New Zealand walking and cycling strategies – best practice

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5. Detailed analysis of walking and cycling strategies

• 5.1   Methodology
• 5.2   Results
• 5.3   Lessons learned from overseas strategies

5.1   Methodology

Some 36 strategies were identified that had been published for public consultation as drafts or released as final documents, from 30 councils in New Zealand. A number of others were in preliminary draft stage³ but were not included in the study because they were still subject to considerable change. In addition, eight overseas strategies were reviewed.

Of the New Zealand strategies reviewed, 18 were cycling strategies, 8 were walking strategies, and 10 were combined walking and cycling strategies.⁴ Five of the overseas strategies were cycling strategies and three were walking strategies. Some 27 (35%) of New Zealand’s 74 local councils (including two of the four unitary authorities where no regional council exists) and 3 of the 12 regional councils (25%) had published strategies by December 2004.

A spreadsheet was developed to summarise and analyse the contents of individual strategies. It contained over 20 characteristics that could be useful within walking or cycling strategies, such as whether a strategy contained a vision, whether it included a network plan, and whether it covered promotional activities, education and enforcement as well as engineering measures.

This quantitative analysis (of what was included or excluded in each strategy) allowed the components of the strategies to be evaluated and compared on a systematic basis. In addition to this quantitative assessment, the research team used its collective experience to recommend features for inclusion in a good strategy.

The characteristics used to assess strategies have been grouped by importance into two groups, as determined by the research team. These are shown in Table 5.1. Within the groups, these characteristics are shown in the order in which they might appear in a strategy. The complete list of characteristics and the weights given to each in the evaluation are contained in Appendix 11. An explanation of selected strategy components in Table 5.1 follows.

³ Central Hawke’s Bay District, Gisborne District, Kaipara District, Marlborough District, Papakura District, Waimakariri District, Waikato Region, Wellington City and Whangarei District were developing strategies during the latter stages of 2004.

⁴ Including Kapiti District’s walking, cycling and bridleways strategy and Timaru District’s ‘active transport’ strategy which includes pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.

Table 5.1 - Importance of strategy components

Very important*
1.	Data (crashes, Census travel to work, NZ Travel Survey, pedestrian and/or cyclist traffic counts, user satisfaction surveys, data trends)
2.	Vision
3.	Objectives or goals
4.	Policies and/or actions
5.	Quantifiable targets
6.	Monitoring process for implementation
7.	Network plan
8.	Implementation programme
9.	Covers “the 4 Es” (engineering, education, enforcement and encouragement)
10.	Addresses needs for off- and on-road, utilitarian and recreational provision
11.	Relevant walking and cycling groups involved in strategy development
12.	Relevant outside agencies (e.g. Transit, Land Transport NZ, Police, region or district) and others involved in strategy development
Somewhat important*
13.	Identifies prioritisation method(s) or criteria for projects and programmes
14.	Identifies strategy review period (years)
15.	Deals with all road types (including state highways#)
16.	Identifies appropriate design guides or standards
17.	Refers to CROW's five requirements for cycling (coherence, directness, attractiveness, safety, comfort)
18.	Refers to DETR’s five Cs for walking (comfortable, convenient, convivial, conspicuous, connected)
19.	Refers to IHT five point hierarchy for cycling (traffic volume reduction, traffic speed reduction, junction treatment and traffic management, redistribution of the carriageway, cycle lanes and cycle paths)
20.	Discussion of the merits of inter-modal linkages such as bus/bike, ferry/bike or rail/bike transfer options.

* Within each of the groups, these components are shown in a likely sequential order within the strategy rather than in order of importance.
# Or equivalent overseas.

Addresses needs for off- and on-road, utilitarian and recreational provision (item 10 above)

Strategies that focus on just off-road facilities or just recreational walking and cycling will fail to capture the potential for these modes. People may walk or cycle for a range of purposes, perhaps starting walking or cycling for one particular purpose and then broadening their scope of use over time. An off-road path may be used both as a commuter route and for other practical purposes, not just the recreational uses for which it may have been intended. Similarly, much recreational walking and cycling takes place on the road system. Most trip origins and destinations are adjacent to roads. “Every street is a cycling and walking street” is a philosophy for use in planning for walking and cycling which encourages road designers and managers to think about and to attempt to provide for these modes on every street.

All of the strategies to a greater or lesser extent balanced off-road with on-road facilities, and catered for recreational as well as utilitarian walking and cycling. ‘Balance’ does not necessarily imply that equal attention will be paid to off-road and on-road facility provision or that utilitarian and recreational walking and cycling will be given equal attention. Instead, a suitable balance must be found for each strategy based on local users, circumstances and aspirations.

Relevant groups involved in strategy development (items 11 and 12 above)

Public consultation is an essential component for a walking or cycling strategy. This phase, however, can legitimately be done after a draft strategy has been prepared. As many of the New Zealand strategies reviewed were at the draft stage, the research did not evaluate whether public consultation had been undertaken. Nevertheless, even draft strategies should demonstrate that relevant stakeholder groups had been involved in strategy preparation. Typical stakeholder groups include:

• various council departments (works / traffic / roading, parks, planning),
• Transit,
• local road safety co-ordinator,
• Land Transport NZ – Safety,
• New Zealand Police,
• Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC),
• health sector (e.g. District Health Board),
• schools and tertiary education providers,
• local cycling and walking advocacy groups,
• recreational walking and cycling groups,
• sport cycling and athletics groups.

Less directly involved stakeholders should also be included in the process by information bulletins, focus groups or other mechanisms. They may include the Automobile Association (AA), the Road Transport Association, the Bus and Coach Association, BikeNZ, the Cycling Advocates’ Network (CAN), Living Streets Aotearoa (LSA), the Disabled Persons Assembly, Age Concern NZ, Royal NZ Foundation of the Blind, and many others.

Councils typically engage members of the public and/or key walking and cycling groups in the preparation of draft strategies, in a variety of ways. Public consultation is increasingly expected in strategic planning documents within New Zealand, and is a requirement under the LTMA and the Local Government Act 2002. Consultation methods may include press releases, public meetings, focus groups, special strategy preparation working groups, and community board, committee and council meetings.

5.2   Results

Each strategy was reviewed and analysed to determine whether it contained the components identified above. The results of this analysis are shown in Table 5.2. The overseas strategies scored an average of 66%, while the New Zealand strategies scored an average of 56%. The overseas strategies were on average twice as long (90 pages) as the New Zealand ones (45 pages).

Table 5.2 - Results of the strategy analysis

Component		NZ strategies (36)	Overseas strategies (8)	Total (44)
1.	Vision	61%	75%	64%
2.	Objectives of goals	83%	100%	86%
3.	Policies and/or actions	83%	100%	86%
4.	Quantifiable targets	53%	75%	57%
5.	Crash statistics	64%	63%	64%
6.	Other data (Census travel to work, NZ Travel Survey, pedestrian and/or cyclist traffic counts, user satisfaction surveys, data trends)	86%	88%	86%
7.	Network plan	72%	50%	68%
8.	Implementation programme	47%	63%	50%
9.	Covers “the 4 Es” (engineering, education, enforcement and encouragement)	78%	63%	75%
10.	Addresses needs for off- and on-road, utilitarian and recreational provision	94%	100%	95%
11.	Relevant walking and cycling groups involved in strategy development	42%	100%	52%
12.	Relevant outside agencies involved in strategy development	44%	100%	55%
13.	Identifies monitoring process for strategy implementation	56%	63%	57%
14.	Identifies prioritisation method(s) or criteria for projects and programmes	33%	63%	39%
15.	Identifies strategy review period (years)	58%	88%	64%
16.	Deals with all road types (eg state highways and council roads)	61%	100%	68%
17.	Identifies appropriate design guides or standards	69%	63%	68%
18.	Refers to IHT’s 5 point hierarchy for cycling, CROW’s 5 main cycling requirements, or DETR’s walking 5 Cs	36%	13%	32%
Average score (weighted)		56%	66%	58%
Average length of strategy (including appendices)		45 pages	90 pages	53 pages

Note: this table contains some aggregation of characteristics. The complete list of characteristics is contained in Appendix 11.

5.3   Lessons learned from overseas strategies

The overseas strategies contain similar visions, objectives, targets and policies to the New Zealand strategies. Some of the larger centres overseas are likely to be able to bring more resources to the task of preparing strategies, although New Zealand now has an environment where preparation of walking and cycling strategies is seen as a more central part of overall transport strategy development. This has generated a lot of energy around the country for the development of strategies, resulting in some good examples.

A main lesson from the overseas strategies is the link with broader strategies, probably because overseas jurisdictions have been preparing cycling (and to a lesser extent walking) strategies for many years. For example, the NZTS was released in 2002 and the LTMA was passed in 2003. In the USA, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) was passed in 1991, while the UK’s A New Deal for Trunk Transport: Better for Everyone was released in 1998.

These overseas policy documents both changed the emphasis from ‘predict and provide’ policies for road building to more integrated transportation solutions including travel demand management. Similar initiatives were occurring in The Netherlands and Denmark in the early 1990s. Further integration of walking and cycling into mainstream transport planning and provision is likely to be a future dominant theme in New Zealand.

 

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Page created: 7 October 2008