New Zealand walking and cycling strategies – best practice

Print version: New Zealand walking and cycling strategies (PDF, 2.9 MB)

4. Recommended process for developing or reviewing strategies

The establishment of a working group has been an effective mechanism in many locations in developing new or reviewing existing strategies. This process is recommended. The group should be selected for its abilities to represent interested agencies and a variety of potential users, age groups and geographic areas. Participants should represent local walking and cycling groups, transportation and road safety agencies, the police, and the road network consulting engineers (if used). Other interests should also be considered, including education, sport and recreation, tourism, health, and agencies for the aged, disabled or blind.

One essential party in the process, besides the council itself, is Transit. As Transit is responsible for only 10% of the country’s road network spread throughout New Zealand, it is not able to plan or provide a comprehensive network for walking or cycling, especially in urban areas. Conversely, territorial local authorities do not own and manage all roads that might be useful for walking and cycling, so a collaborative effort for the planning, design, implementation and management of walking and cycling networks is essential between the two road controlling authorities (Transit and the local council). Walking and cycling strategies developed by local and regional councils consequently must include Transit and the state highways in the area.

Pedestrians and cyclists (and motorists) are usually unaware and unconcerned as to who is the road controlling authority for any particular road, but they expect a ‘seamless’ travel network. If it makes sense to walk or cycle on a portion of the state highway network for all or part of a trip, then this portion of the state highway network should be designed and managed to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists appropriately. Consequently, whenever local authorities are preparing or reviewing walking and/or cycling strategies, Transit should be intimately involved in the process.

Other facilities besides roads (whether state highways or local authority roads), such as railway corridors, parks, and the DOC (Department of Conservation) estate, are potentially important components of the walking and cycling travel network. When strategies are being developed, owners and operators of these facilities should be part of the process too.

Working groups should ideally be limited to about a dozen participants. Other parties with less direct involvement or interest can be included in the process by circulating draft documents and progress reports to a wider consultation group. Elected members or other key stakeholders who will ultimately endorse or support the strategy will also need to be kept informed of progress as the strategy develops.

A series of working group meetings is scheduled at regular intervals, with a timetable established at the outset so that all parties understand what their obligations will be. An initial meeting can be held to develop and discuss ideas. A recent strategy from another area that is considered a suitable prototype can be pre-circulated to focus thinking. Working group members can be directed to a number of existing strategies on the internet to get a feel for how different communities have responded to the challenge of preparing a strategy. After each meeting, staff or their consultants revise the strategy, implementation programme and network plans based on feedback from stakeholders, for refinement at subsequent meetings. Meetings can be quite lengthy (three or four hours or more) and a skilled facilitator can be helpful. But time spent early on, working through the issues around the table, can be much more efficient than attempting to resolve strong differences of opinion amongst stakeholders later in the process. The exercise of developing a cycling and/or walking strategy can often be as productive in improving conditions for walking and cycling as the strategy itself, particularly in its ability to raise consciousness of walking and cycling issues amongst key players in the community.

Public consultation is an essential component in the development of a walking or cycling strategy. This phase is typically undertaken after the development of a draft strategy by key staff, interested groups and agencies, and council. However, the working group process recommended above ensures that key stakeholders from the walking and cycling communities are involved early in the process. This is an important part of the public consultation requirements of the LTMA.

Most councils prefer to review a draft walking or cycling strategy before its release for public consultation. Once public feedback has been received, the strategy should be finalised and endorsed by council. This final stage is essential to ensure the strategy has status within the council and wider community. Posting first the draft and then the final strategy on the council’s website is recommended, with documents being carefully formatted to ensure that their files are not too large for easy downloading. Photos are very helpful to improve the attractiveness and readability of a strategy, but the file size of images needs to be carefully controlled to ensure that the overall document size is manageable.

Strategies need to be reviewed periodically to ensure that they continue to represent the aspirations of the community and council. Strategies should be reviewed according to the timeframe of the LTCCP. This ties them strongly to implementation programmes and budgets, and is consistent with advice in the LTMA that encourages Land Transport Programmes to be integrated with the LTCCP review process.

Implementation programmes need to be revised annually to reflect the budget cycles of councils, whereas strategies should only need revision every 3 to 10 years. Consequently, a clear mechanism needs to be articulated in the strategy as to how and when the strategy and implementation programmes are to be reviewed.

< previous | next >

Page created: 7 October 2008