It's time to liberate a lane. What Auckland can learn from Vancouver's Burrard Bridge.
by Michael Tritt
In
2008, I did the one-year "OE working holiday", travelling with my
wife to live and work in Vancouver, Canada.
Keen
to continue with regular cycle commuting, we bought second-hand bikes from
Craigslist (a popular but rudimentary sort-of "Trademe") and acquired
a familiarity with Vancouver from a cycling perspective.
Like
Auckland, it's a fast-growing but dispersed harbour city, historically built
around the car. Cycling infrastructure wasn’t great, but already better
than Auckland’s at the time. There were
plans to improve it further, and they had stirred a lively debate.
The
most contentious proposal involved converting a vehicle lane into cycle lanes
on the Burrard Bridge, a traffic thoroughfare crossing the water into
downtown Vancouver.
In
2009, as the debate continued, we returned to New Zealand, and shortly
thereafter I found myself among thousands of other Aucklanders at the "Get
Across" rally in support of cycling and walking access on the Auckland Harbour
Bridge.
On
a sunny Sunday in May, thousands of us streamed across the Harbour Bridge – on bike,
on foot, with strollers and kids. Organiser Bevan Woodward later told me
he was struck by just how happy people were that day. For the first time,
many were experiencing an iconic part of their city from a new vantagepoint,
out in the fresh air rather than behind a windscreen.
Meanwhile,
I maintained a key interest in developments in Vancouver, and what has occurred
since really is a tale of two cities.
In
July 2009, a vehicle lane on the Burrard Bridge was indeed removed and
converted to cycle lanes. Howls of
protest ensued. The Vancouver Sun
recounted the headlines of the day:
“Burrard Bridge bike lanes doomed to failure”
“Chaos feared”
“Business plunging because
of bike lane, owner says”
Fast forward a decade and it was clear that brave decision became the catalyst for extraordinary change. The Burrard Bridge cycle lanes now enjoy overwhelming support. It is now the single busiest section of cycle lane in the entirety of North America, recording more than a million cycle trips annually.
The Burrard Bridge, Vancouver, home to the busiest cycle lane in North America. Image credit William Perry.
What
has occurred in Auckland over the same time however is a depressing tale of procrastination
and incompetence.
While
the NZTA gave their official blessing to what we now know as “Skypath” in 2012,
there have since been nine years of delays and changes of plan. The latest news is that the design we were
told was going to be built soon, after a tortuously long process, is now no
longer suitable.
Enough
is enough. If Auckland is ever going to realise its potential as a cycling
city, change needs to happen now.
The
endless delays have real consequences. Auckland,
like many global cities, has committed to emissions reductions in the battle
against climate change.
Auckland’s
latest “Transport Alignment Project” update admits that it will fail the city’s
own climate goals, with emissions increasing 6% over the next decade.
Meanwhile,
the City of Vancouver managed a doubling of cycling mode share in the six years
to 2020 (to nearly 9%.) Less than half
of trips by residents are now taken by car.
Back
here, bureaucrats and politicians seem happy to wait while yet another plan is formulated. The climate, however, is unlikely to be as
patient.
Dr
Paul Winton has produced a sobering analysis on this matter. If Auckland is
going to get anywhere near its climate change obligations, billions of
dollars of spending currently proposed barely move the dial.
What
does move the dial is a rapid and radical modal
shift to cycling.
We
can’t afford to wait several more years for action on this. A lane needs to be reallocated on Auckland’s
Harbour Bridge.
Some
will argue that it will create traffic “chaos” (just like they did in Vancouver)
but they misunderstand how traffic adapts.
When travel speeds reduce to a certain point, people change
behaviour. They may choose to avoid
non-essential trips, to reschedule, or switch to an alternative mode of transport
that is faster (such as the Busway).
For
many people, that alternative mode of transport will be a bike (or, quite possibly,
an e-bike) if they are given the opportunity.
This
won’t take billions of dollars, but it will take the kind of courage that Vancouver’s
leaders had in 2009, in the face of vocal opposition.
Ten
years later, one of those vocal opponents, Vancouver’s Downtown Business
Association admitted “we were wrong and we don’t mind saying we were wrong, but
nobody had a crystal ball back then”.
Fortunately, Auckland does have a crystal ball. We know what will happen, because there is real world evidence of what happens when similar cities reallocate space away from cars, and towards bikes and people. Let’s make this Auckland’s “Burrard Bridge” moment.
Michael Tritt is a Founder and Director of Electrify NZ. The opinions expressed are his own.
