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People are welcome to bring their bicycles to the University of Otago but not to ride them around campus, and the Dunedin City Council suggests a more cycle-friendly future should be embraced.
The council has made a late change to its submission on the university’s Vision 2040 strategic plan.
A desire for a bike-friendly campus should be a strategic imperative, the council suggests.
"Any outstanding campus environment should be bike-friendly and the university currently isn’t," Cr Steve Walker said.
Cycling was common around universities such as Oxford and Cambridge and some people were perplexed by the stance at Otago, he said.
A cycling ban at Otago was brought in more than 30 years ago.
In 2013, cycle safety advocate and university researcher Hank Weiss told the Otago Daily Times the ban arose from an incident when a lecturer was seriously injured after colliding with a cyclist.
Prof Weiss urged the university at that time to reconsider the ban and allow more shared spaces for cyclists, pedestrians, wheelchair users and skateboarders.
Cr Walker said yesterday there was plenty of room within the central part of the Dunedin campus for a separated, safe path.
This could connect with work the council was doing beyond the campus, he said.
University of Otago chief operating officer Stephen Willis said the campus was a pedestrian destination and the priority was safety.
"Our ‘walk your wheels’ campaign has been successful and strikes a safe balance for everyone using our campus."
The university actively encouraged bicycle use by staff and students to get to and from campus, he said.
"For example, we have been installing facilities for bikes and e-bikes that will be opened once the current landscaping work is complete."
The university announced last year an e-bike storage centre with charging points and a repair station would be set up in Dunedin.
It was due to open before the 2021 academic year.
However, there have been problems with cycling safety in the city.
In 2012, university lecturer Li Hong He was killed when he was run over by a stock truck outside Dunedin Hospital.
Cr Lee Vandervis lamented what he described as the university’s intransigence in the past.
"When the one-way street system cycleway was being proposed early on, there were alternative proposals suggesting that cycle traffic from the Northeast Valley would much more naturally be funnelled through the gardens, through the university and down Leith St, so that you wouldn’t have to mix cyclists with heavy traffic," he said.
"The university was the absolute stumbling block to this plan and they were completely unwilling to accept any cycleway running through the university.
"This intransigence, I believe, just stems from their inability to accept the possible risk of a cyclist hitting a pedestrian student.
"Basically, they just didn’t want the responsibility and their way around it was to force them out on to the one-way street.
"This has been really unfortunate for Dunedin."