30th November
Safe Cycling Speech
(not delivered word for word)
Auckland Regional Council Chamber

Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here. Before I start I would like to publicly acknowledge Trevor Mallard who did a superb time at the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge yesterday of 4hr and 59 minutes. Notice that I congratulated him on a superb time but that does not mean if I hadn’t fallen off my bike I wouldn’t have beaten him.

I want to thank Roadsafe Auckland for inviting me to speak to day and I want to acknowledge the people and organisations in the room including Barb Cuthbert from Cycle Action Auckland who are doing their bit to improve cycle safety in Auckland. I think we all are here because we know there is a problem. It is not just recent events on Tamaki drive that have highlighted this.

In each year in NZ from 2003 to 2007, an average of 280 cyclists were hospitalised and 10 were killed from crashes involving a vehicle. However, an additional 1,900 cyclists were hospitalised in 2007 for crashes that did not involve a vehicle – most of these crashes were on public roads.

Consultation on road safety

The Government is focussed on road safety, as you will know we are in the process of developing a new ten-year road safety strategy.

In August we issued a consultation document called Safer Journeys asking the public for their feedback on road safety priorities.

There were over 1,500 submissions focused on drink driving, young drivers and recidivist offenders. Walking and cycling also featured with a focus on improving walking and cycling infrastructure.

The Ministry of Transport has issued a summary of submissions and is now working on proposals which will be announced in the New Year. I think it important to all acknowledge the expenditure dedicated to cycling. The 2009/12 National Land Transport Programme has an allocation of $51 million for the walking and cycling facilities.

In addition, the NZ Transport Agency estimates that an additional $90 million of expenditure from other activity classes will deliver benefits for cycling over the next three years.

Expenditure on walking and cycling will be higher over the next three years (2009/10 – 20012/13) than over the last three years. I want to acknowledge that it is not just about the money that has been committed to cycling.

The reason we are here is to recognise that people’s behaviour matters and must change for our roads to be safer. That is why I support this campaign.

The key thing is not to play the blame game and create a war between cyclists and motorists. It is about recognising that there may need to be behavioural changes from both groups.

Speaking of behavioural changes, parliamentarians are coming together to think about ways to improve cycle safety. I want acknowledge Kevin Hague from the Green party who has been initiating some initial cross party discussion on cycling.

As you can imagine I have over the last month had a greater personal focus on cycle safety since my accident, in fact I can’t stop thinking about it.

I have met with a number of key people in cycling groups and government agencies that have raised possible initiatives that could be considered to make our roads safer. They include:

<> Speed reduction in specific areas
<> Better Cycle training initiatives
<> The 1.5 metre rule as a law change
<> Cycle lane infrastructure
<> Signage
<> Better road code information regarding cyclists

These are just a few initiatives that people raised with me and I have no doubt over the coming months they will be discussed further. Additionally I personally am supportive and working on some local cycling projects including the Waiheke cycleway and the Great urban rides. I believe that there is benefit in having some focus on specific routes within the city.

I would like to acknowledge Councillor Ken Baguley for his commitment in this area regarding the Great Urban Rides and. As you are also aware the Prime Minister has a personal commitment to cycling, we know how much he loves cycleways.

It is important to realise that the New Zealand cycle trail project primary objective is on regional development not commuter cycling, whilst there may be complimentary benefits of some of the cycle trails that is not the main focus. I believe that in order to improve cycling Auckland we need to make sure all the government agencies or initiatives are working together that local body, NZTA and the New Zealand cycle trail.

I want to thank you for your commitment to road safety. Safe cycling everybody.