Auckland Council has endorsed the business case for a $306 million plan to construct cycleways in the city.
The business case for a $306m plan to construct more cycleways across Auckland has been endorsed, but it's not without its critics. Photo: 123rf
It means construction will now be sped up, but the topic is still proving divisive, with 13 councillors in favour of the plan, three against and seven abstaining.
Among those at odds were the two Manurewa-Papakura Ward councillors, Angela Dalton and Daniel Newman.
Dalton, who is for the plan, told Morning Report it would make it safer for cyclists to use Auckland's roads, but Newman, one of three councillors who voted against endorsing it, said the plan's implementation would see road space that was required for motorists be reallocated.
"We are having no regard for the ratepayers and motorists who are the paymasters of Auckland Transport and who use our roads," Newman said.
"We need to have shared paths for pedestrians and cyclists, and if that's what we were doing I'd be fully on board with that, but that's not what we're doing here; the priority here is to squeeze tired motorists - the vast majority of Aucklanders who commute - into more and more bottlenecks and to take existing roads and to transform them into cycleways."
He said the plan would make existing road capacity issues for motorists "worse, not better".
Dalton disagreed, saying the plan would allow 45 kilometres of connective cycleways to be built, which would make it safer for children in the city to cycle to their schools.
"If we can get our kids back on bikes because it's safe that is good outcome - not just for congestion, but for health benefits as well."
"It's going to be a recipe for division" - Manurewa-Papakura Ward councillor Daniel Newman
However Newman countered that the vast majority of those who had to commute needed to do so by car and said that needed to be provided for.
"This isn't a 'plus one' situation, this is an 'instead-of' and my view is that turning existing road corridors that are required for motorists into cycleways is not going to be a recipe for a better future, it's going to be a recipe for division."
He said he accepted provision needed to be made for a "balance of transport modes", including cycling, but added that would require the building of "safe bespoke shared pathways for cyclists and pedestrians", which was "not what's being proposed here".
Dalton said the plan was not about moving people from cars to bicycles if they didn't want to, but about offering people a safe choice.
"There are cyclists being killed, they are over-represented in the deaths and serious injuries, and it's not okay."
She said she saw "nothing but benefit" in the plan for people who wanted the choice to cycle in the city, whether they were commuting to work or cycling for leisure.
"The number of cyclists are still very small and the mode shift distance is projected to 7 percent by 2030, that's still quite a small number compared to the people in cars," Dalton said.
"There will always be cars, we just need to get the cars moving without congestion now. If cycling can relieve a bit of pressure, then great."