Time nearly up for cycleway success

With any investment there comes a time when the decision to spend must be judged by the returns realised.

Over the last few years a significant amount of money has been invested in Dunedin's new cycleway infrastructure. Judgement on that spending must be near.

As reported in the Otago Daily Times last week, several major pieces of the city's cycleway puzzle are nearing completion.

Some of the funding for the new cycleways has come from central government and some from Dunedin ratepayers. Either way, people paying their rates and taxes have paid for the city's bike paths.

The new infrastructure has faced significant negative publicity. In St Clair and St Kilda, work was planned, consulted on, designed, completed and then ripped out after it became obvious the changes were poorly designed or mistakes in their implementation had been made.

Along the city's one-way system, initial proposals were altered after fears were raised that reduced car-parking would harm businesses.

The cycleway to Port Chalmers seemed inevitable before it was declared too expensive. A renewed plan, complete with a drastically increased budget, is now in place, though completion is years away.

There has been positive publicity too. When completed, the separated cycleway linking Port Chalmers to Portobello and beyond stands out as being a potential boon to the city's tourism trade. Meanwhile, depressingly common accidents involving cyclists in the central city have reinforced the need for new cycle infrastructure in some form to keep cyclists and motorists apart.

It is clearly no easy job planning, designing and building cycleways. In a country as unused to them as New Zealand, cycleways are proving problematic nationwide.

It is clearly not a quick nor cheap job either. The public has, despite some grumbling, been patient in watching their hard-fought for dollars be spent on the dream many of our city councillors and council staff have implored us to believe in.

But, after so many years and so much money being spent, is a decent return being seen? Are more people using bikes to travel to work, school, university or town than before? If so are their journeys now quicker? Are they safer?

A time will come when such questions will need to be answered with clear, objective data. That time must nearly be upon us.

A big uptake of commuter cycling would be one acceptable and easily measured return. A big increase in safety would be another. An improved trip for cyclists, in terms of both ease and timeliness, would appear to be another sensible, measurable result.

It is a little more than a year until the next local body elections. It seems reasonable to expect those who sit around the Dunedin City Council table - in particular those who have stood as champions for the city's cycleway spend - be held accountable for the results whatever they are.

If the cycleways are beginning to work effectively by then and are clearly bringing about a change in the city's cycling habits, arguments against the investment would likely diminish. Those who championed their construction will be able to justify their place at that table accordingly.

Of course, if the cycleways are found to be ineffective by that time it would be reasonable to conclude the council, in particular those councillors who championed cycleway investment, had failed to bring their plans to fruition in a manner befitting such a significant public spend.

There is no argument cycleways, when done well, work well; examples around the world prove such outcomes are not only possible but common. The argument is whether the people of Dunedin have invested in the right personnel to ensure this city's cycleways have succeeded.

The time for making that judgement is rapidly approaching.

Comments

When cyclists find signs expecting them to get off their bike and cross with pedestrians, before continuing on, the design is a definite fail. They will just continue along in the lane of traffic, like they are legally allowed to.
Fail.