Auckland's pink Lightpath shows what can be done for cycling when there's money and space - and some clever thinking.

The Government has decided support for cycling is a comparatively low-cost political winner, but more than good intentions are needed to pave the cycleways that are supposed to criss-cross our cities and regional centres.

After doing a few sums, Transport Minister Simon Bridges announced in June 2015 that $333 million - $99m of it from local government - was available for urban cycleways over the next few years.

It was "the single biggest investment in cycling in New Zealand's history" and would change the face of cycling, he said, possibly a little intemperately.

DEREK FLYNN/FAIRFAX NZ All around the country new cycleways are being built - this one in Marlborough - but in many places it's going to need something much more complex than just a hard surface across some open space.

Undoubtedly, a well-built network of cycleways will add a useful transport option for people on tight incomes, or for those who want to use cycling as a way to keep fit, even possibly to beat congestion.

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LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff.co.nz Walking and cycling manager for Auckland Transport Kathryn King talks to Stuff about plans for Auckland's new cycleways.

But for now, at least, it's not hard to point to cycleways that are used so sparingly that they don't seem to warrant the amount of road space they take up, or shared paths where some cyclists are a bit cavalier about the wellbeing of pedestrians.

Then there are the arterial routes already so clogged with cars and buses and trucks and motorcycles that it's hard to see how a cycle lane might squeeze in without making an already fraught journey even more unpleasant for the existing users.

That's not to mention the space needed to accommodate the dreams of some local government politicians who see light rail in their city's future.

ROBERT KITCHIN/ FAIRFAX NZ Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown found out the hard way in Island Bay just how difficult it can be to get it right when a cycleway is added to an existing roadway.

How will these alternative transport modes fit into some already inadequate key routes? Will some unpopular decisions - something local government politicians, in particular, don't tend to enjoy - be needed?

NZ Transport Agency national cycling manager Dougal List says that in this country we have been been learning how to make roads and cities safer and more attractive for people on bikes.

Some recent developments he might like to take into account include a study in Victoria, Australia, which interviewed cyclists injured in crashes and found one-in-five of them were riding in on-road bicycle lanes.

Supplied There are even plans to build a cycling and walking path - called SkyPath - across the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Another is a recent Otago University study into walking and cycling, which found "on-road cycle lanes without physical protection from cars do not particularly appear to be associated with high levels of cycling".

"For example, Tauranga and Hamilton report the highest percentage of roads with these types of cycle lanes (15 and 18 per cent of roads), but levels of cycling for transport in these cities are still quite low," lead researcher Dr Caroline Shaw said.

Then there's the whole mess with the Island Bay cycleway in Wellington.

NZTA Transport Ministert Simon Bridges turning the sod on the Hamilton Western Rail Trail cycleway project.

Some North Shore residents have also suggested the easiest way to relieve a congested arterial route would be to remove cycle lanes, which the commenters consider to be only lightly used.

NZTA's List probably has as good an idea as anyone of how the country's growing enthusiasm for cycling is being provided for, and how other road users might be affected.

Here are his edited comments from an interview with Stuff:

DAMIEN COUTTS National cycling manager for the New Zealand Transport Agency Douglas List.

Q: What is research showing about the best ways to build cycle lanes?

A: There's no one-size-fits-all. With cycling, particularly where we're having to retrofit into an existing urban area, there's a lot to take into account.

What we're generally encouraging is a broad spectrum of users where that's appropriate, so kind of eight to 80-year-olds. That's a bit different to people who are currently riding in a lot of places.

You've also got to take into account your route options. In Wellington, for example, quite often we've only got a few corridors which actually work for cycling.

People on bikes are pretty sensitive to detours or to topography, so it's got to be connected, it's got to be continuous, it's got to be convenient - those three Cs.

One of the historical challenges of a lot of our cycleways is that the easy bits have been done and then it gets to a hard intersection or a complicated bit of road and those pieces are missing and that's a real barrier to a lot of people riding.

With the Christchurch Major Cycle Routes they're aiming for a really high level of service for the eight to 80-year-old target audience.

So these are the key people movers - the cycling equivalent of providing a highway network. They don't go everywhere - it's the critical backbone route network of their cycle system.

In some places that will be a segregated cycleway, in some place it will be a shared path, in some places it will be a quiet street, in some places it will be on-road cycle lanes - painted lanes.

Q: So in some places you're trying to get cyclists off the main roads and onto quiet streets?

A: Take one (Christchurch) route - the Uni-Cycle that goes out towards the university and past some big schools.

In some places because it's going along a busier route they need to provide a separated cycleway. In other sections because it has an opportunity to go through a quiet residential street they don't actually have to build anything, it's just a bit of traffic calming, or marking, or signage.

Then in other parts because it's just a little bit busier maybe some cycle lanes are needed.

Then in another part it's going through a park so they'll build a shared path.

Q: So paint-on cycle lanes do work in the right places?

A: That's right. There was a study in 2012 which confirmed that the on-road painted lanes do lead to an increased level of safety.

They've got to be done right. It's important that it's not just painting some lanes.

The width of them has got to be right, they've got to be in the right place.

If they're too narrow, or designed wrong, they can increase the risk for people on bikes.

For example, if they're too narrow it can increase the risk of people being doored (car doors being opened just in front of cyclists), in particular.

Q: I assume a separated cycleway, with infrastructure separating the lane from the road, is most popular?

A: Generally people on bikes like them but to do that sometimes takes away space from other road users.

So what's really important is to make sure we're thinking about all road users and the surrounding land uses.

Studies show safety is determined by design being suitable for the location. Some kinds of separated cycleways can be more dangerous, particularly two-way ones.

If someone's coming out of a driveway they'll look one way, then pull out and won't necessarily think to look the "wrong" way.

Q: So they look in the direction they'd expect a car to be coming but not necessarily the other way?

A: Yes.

For example, we've got a cycleway project in Dunedin on State Highway 1, and one of the design options that we looked at was a two-way separated cycleway, but decided that would be less safe than having two separate one-way cycle lanes.

Q: Are there situations where you would prefer a two-way lane if you could have two one-way lanes at the same price?

A: Again it comes back to context.

The Hutt Road (Wellington) is a good example. We've got a two-way cycleway on one side of the road.

On the side of the road it's on there are a number of businesses with driveways, which can cause conflict points and you've got to look at the design of that really, really carefully.

But on the other side of the road you've got a number of intersections, so taking the people on bikes away from those intersections and putting them on one side of the road in that particular scenario is a better, safer design option.

Another example from Christchurch: On one of the cycleways, they looked at having a separated cycleway on either side of the road, but one side of the road had about 100 driveways.

The other side had a fraction of that number. So it was much safer to have a two-way cycleway on one side.

Q: If you build a cycle lane is the expectation that more people will cycle than would otherwise be the case?

A: We're trying to increase the number of people cycling in New Zealand.

We're working to implement the $333 million urban cycleways programme.

It's the biggest investment in cycling this country's ever seen, seeing new cycleways being built in urban areas from Whangarei to Dunedin in a huge range of projects.

Q: If you paint on a cycleway and it brings more cyclists than you had before, is there a risk more people will be injured than previously?

A: Evidence shows the rate of injuries should decrease but if there are significantly more people actually riding then the total number of injuries may increase.

Q: Is there a reluctance to just have a painted on cycle lane.

A: In New Zealand we've been learning a lot about how to make our roads and cities safer and more attractive for people on bikes.

Some of the things that we've been doing in the past, like on-road cycle lanes we're finding aren't good enough, that we do need to raise the level of service we're providing.

For example, the cycle lanes on Cameron Rd in Tauranga (which has painted on cycle lanes). Cameron Rd's a really busy road.

It's one of the main connector roads in Tauranga. If that was being looked at now, using best practice would they provide for cycling in the same way? They might not.

We're still learning and developing our standards and guidelines, and learning a lot from other jurisdictions like Australia and America and the UK, where there's been a massive level of investment in cycling.

Q: What about Amsterdam, or other similar places that are supposedly havens for cyclists?

A: Take the Netherlands and Denmark, that are kind of the world leading countries for cycling, they've been on a 40-year journey.

They've gradually been improving the level of their cycle network for over 40 years. We can take a lot of good ideas and best practice from them but you've got to be really careful to make sure it works in New Zealand.

The key difference is that some of the fundamental road laws in New Zealand and European countries are quite different. For example, the presumption around give way, or how roundabouts are designed.

Typical European roundabouts are designed so vehicles kind of come to a stop, whereas in New Zealand roundabouts kind of work on an "if it's safe to drive through, you can drive through" approach.

Q: How are shared paths working out?

A: Shared paths work really well where they're designed right.

They've got to be the right width for the number and types of users.

They've also got to be designed right in terms of it being clear how people should behave.

Generally shared paths around the country work really well as an option but they start to work less well where the numbers of either people on bikes or walking increase to a point where they need their own separate facility.

A good example is in Melbourne where they have basically what's supposed to be a network of shared paths but because they've been so successful in getting people on bikes, walkers have basically been pushed off.

Q: Apparently the pink path in Auckland is doing well? (The old Nelson St motorway off-ramp in central Auckland, coloured "magenta". Called the Lightpath, it is a shared cycling and pedestrian path)

A: It's been designed as a shared path in terms of the width.

Also the nature of the location and the type of users mean a lot of people are enjoying the view, they're not racing through there. Whereas, for example, the new cycleway it connects to - along Quay St, down the bottom of Auckland - has deliberately been implemented as a separate cycleway because of the types of users and also the number of pedestrians down there.

A success story is the Northwestern cycleway in Auckland.

We've got a lot of commuters using that every morning. Generally they're all flowing in the same direction so that really helps - it's a two-way cycleway.

With the popularity of cycling, also with people using (electric assist) e-bikes, a lot of them are coming in 15-20km.

That's an example of a corridor which was fit for purpose and the numbers of cyclists when it was designed, but now with the level of usage we need to continue to improve it and expand it.

New sections (as part of the upgrade of the Northwestern Motorway) are being built wider with big new bridges, wider paths, better sight lines.

Q: So when you build a new section of motorway or highway, is it comparatively easy to include a cycleway?

A: Even highways it's complicated. We look at the whole corridor and where is the best place to provide for cycling.

An example is McKays to Pekapeka (a new route for SH 1 through the Kapiti Coast).

We've provided a wide road shoulder as part of that, which is good for people in pelotons, riding fast, and that space also provides a great pullover safe space for people in cars who have any problems, and also we funded the building of a cycleway through Queen Elizabeth Park as an alternative cycle route for those who weren't going fast.

Q: How will cycling facilities develop?

A: I think we'll see more separated facilities, more shared paths where appropriate.

Generally, what we're going to be seeing is more dedicated cycling space, and I think what we'll also see is other road users being more aware of bikes on the road, and being therefore more courteous.

The big challenge we've got is we just don't have these continuous networks.

The reality is in some places around New Zealand, particularly Wellington with some of its old narrow tram streets, which are our key corridors, this is really challenging stuff.

Cycling's a means to an end, it's really about creating vibrant and connected communities and places where we want to live.

We know in Dunedin, Otago University regularly gets overseas lecturers and professors, one of the questions they ask is, "can I bike to work".

People want the choice to bike.

Q: How can you be confident you're going to get enough people cycling to justify the spending?

A: Spending on cycling is relatively low compared to what we spend on other parts of the transport system.

We always look at the benefits and costs associated with any transport investment and generally cycling projects stack up well.

They tend to have a benefit-cost return of between five and eight, meaning for every dollar you spend you're getting about $5 back.

That's based on predicted use. What we are seeing is where the networks are getting connected we are seeing that increased use.

We also know with electric bikes cycling's becoming a lot more accessible, in terms of frequency and distance.

Once it was assumed people would generally ride for about 7km, but that easily doubles on an electric bike.

Also people with electric bikes are tending to ride more often.

Q: How do electric bikes fit into the picture?

A: Making sure people do behave sensibly on electric bikes will be one of the challenges - not going too fast, particularly when they're sharing space with other bikes.

Generally what happens is that electric bikes' power output cuts off after a certain speed, generally around 30kmh but that varies. In NZ the maximum continuous output is 300 watts, anything over that is classed as a powered vehicle and needs a WOF and a licence is needed.

Q: Can you summarise the main findings about cycle lanes around the world?

A: Separation is key. Giving people on bikes adequate space from other vehicles is really critical to making our cycle network safer.

How you do that really does depend on the context, the space and other road users and land uses around it.

It's not just about design on the road, it's about how other people behave and the speed they go as well.

So speed management is another critical key.

A lot of the approach in overseas countries - plenty of cities have narrow, windy streets, and they typically have approached it through speed management and the behaviour of other road users, as much as in building cycleways.

Q: What about the system where there's a cycle lane next to the kerb, then parked cars then the roadway. Is that a good system in some places?

A: That design has been shown to work really well.

Again it needs to take into account other road users and the context. Picking on Island Bay; where it's a bit different with Island Bay is there's a large number of driveways there, which makes that a more complicated design.