building the rail link because it will mean we can run twice as many trains on every line – West, South, East. We will also have capacity to build out to the North Shore and airport in future.
The secondary reason is that the CBD rail link will cut the travel times for every part of Auckland (as we won’t have to allow so long for trains to clear Britomart) but especially for commuters from West Akld. Once the CBD rail ink is built they will no longer have to do a swing out to Newmarket, intsead they can come straight into the CBD. This will cut travel times by about 10 to 15 minutes and make a huge difference to how attractive rail commuting is for Westies.
Well, I dont really want to debate the train link, because this is about bikes. However, making the commute time on the trains are all well and good, but that does not make it any easier to actually get on a train – I still have to catch a bus or drive for 10 minutes to catch a train – or afford a train ticket. FWIW, I cant afford a monthly bus pass, or train pass, its cheaper for me to ride a motorcycle, or drive a car (excluding parking of course, for the car).
ANYWAY.. back to bikes.
Yes, sure, people _dont want_ to cycle more than 10km.. fine.. I dont want to either. But the fact is, most of Auckland is more than 5-7km from the CBD. The MAJORITY (according to statistics nz census results) come from my area or west ak, which are 15-25 km away.
As I posted elsewhere, I reckon the best option is to create cycle expressways, which work like train lines/motorways. They are direct routes from the north/south/east/west which go directly to the CBD. I worked out roughly following the train lines from Manurewa to the CBD would take my trip from 27km to 20 = 1 hr 5 mins to 40 mins (or less). That would put the CBD in range of anyone on a hybrid city bike from Papakura in. And we could incentivise people by having a form of pass which allows you on the cycle way (like the toll road in effect), and after so many trips you “earn” a rebate on your rates, taxes, RUC, or acc levies or some such thing (something appropriate to the kindness you are showing the city and environment by cycling).
I would pay a toll if it meant I had a nice track, with the shortest distance, no cars, and got a rebate on my taxes – even if it worked out that it cost me.. 20km on a “roadie” or hybrid is nothing – hardly even raise a sweat, even on a mountain bike dressed in construction clothing.
You need to remember that Auckland is not really geographically suited to cycling, or even public transport. It’s hilly, its disjointed, and this was never planned for.
hi Geoff. You haven’t really addressed my point that only 15% of Aucklanders work in the CBD. I think you would be surprised at how long the average commute in Auckland is, if you care to look that info up.
I also just don’t think you are ever going to get large numbers of people to commute 15-20 km to work by bike. People make travel choices based on time, price and convenience. Unless you’re a very fast cyclist, commuting 20 km will take you an hour which automatically makes it an unattractive option to almost all people.
Why put fruitless effort into trying and make people do something they are fundamentally disinclined to do? Why not focus, for example, on getting them to cycle 3 km to their local train station? Or on intensifying housing in the isthmus so that more people do only have to cycle for 5 km to get to where they work/play/study?
Only 15% of aucklanders work in the CBD, but as I pointed out, that’s made up of 75% of ALL the workers in Manukau, and 50% of all the workers in West Ak.
And sure, if people are working locally, its not a problem, but I know very few people who are lucky enough to be working locally. That is, in Manukau only 25% of people have less than a 20km commute, and half of West Auckland has 15km or less.
Seems like its North Shorians and people who live close to the CBD who are sorted. The rest of us (and people from Manukau appear to make up the bulk people who commute to the CBD by quite a large amount) HAVE to make a commute, and the fact is, 20km is not far. And 20km/h is pretty slow.. I am not fast, on my mountain bike I would comfortably average 25kmh. When I converted it to a hybrid, I still averaged 25kmh but it was alot, alot, easier..
But then, I do cycle a bit further than I would expect most people.. and because it is further I cant do it every day.
I dont think the effort is fruitless. If the infrastructure is there (like say, these expressways), then people will use them, they might not go all the way to the CBD, but they will use them. If you can get them to cycle 3k to the train station, that’s fine. Intensifying housing the a bad idea. It will drive people away from the CBD. We live in NZ, why do we want to pack ourselves into silly overcrowded match boxes? I cant understand that. I can understand certain types of people and cultures might be ok with it, but really.. I dont think kiwi families are really going to be all that interested.
hi Geoff. Can you send me a link to those statistics? I am pretty sure you are misinterpreting them. I simply don’t believe that 75% of workers in Manukau are commuting to the CBD.
There’s a whole lot I could say in response to your comments but I don’t think it would achieve much so perhaps I’ll just leave it. I would just say this:
“I cant understand that. I can understand certain types of people and cultures might be ok with it, but really.. I dont think kiwi families are really going to be all that interested.”
I find this remark disturbing on all kinds of levels. For example, it suggests that people who come from some unnamed “cultures” are not “Kiwis.” That raises the interesting quesiton of who is Kiwi by your definition? It seems kind of similar to this comment by Paul Henry a year ago. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/tvnz-suspends-paul-henry-3818718
They are a bit old, the 2006 Census Statistics.. I just googled it.. statistics NZ have a bunch of information.
What I meant was that some places that people who live in NZ come from, already have a “high density” urban living. This could be England, or Taiwan, or any other number of places, where people live in apartments, towers, or other forms of high density living. In NZ, however, I like to think people prefer to have a garden and a tree in their yard, and a place for their kids to play without having to go down the road to the local park.
Some people, like students, or DINKs, or what ever, might like, or need to live in such places, but I dont think most people with families do, or can. Why else do you think that the Auckland area is growing so large? Because people dont want to live in high density accommodation.
I dont see how my comments relate to anything Henry said at all, and I am quite offended at the intimation that I am a racist.
Off topic again, rode to the Warriors game. Brilliant. Cruised through the traffic stops, weaved through the people and left the bike at a mates house across the road. Getting out was even better, as people and cars struggled, I was laughing all the way…….:-). Ssshhhhh….even took the helmet off while on the cycleway.
Geoff, I have seen the traffic heading into the CBD area from Manukau when I have been travelling out of Auckland early some mornings. I think your hour commute is probably quicker and definately more enjoyable than sitting in traffic bumper to bumper for that long or more!
So good on you! I dont think you have to be a “freaky cyclist”, more that needs must and thats how far you live from your work!
IMHO once you have warmed up and in a rhythm, distance (within reason) makes little difference. If you can do 10ks comfortably then 30ks feels much the same.
I was talking to a mate in the weekend who has applied for a job in Orewa and lives in Glen Eden, I said thats a long way to drive, he said he was going to cycle when he could, now thats some distance!
Paul, lol, yeah, that’s a once a week ride..
You are right about distance, I always tell people up to a point you can double your distance. If you can ride 2km, 4 is no problem. If you can do 5, then 10 is easy. If you can do 20, then 40 is no problem, etc. People assume that cycling is like running, but its not. My 80-100km weekend rides are about the same as running 35km – but with no stress on the body (so recovery is alot faster – you feel less tired ultimately). But cycling 25km is like a 4km jog… and in reality everyone SHOULD be able to do that.. every day.. without issues. Most people cant of course, but that’s beside the point. Its really not much at all.
ps, I am the least fit, least active, most lazy person in the world, how else would I have got to be 210+ KG? If I can do it.. ANYONE can..
Thanks for reminding me Lucy that I am a poorly paid shift worker and work shit hours!
You are also quite correct about my PT options: I don’t think there are any buses going past my house from my workplace. I guess I would have to wait an hour to get a bus “halfway†home for what is only a 35 minute walk door-to-door (or a 10 minute cycle).
Like Richard I also appreciate the time you put into researching your posts. Some are a little long for my limited attention span but I usually get to the end and have picked up some understanding of reports and statistics I would not be reading otherwise!
@ Antoine. Thanks! I need to get more concise – perhaps I will set myself a word limit of 600 words. I am interested to know there are some shift workers out there who cycle – it seemed logical to me but nice to have the hypothesis confirmed.
another shift worker that cycles here. try to catch a bus after 11pm. no subsidized carpark, no choice.
(wrong thread!)