A small drop, and a long-term up – cycle-numbers

Feb 22, 2014
A small drop, and a long-term up – cycle-numbers

Max

GraphJanuary cycle numbers in Auckland (as counted by AT’s 9 automatic cycle counters) were down 1.6% compared to numbers in January 2013.

On the more positive side, December cycle numbers (which hadn’t been reported on before, as there was no January AT Board meeting) were up a nice 11.1%. And over the whole last twelve months, we had a steady 8.11% increase, which shows we are on the right track.

The question is – did the great media publicity around John Tangiia’s death in early January harm cycle numbers? We don’t know. Curiously, the “morning peak” cycle numbers in January, far from declining, actually went up 15.5% and in December, they had been rising by a whopping 36.2%!!!

So it seems that the “commuter cyclist” type of trip is increasingly catching on, whether or not public concerns caused the slight January overall drop. Hopefully, numbers start rising normally again in February and March.

There’s also an interesting metric in a related report, which (among many other things), tracks how Aucklanders feel about “availability of cycleways” and “condition of cycleways”. Interestingly, from 2012 to 2013, the first criterion (availability) fell from 43% “satisfied or very satisfied” to 41%, and the second (condition) fell from 51% satisified or very satisfied to 46%.

As this question presumably was asked of the whole survey group – including non-cyclists – we suspect the falling stats are likely to indicate that more and more Aucklanders are aware of the problematic state of our cycle network, rather than these decreases showing the cycle network itself getting worse.

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