What is it about new cycleways that make people so mad?

Friday, 14 May 2021

For some, a new cycleway is an opportunity to safely explore the region. For others, it’s a source of anger.

In recent weeks, the $1 million trial lane in Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour angered business owners, who called it “not very well-thought-out”, and a pop-up cycleway in Wellington’s Brooklyn divided residents. In the past, tacks have even been strewn on cycle paths.

Conflict over cycleways isn’t new – one cycleway researcher and sociologist previously called it “bikelash” – but why does it happen?

Stuff spoke with cycling enthusiasts, city councillors and government officials to understand where the negativity comes from. But there was no single answer.

**READ MORE:

* Auckland Transport can't install any bike racks near $1m Viaduct cycleway

* Confusion reigns during Brooklyn Hill cycleway construction

* David Bowie's China Girl, Geeling Ching, leads fight against $1m Auckland cycleway

* Wellington wants to be a cycling city but can't get around red tape and lobbying

* Timaru man wants safer cycling options on State Highway 1

**

Where does the opposition come from?

For years, Stuff has reported on conflicts over planned cycleways, with residents and businesses vocally opposing new developments all over the country.

For some businesses, concern stems from a lack of parking and access.

Stacey Clyde,​ managing director of the High Five Care and Learning centre in Wellington, voiced her concerns over the controversial Island Bay cycleway numerous times over the years. The removal of parking spaces was her main issue.

“We’ve got three spaces for 45 families, and we’ve also got staff.”

Clyde isn’t a cyclist, but she isn’t opposed to cycleways and agrees there needs to be a safe way to travel around the city. But not all designs work. “A shared footpath is a great concept.”

In Auckland, the trial on the Viaduct is causing a headache for business owners due to the change in access for both deliveries and customers.

Gino Gurshin​, who co-owns restaurants Viaduct Grill, Portafino and Frida, says the new path has put them in a “prison”.

He says delivery drivers, customers and Uber Eats drivers, have nowhere to stop. Some delivery trucks are now stopping in the middle of the road to unload.

”We feel like we are in prison here.”

Like Clyde, Gurshin isn’t opposed to cycling and cycleways, but in reality, they can create a lot of problems for some. “[It’s] worse for me.”

Clyde believes opposition to these kinds of ventures doesn’t happen for the sake of it.

“I don’t know why people would be opposed if it didn’t impact them.”

‘Change is hard’

Patrick Morgan from Cycle Wellington puts such conflict down to an unwillingness to change.

“Change is hard, and change to a public space, like a street, is always going to generate some pushback.”

Wellington’s deputy mayor Sarah Free agrees: “I think people are instinctively a little bit wary of change, they’re worried they might be worse off, not better off.”

In other parts of the country, councils have fielded concerns over the cost of new cycleways, the removal of parking spaces, and access to businesses.

“It is not easy to retrofit cycling infrastructure into an existing road, and it will change what locals are used to,” says Christchurch city councillor Mike Davidson​. “For some people that change is not easy.”

There’s also an element of misinformation that contributes to cycleway opposition, according to Davidson. “Often it will depend on what people have heard rather than what the actual proposal is.”

The groups opposing, however, might not be as dominant as they appear. Morgan believes voices in opposition tend to be the loudest and “fan the flames of controversy”.

This kind of loud, negative response isn’t unique to New Zealand. According to Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter​, who is deputy chairperson of the transport and infrastructure select committee and a cyclist, this is a normal response around the world.

“This is a very consistent phenomenon, and really it’s important that local leaders, like the council, do not stop what they’re doing because of a minority of people who are arguing for the status quo.

“The minority is very loud and very angry, and they tend to get a lot more air time.”

For example, a lot of noise was made in opposition to Wellington’s Island Bay cycleway in 2016. But Dr Mike Lloyd​, a sociologist and senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, who went on to study the path, found it appeared the vast majority of people in the region weren’t actually angry at all.

Lloyd​ says it’s important not to generalise responses to cycleways and to move beyond the more forceful, angry reactions.

“It’s fair to say, a lot of the time, people that get in the media have a particular argument they want to make. They’re not actually representative of anything more dominant.”

Clyde believes, however, that both sides can be quite vocal. “Some people are really aggressive on both sides of the fence.”

This kind of backlash is also usually reserved for urban centres where there are space constraints.

Feedback welcome, but safety prioritised

Consultations with locals, businesses, pedestrians, and cyclists allow councils to tweak design proposals. Both Auckland and Wellington councils have also implemented trial cycleways allowing for practical feedback.

Free says newer cycleways in the capital have been well-received, but that wasn’t always the case. Some of the first cycleway projects the council put forward received rather intense and vocal opposition.

Davidson, who is chairs the urban development and transport committee, says responses from the public in Christchurch varied across communities, but every design collects these responses and changes are made where possible.

The same happens in Auckland. The pop-up cycleway on the Viaduct Harbour is currently taking on feedback from its months-long trial to improve the space.

Davidson says cycleways should be loved by the communities they run through, but, at the end of the day, the main focus is safety.

“I want parents in every community to have the choice to send their kids to school on roads that have safer cycling infrastructure.

“We are not going to please everyone, but once built they are proving successful.”

Wellington mother-of-two Trish Given​​ doesn’t have a car and uses her bike for everything from grocery shopping to taking her son to rugby. Her 9-year-old daughter is now learning to ride on the road alongside her.

“I’m nervous for her,” Given says. “She’s 9, we take our time, but it would be great to be able to do the errands, the day-to-day things that we do [with] a cycleway or just space available out there for people like us.”

Given used to wear a high visibility vest with “mum” written on the back to ensure a safe ride.

“You just want your kids to be able to go to the local dairy to buy a nice thing for themselves safely. My kids can do that walking, now I want them to be able to do it by bike.”

Is New Zealand cycling-friendly?

The balance on the road has shifted in recent years to be more accommodating to cyclists.

“For decades roads have been built to move and store cars, now [roads are] about moving people safely and for some people who use cars as their only means of transport they can struggle with the change,” Davidson says.

There’s a strong desire for cities to be more cycling-friendly, but that won’t happen overnight.

“Traditionally, we’ve[Wellington] been installing one or two cycleways every year, and we’ve got many kilometres more that we’d like to do, so somehow we have to find ways to do this faster,” Free says.

”It’s got all the ingredients to be a fantastic cycling city.”

For now, however, it’s just not there. “Wellington is pretty appalling,” says Genter.

She labelled the city’s slow progress – 2km of cycleway a year for the past 10 years – shocking, abysmal and wrong. “It’s saying to people your life is not worth anything to us if you’re not using a car.”

Auckland, which Genter says has improved in recent years, is taking steps to expand its cycling infrastructure. Project WAVE, which includes the trial lane on the Viaduct, is the missing link in the city centre connecting two of the busiest cycleways.

Overall in Auckland, there’s a strong contingency supporting more cycleways. Data from Auckland Transport shows 55 per cent of people agree cycleways and shared paths are good for the community, and a further 41 per cent see room for further investment.

Christchurch, at the moment, is leading the charge when it comes to being cycling-friendly.

“The number of people using their bikes to get around is increasing year-on-year and surveys show that people love using the new developments,” Davidson says.

Morgan, who has cycled in many parts of New Zealand, says the garden city is, without a doubt, the best cycling city in the country. “They’ve done a great job, they’ve got 13 major cycle routes.”

Genter agrees and says Christchurch has made the most progress on separated cycle lanes.

”It’s starting to get to a point in Christchurch where you can really get around and not feel overly threatened by cars.”

Locals feel the same too. Lynette Ellis​, Christchurch City Council’s transport, planning and delivery manager, says a recent resident satisfaction survey found 65 per cent of respondents agreed the city is cycle-friendly.

All towns and cities should have appropriate infrastructure to cater for not just bike transport but also e-scooters, mobility scooters, skateboards, and monowheels. A lack of it, in Genter’s opinion, is a breach of people’s fundamental rights to get around.

“People have a right to get around safely, especially when they’re getting around in a way that takes up less space … we should be encouraging it and making it easier for people to do it.

“The street is public space, it belongs to all of us, and so I feel the priority of that space has to be the safe movement of people, not the storage of private property [cars].”