Let’s Go getting there
New Plymouth’s Let’s Go project started eight years ago, and has spent $12 million, with the aim of getting New Plymouth people out of their cars. How’s it doing? Helen Harvey reports.
When Robert Coe opened his bike shop nearly 40 years ago adults who rode a bike were considered ‘‘weirdos’’.
Bikes were for children and there were probably about 5000 kids every day who’d jump on one to get to school, Coe, 63, says.
‘‘I would say you’d be lucky if there were 500 now. But adults didn’t ride bikes then. There were racing cyclists and that’s about it. If you were a cyclist you were a bit of a weirdo. It was just about all kids.
‘‘Now we have gone into adults who are riding bikes.’’
And there is a reason for that. For the last eight years the New Plymouth District Council has been actively encouraging people of all ages to get out of their cars and into other modes of transport.
That could be walking, cycling, scooters, skateboards or buses.
The benefits of the plan are obvious to all – a healthier, happier more active and social population that spends less on transport and, vitally, less on healthcare.
NPDC branded its project Let’s Go and it hit the ground running.
Narrow green cycle lanes quickly lined the city’s main arterial routes, cycle repair workshops pop up every weekend, existing walkways and paths were improved and streets remodelled to be pedestrian focused.
Since 2010 all this activity has added up to $12m, with more than half of that funding coming from the New Zealand Transport Agency.
About $9m went on the infrastructure projects, while $3m has been invested in education and encouragement programmes.
It’s been done so well the Let’s Go brand has since been taken up by Nelson and Whanganui who use it to support their walking and cycling initiatives.
No matter how you look at it, it really has made a difference. But figuring out how much is not easy, especially as a lot of the work done with children (14,580 children have taken part in scooter skills training sessions and 11,563 have been part of the cyclist skills training classes) might not be measurable for a decade or more when they are free to make their own transport choices.
But there are positive signs. The 2016 census showed the number of commuters using bikes has risen by about 35 per cent, which is good even if the base figures aren’t known.
And you don’t always need official numbers anyway. What is obvious to anyone who uses the city’s renowned Coastal Walkway is an explosion of cyclists using the path. As a measure of how many are using it, a sure way of dividing a party in New Plymouth is a discussion on Walkway cycle etiquette.
To ring the bell or not ring the bell when approaching walkway users comes close to the vaccination debate in terms of vehemence.
In an emailed statement NPDC chief operating officer Kelvin Wright said Let’s Go had been changing the ‘travel choice landscape’ around New Plymouth to make it easier for people to get out of the car and walk, cycle or bus to school or work,
‘‘There’s been some amazing success stories over the years, ranging from training and safety programmes to major infrastructure improvements.’’
The figures are impressive. There are now 39km of on-road cycle lanes, 27km of shared pathways used by tens of thousands a people every month, 69km of offroad tracks and pathways and 9km street to street access ways.
For all it has done, Coe says he has not seen an increase in bike sales since the Let’s Go programme began. And while he thinks the increase in cycle lanes is a good thing, having them is not necessarily bringing out more cyclists, just making those who are there more visible.
The Coastal Walkway is what bumped up cyclist numbers, he says, and that opened long before Let’s Go began. Its success is that even though cyclists have to compete with walkers, runners, dogs and skateboarders for room, they don’t have to compete with cars.
‘‘The only way [to increase numbers to cyclists] is to have separate lanes from the beginning. When you have a new subdivision the lanes have to be totally separate.
‘‘Denmark, Holland, China, you see all these [dedicated] lanes. There are more people riding bikes than driving cars, because they have their own lanes.
‘‘With our bike rental I tell people – go on the Walkway, keep off the roads as much as possible. Mountain biking is becoming quite popular because of the safety aspect – it’s not on the roads.
‘‘People love the Walkway. It’s been a fantastic thing.’’
Coe first opened his shop in the BMX era, the versatile street bike which brought an explosion of interest in cycling as something more than just to get a person from A to B.
‘‘Then it went to the 10-speed era, triathlon eras come along, road racing, mountain biking, you name it. We’ve seen it all come and go.
‘‘Nowadays with the electric bikes coming on, which is a whole new era, I think it is going to be the biggest era in bicycling.’’
It could be this technology that really makes a success of the cycling side of the Let’s Go programme and see the city become as cycle-proud as Amsterdam or Copenhagen, the two most bike-friendly cities in the world.
As well as huge numbers of cyclists and impressive cycle lanes, the two European cities have something else in common. They’re flat. Very, very flat.
New Plymouth is not. New Plymouth is hilly, so when that everpresent head wind is added, taking the car becomes more attractive than hopping on a bike. Unless you have an electric bike to even out the hills and cut through the wind.
Inevitably cycling purists see the e-bike as a cheat.
But a Colmar Brunton poll from 2016 showed more than 40 per cent of Kiwis would consider buying one.
The reasons given were health benefits, getting active, cost savings and reducing commuting times. New Plymouth cyclists could probably add hills as their key motivator for buying one Already ubiquitous in China and Europe, the bikes are taking off here. Last Queen’s Birthday weekend Auckland police used electric bikes to get around during their traffic blitz. And New Plymouth E-bike Conversion co-owner Jason Ratcliffe knows a farmer who ditched his motor bike for an e-bike. ‘‘They don’t scare the cows as much.’’
Ratcliffe believes e-bikes are the future but, they are still expensive, he says. Which is why he went for the conversion kits.
‘‘People can keep the bike they are familiar with and instead of throwing it away they can put an electric motor on it and repurpose their bike.’’
Many of his customers are nearing retirement or have retired, he says, and might have been bike users all their life.
‘‘They still like using their bikes and going down the Walkway on a nice day. But everyone has to get up a big hill to get home.’’
It’s that hill, one that they may now struggle to get up, that puts them off cycling as something they’re no longer physically able to do. But an e-bike gets them out cycling again, Ratcliffe says.