However, their bid to have all further planned Dunedin City Council cycleways funding reviewed — because of "very low and declining use" of cycle lanes — failed.
The vote was lost 11-5 at an infrastructure services committee meeting yesterday after a lively snap debate.
Suggestions of a cycling decline across the city were hotly disputed by Crs Christine Garey, Jim O’Malley and Steve Walker.
Cr O’Malley was scathing about some councillors’ interpretation of statistics.
Cr Garey said it was important to give people safe options for cycling within the city.
Safer routes enabled people to be more confident about getting on their bikes, she suggested.
Cr Vandervis argued the city had more than enough cycleways already and they were grossly under-used.
"The ratepayer has simply paid far too much for what we already have," he said.
Cr Vandervis wanted a report back by September, because he was aware an Albany St project was due to be confirmed the following month.
He hoped this would give staff time to "quite frankly, knock Albany St on the head, as a $20 million project that we simply can’t afford and will have little benefit anyway".
Cr Vandervis acknowledged he had misread a graph about cycle counts since 2022, but said the trend still showed a decline at a time when the city’s population increased.
Mr Radich observed "a steady decline in cycle usage in Dunedin".
"It does call into question our expenditure on cycleways when we’ve got so few people using them," he said.
Mr Radich’s interpretation of a steady decline was not supported by council asset and funding manager Simon Smith, who described recent numbers as reflecting business-as-usual conditions post-Covid-19.
Also, Mr Smith said some new counters had been put in at lower-use locations, which would bring averages down.
Mr Radich said separated cycleways were well used.
"What we need is a full picture of cycling use," he said, as he called for the review.
Cr Walker countered notions of empty cycle lanes by noting he had seen some roads without cars on them, depending on the time of day, and he wondered how somebody might fare if they argued such roads should be taken out of service.
The five elected representatives who voted for the motion were Mr Radich, Cr Vandervis, deputy mayor Cherry Lucas and Crs Carmen Houlahan and Brent Weatherall.
