OraTaiao has made a submission on the Waka Kotahi Cycling Action Plan. Overall, we believe the Plan is excellent and we strongly endorse it. We do however make additional recommendations around urgency, co-governance, a systems approach, funding, guidance for local government, road renewals, grassroots involvement, equity, e-bikes, cycle path maintenance, intersections and roundabouts, car sharing and land use.
To read our submission, prepared by Dr James Hamill, Liz Springford and Dr Matt Jenks, click on the headline above.
About OraTaiao
OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate and Health Council is an organisation calling for urgent, fair, and Tiriti-based climate action in Aotearoa. We recognise the important co-benefits to health, well being and fairness from strong and well-designed mitigative policies. Our vision is Āhuarangi Ora, Tangata Ora, ‘Healthy Climate, Healthy People’. https://www.orataiao.org.nz/
Our submission is based on the Bike Auckland submission guide which is available here: Waka Kotahi Cycling Action Plan - Bike Auckland.
Strategies – all “very important”
Give feedback on all four strategies
Planning connected networks – all “strongly agree”
Streamlining our funding system – all “strongly agree”
Accelerating change on the ground – all “strongly agree”
Putting people at the heart of change – all “strongly agree”
Proposed Cycling Action Plan requires BOTH new initiatives AND substantive policy/regulator change
Cycling rates in my region are poor – I think this would be a fair statement for Aotearoa NZ wide.
Are there any cycling-related actions missing from the Waka Kotahi Cycling Action Plan that would potentially deliver a significant increase in cycling in New Zealand? Note that: These actions could potentially be undertaken by other organisations or community groups. The national vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) reduction plan, which is currently under development, will identify the broader actions that are needed to reduce reliance on cars, and support people to walk, cycle and use public transport.
- Waka Kotahi should set the target, with associated budget, to complete the connected cycle network in the major population centres by 2030 in line with the 2023 Draft advice to inform the strategic direction of the Government’s second emissions reduction plan: https://www.climatecommission.govt.nz/our-work/advice-to-government-topic/advice-for-preparation-of-emissions-reduction-plans/2023-draft-advice-to-inform-the-strategic-direction-of-the-governments-second-emissions-reduction-plan-april-2023/
- Waka Kotahi should advocate for stronger local government and a better working relationship between local and central government in order to deliver its cycling strategy within the jurisdictions of local government, in line with the Review into the Future for Local Government draft report, https://www.futureforlocalgovernment.govt.nz/
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Commitment to active transport needs to be seen in the proportion of the total Waka Kotahi budget allocated to active transport. International recommendations* mean that this proportion should be AT LEAST 20% and we would recommend a genuine commitment would see Waka Kotahi allocated more than 30% of its total budget to active transport and another >30% to public transport.
*https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/17030/globalOutlookOnWalkingAndCycling.pdf
Collated comments
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Support.
Overall the plan is excellent and we strongly endorse it.
So much to celebrate & cheer on - we love the ten high-level principles. -
Co-governance.
We would encourage Waka Kotahi to take a fully resourced, co-governance approach to cycling planning, policy and funding. -
Urgency.
10 years is too long. Other countries/cities have delivered transformation in tighter time frames (e.g. Paris). Therefore we should suggest priority networks should be completed by 2030 at latest. Why not make the time-frame two or three years, or five years at the most? Most of that work needs to happen in that first year or so. This is a race against time. Consider the city of Seville which has a 2 year roll-out. For cycling to be a good option for many more people, we need the safe cycle networks clearly in place all around our urban areas for all the places we go. The roading system is comprehensive, convenient and complete - why should cycle networks be any different?
Further on urgency, the Global Stocktake from UN COP28 is likely to say that the world needs to double effort based on past analyses of NDCs. NZ has been opting for an average path of halving emissions by 2030 rather than the Paris principle of differentiated responsibility which would see us, as a relatively wealthy nation with high historic and current emissions, aim for net zero as soon as we can in 2030’s (20 years earlier than current commitment). We've also opted to outsource most of our emissions reductions by buying offshore credits at uncertain prices from markets yet to be established. Very risky - CCC & Treasury have both expressed concern. And for now, agriculture, with half of emissions is excluded so the pressure is on transport emissions to virtually disappear. All in all, these factors push for a rapid reduction in transport emissions and a roll out of comprehensive cycle networks within two to three years - not a decade. -
Systems approach.
We need to think widely and systemically and do the long-term cost-benefit analyses. There are huge health and productivity gains from active transport including brain gain from physical activity, learning at school, and workplace productivity. If we are not optimising the cognitive capacity of present and future generations then we are selling the country short in a world in which technical and complex thinking skills are essential. The costs of failing to compete cognitively and technologically will be astronomical. A sick nation of car travellers, air polluted, anxious, noise damaged brains does not bode well for Aotearoa NZ. -
Funding.
Commitment to active transport needs to be seen in the proportion of the total Waka Kotahi budget allocated to active transport. International recommendations* mean that this proportion should be AT LEAST 20% and we would recommend a genuine commitment would see Waka Kotahi allocated more than 30% of its total budget to active transport and another >30% to public transport.
*https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/17030/globalOutlookOnWalkingAndCycling.pdf -
Local Government.
We strongly support better guidance for Councils. Our experience (in Wellington, Auckland in particular) is that Councils in their present form are not competent to implement safe cycling. Evidence shows that more than 70% of Wellingonians would bike if the safe cycleways were there. Note that the number of people who have died whilst biking is almost 200 over the years since one of the contributors started biking out of climate concern, and estimates suggest that those seriously injured is around ten times more that. (See https://can.org.nz/article/new-zealand-cycling-deaths).
A key issue is the council will not support anything that involves reallocation of road by taking away car parks, vehicle lanes, reduces speeds, calms traffic - they see this as losing votes. However, these are crucial strategies to enable mode shift. Waka Kotahi needs to look at funding mechanisms or regulatory mechanisms that enable / require councils to use these tools.
Waka Kotahi should advocate for stronger local government and a better working relationship between local and central government in order to deliver its cycling strategy within the jurisdictions of local government, in line with the Review into the Future for Local Government draft report, https://www.futureforlocalgovernment.govt.nz/ -
Specifics.
More specifics are required on the issues of incorporating active transport infrastructure into road renewals (councils don’t seem to be able to influence this, road renewals happen constantly and they just replace like for like, this is a wasted opportunity). In addition all new roads (e.g. subdivision developments) should incorporate cycling infrastructure. -
Grassroots.
We strongly recommend a bottom-up approach to cycling through pilots and focus groups from differing communities around Aotearoa. See what people do day to day, what the pressures are, and the opportunities. Grass-roots approaches complement top-down approaches. Ensure that voices of low-income, disabled, women, and especially parents, children, and the elderly are strongly part of this. -
Equity.
Consider redefining transport poverty. Transport poverty should be less than 10%. Food inflation, escalating rentals and interest-rate increased mortgage payments all come out of the same household budget. Enabling low/no emissions transport helps NZers with high costs of living right now & the climate debt we are piling up by being locked into high emissions transport. -
E-bikes.
We recommend E-bike subsidies and loans to trial (e.g. Switched-on Bikes in Wgtn has e-bikes to lease & pay off over time: https://switchedonbikes.co.nz) -
Maintenance.
At present there is ‘zilch’ maintenance of cycle paths once in place (compared to car roads esp buses & heavy trucks churning up roads) - we agree with the report that cycle paths need to be maintained. People are not encouraged to cycle when they get regular punctured tyres from broken glass that sits on the cycle paths for weeks without being cleaned up. -
Intersections.
We recommend a review of intersections and roundabouts where a lot of cyclists are injured, to ensure safety for cyclists. For example, radial design of roundabouts - see ViaStrada for discussion on this https://viastrada.nz/pub/2022/build-safe-rdbts. -
Car share.
As an adjunct to the Cycling Action Plan, we recommend car share (cars for hourly hire) is a critical enabler and amplifier of the cycling gains. Each car share vehicle takes around ten privately owned vehicles off the road and out of parking spaces and garages - much more efficient urban land use for housing and transport. Time to fund car share and longer term car hire as not-for-profit ‘public transport’ which breaks down NZ's long love affair with private car ownership. Not for everyone, but big savings for some household transport budgets - and wins for everyone with regard to more efficient land use. Aim to have a car share vehicle within a few minutes' walk for most urban dwellers. Use car share as car carrots to enable and smooth the way for rapid cycleway network roll-out. -
Land use.
We need more efficient land use especially for housing which means cycleways and bus routes instead of car parking.