Councillors were presented with an update report on the Ōtepoti Dunedin Pathways plan at a Dunedin City Council meeting on Tuesday.
The plan set out a "vision" for Dunedin’s future walking and cycling network and provided a prioritised programme of walking and cycling infrastructure projects, the report said.
Improving the network would make it easier and safer for people to walk and cycle to destinations across Dunedin, while also contributing to the council’s zero carbon 2030 goals.
The cost to fully implement the programme was estimated at $145.6m.
It had a high benefit-cost ratio but NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi co-funding was unlikely due to the government’s "significant shift in transport priorities" and constrained funding environment.
Work on the plan had largely been paused until there was greater certainty around funding, the report said.
Cr Steve Walker said he found the report "in all, quite depressing" due to the "disappearance" of government support for any new national cycling and walking projects.
He was perplexed when told by staff there had been a lot of problems with the reliability of cycleway counters, and said he depended on them to progress policy within council.
He later said he was "smart enough to realise" there was, at present, probably not the will around the council table to spend money when it might be more urgently required elsewhere.
But Cr Carmen Houlahan said the reality was there was no money for the plan and questioned why it was included in the budget.
"It was ridiculous, quite frankly, that these things were put in the budget initially because there wasn’t money to do it.
"It’s pie in the sky. We’ve got to come down to reality."
The long-term plan was "going to be tough" and the budgets were tight, she said.
Cr Lee Vandervis said he shared Cr Walker’s frustration and agreed that cycleway counters should work and provide accurate statistics.
"What I don’t share is Cr Walker’s optimism that these stats will show very significant increases in cycleway use."
He welcomed the coalition government’s focus on productivity.
That money was not going to be spent "on things that some people around this table see as being extremely important".
Cr Sophie Barker said she had been excited to receive a copy of the plan after asking for it, which stated it would set out a vision, "and I feel that the vision is missing from that document".
She later said it was "a great technical piece", but wanted councillors to think about aspirations for equitable transport choices and put their thinking caps on.
Cr Christine Garey said she was trying to think positively and it was important to keep a plan and programme on hand and ready to go.
To be eligible for any kind of fund, "they need to be in our plans, Cr Houlahan, so it isn’t wasted, it’s really important that that’s the case".
Cycling and walking had increased in her community and she had seen the unfinished peninsula connection being used by people walking their dogs, children, those in wheelchairs and commuters.
"That’s not pie in the sky, that’s not aspirational, that is actually happening - it’s a fact."
