Wheels turning on new $900m cycleway network
Getting Hamiltonians out of their cars and on to bikes, scooters and other modes of personal transport will prevent an estimated 126 people from being killed or seriously injured on the city’s roads.
That goal is one of many set out in the just-adopted draft business case of Hamilton City Council’s long-awaited Biking and Micro-mobility Programme.
But saving the environment and people’s lives will come with a hefty price tag: An estimated $700 million to $900m over a 30-year timeframe.
The council’s infrastructure operations committee voted unanimously yesterday to approve the draft plan, which will now be put to Waka Kotahi for approval and, it is hoped, some substantial funding.
Although the plan includes a 30-year delivery schedule for numerous cycleways and associated projects, exactly how soon those projects come to fruition will depend on decisions made in various council annual and long term plans over the coming years.
While yesterday’s committee decision represents just a small step towards that goal, it was reflective of the council’s lofty aspirations of encouraging Hamiltonians to make use of alternatives to cars.
Council surveys had revealed 78 per cent of people were keen to use a more active mode like bicycles, but only if it was safer. Currently, people riding bikes and other forms of micro-mobility made up a very small proportion of total travel in Hamilton – a 3.8 per cent share of all-day trips. It was hoped to increase this to about 13 per cent – or 23,300 users – by the year 2050.
Committee chairwoman Angela O’Leary said she was glad to be a small part of the mode shift change.
‘‘I am completely married to my car. I’m in one of those terrible percentages that’s in the business case that will drive 1.7km to my gym every single morning, because I like that convenience – but also, and more importantly, because it’s not safe.
‘‘If you can shift me, you’re going to shift a massive amount of our city population.’’
Deputy mayor Geoff Taylor supported the draft plan, but had grave misgivings over the estimated cost.
‘‘That’s too much money. I won’t be supporting that scale of spending.’’
However, Sarah Thomson said the plan was long overdue and desperately needed.
‘‘Hamilton has done really poorly in terms of getting funding for safe cycling and walking infrastructure for decades.
‘‘Part of the reason we have fallen down so many times is because we haven’t had a coherent vision for cycling and micro-mobility for the city. This business case . . . is so important to moving things forward.
‘‘To get more people cycling, in a really significant sense, you have to connect things. You have to have a useful network that takes people from where they are to where they want to go, which is what we have with our roading network. But we don’t have that in any sense with our cycling network at the moment.’’
Mayor Paula Southgate said it was good the draft plan included a map of what the cycle network would end up looking like once it had been constructed.
‘‘Instead of having small bits of cutup spaghetti, we are starting to link the bits together.’’