Christchurch the 'shining star' of cycling in NZ

Saturday, 8 July 2023

Solid cycling infrastructure allows Miriam Marshall to ride her cargo bike with kids Gracie and Ari, while her older son Toby can safely use his own.

It’s not just because of the flat roads and decent weather — Christchurch residents hop on their bikes more than in any other city in Aotearoa thanks to good city planning, transport experts say.

Kathryn King, urban mobility manager at Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, says the city is “by far and away our shining star” of what good cycleway planning looks like.

Christchurch residents cycle 9% more than the national average in 2022 (33%), according to the agency’s figures. They are also 5% more likely on average to use their bike once or more a week (19%).

“They’re [Christchurch] giving us really strong local evidence that when you create safe, connected, accessible street conditions, then people in large numbers will use a bicycle to get around,” King said.

Cycling is being encouraged for short and medium length trips to help cut carbon emissions.

The city is often used as a case study when talking to different cities about how they can improve, she said.

Part of the benefit of better infrastructure was seeing more women and children travelling by bike, who King said were much less likely to ride than middle-aged men.

Miriam Marshall and her family are among those who consider themselves “cycling evangelists”.

She said riding bicycles had become their default, to the point that when they hop in the car, her children ask why.

Marshall can put all three of her young children on the family e-powered cargo bike, which she uses to travel to kindergarten, swimming lessons and playgrounds.

“If there is a safe cycle route, that makes it an easy choice for a destination,” she said.

The central city Margaret Mahy playground was a favourite, with cycle lanes guiding the whānau — often with 5-year-old Toby on his own bike — from their home in Spreydon.

King said the council’s investment in residential cycleways, not just lanes along busy roads in the CBD, was an example of how the city had exceeded expectations.

Waka Kotahi’s cycling action plan, published in March, is centred around how the country can reduce carbon emissions. A big part of that will be encouraging people to not use their cars for short and medium length trips.

King said it was tied into the Government’s emissions reduction plan, and cities were being asked to expand their urban cycle networks to achieve goals, which are yet to be set.

Those goals would likely be in proportion to how much carbon a city emits, she said.