Reading Auckland Transport’s most recent Annual Report, we noticed their summary of cycle facilities built in the last year (Page 44). And got curious.
How much do these these facilities score us towards the goal of completing the Auckland Cycle Network (ACN) in 2026, as agreed in the Regional Land Transport Strategy?
So we counted and measured the new bikeways we are aware of – all of them, even those undertaken by other authorities – in declining order of length:
| Location | Area | Type | Length (approx.) | Comment |
| Rosedale Road | North | Cycle lanes | 1,600m | Completing cycle lanes on eastern part of Rosedale Road |
| Don Buck Road | West | Cycle lanes & some shared path | 1,400 m | Completing works begun 2011 |
| Glenfield Road | North | Cycle lanes | 1,000 m | Part of road upgrade |
| Memorial Park | Central | Shared path | 900 m | Puketapapa Greenways (possibly funded by Local Board), widening of existing walking path |
| Onetangi Straight | Islands | Cycle lanes | 850 m | Part of road upgrade |
| Cox Bay Park | Central | Shared path | 850 m | Waitemata Greenways (funded by Local Board), rebuild / widening of boardwalk |
| Upper & Lower Domain Drive | Central | Cycle lanes | 750 m | Actually 1500m, but one-sided, so counts only for half length |
| Hibiscus Coast Highway (as “Silverdale off-road path” in AT report) | North | Shared path | ??? – 500 m | Described to us as related to access to new Silverdale bus interchange, given a guesstimate |
| Grand Drive | North | Shared path | ??? – 500 m | Described to us as link path from Grand Drive to the Orewa lagoon pathway, given a guesstimate |
| Grafton Gully Stage 1 | Central | Shared path | 300 m | NZTA project |
| Rankin Avenue | West | Shared path | 250 m | Extending existing shared path |
| Unsworth Reserve (as “Albany off-road path” in AT report) | North | Shared path | 200 m | Completion of existing path |
| Richardson Road over SH20 | Central | Shared path | 150 m | NZTA project, shared paths on new bridge, actual length 75m only, but both sides, so counted twice |
| Margan Avenue | West | Shared path | 150 m | Connecting to Rankin Avenue path |
| Orakei Boardwalk | Central | Shared path | 150 m | Extension under Orakei Road to train station (possibly part-funded by Local Board) |
| Browns Road | South | Cycle lanes | 100 m | Part of development intersection upgrade |
| Sandringham Road Extension | Central | Cycle lanes | 70 m | Part of development intersection upgrade, links to SH20 bikeway |
| Oceanview Road | Islands | Cycle lanes | 50 m | Actually 100m, but one-sided, so counts only for half length |
| Orpheus Drive | Central | Shared path | 30 m | Concrete boardwalk detouring pylon / motorway interchange ramps |
| Westgate Bridge | West | Bridge | 300 m (including access paths) | NZTA project with part-funding by AT, includes some shorter access path lengths |
| Jacob’s Ladder Bridge | Central | Bridge | 250 m (including southern access path) | NZTA project, includes cycleable access path to Beaumont Street, but has no ramp on north side (elevator only) |
| 10,350 m |
The above lists all new route lengths we are aware of, or have been communicated to us as finished, by AT or others, in the financial year 2012/13. The large majority of these are by Auckland Transport, though there are also a small number of parks / local board / NZTA projects.
Please contact us – via email or in the comments – if you are aware of any omissions / mistakes, so we can get this list as correct as possible (we intend to run this analysis every year now, to check progress).
So with all these many projects done in just a single financial, surely the total is impressive? No. We are not looking at all that much. The total comes to barely 10 km this year.
Consider that to complete the ACN by 2026, we have to build ~800 km in 13 years (plus bring some of our “complete” network up to spec). Thus our target is ~ 62 km per year.
[Note added 5 October 2013: Above 2026 is date given in the Regional Land Transport Strategy 2010. According to the Auckland Plan, target is to complete the cycle network by latest 2030 (completion envisaged in the 2021-2030 decade). Even that later date would still make it ~800 km in 17 years, or slightly less than 50 km to be built per year]
Will 112 km be built next year (62 km target plus 52 km shortfall this year)? We are aware of a number of bigger projects coming up for construction next year, so the result will likely be a bit higher than this year, but we are also aware of numerous projects which are seeing constant delays and post-ponements. More effort is urgently needed.
