To clarify media reports today, Auckland’s cycling infrastructure is performing well and we are confident that the investment is delivering the expected benefits. In 2018, 52,800 new people started riding bikes. We recorded 329,000 cycle movements on our counters last month, an increase of 17.1 per cent when compared to October 2017.
In the last few months, we’ve added a great local cycleway on Seabrook Avenue, New Lynn, so children can ride to school and people can connect to our public transport network.
In the city centre, we’ve extended one of our most popular cycleways on Quay Street, and the new Ian McKinnon Cycleway will be complete very soon.
As we add more safe and protected infrastructure to the network, we are seeing the numbers increase exponentially, which is consistent with the modelling we use.
Staff identified that early business cases were predicting trip levels that weren’t expected until 2026, and this has been rectified in the process.
Our analysis of the cycling demand model shows that the modelled trips numbers are proving to be accurate. Our modelling also considers the other infrastructure that will be constructed in the coming years, which will provide more people with safe cycling connections.
The network effect can’t be underestimated. We have seen that as additional parts of the central city network have been completed, trips across our counters have increased significantly. On some completed parts of the network such as Quay St we have seen a step-change in the number of users in the last year.
Where sections of the network now connect, we’ve seen even stronger growth, 14.3 per cent of morning traffic via Upper Queen Street is by bike and the counts on Grafton Gully have increased even with the opening of Te Ara I Whiti-LightPath.
38 per cent of Aucklanders cycle, up three per cent on last year. We are committed to delivering the 2018-2028 Cycling Programme to give Aucklanders more safe and healthy transport choice.
Our Design Champion, Ludo Campbell-Reid, says cycling is the fastest growing mode of transport in cities globally. And that’s why Auckland Council is spending $900 million to create a connected cycle network across Auckland because Aucklanders want to cycle.
Listen to why he believes cycling is the future of cities:
