Yes, it’s flat, but there’s another crucial reason why so many Christchurch residents ride – the city’s extensive network of cycle lanes.
Simon Kingham’s 9km commute, from Beckenham in south Christchurch to the University of Canterbury west of the CBD, is mostly on cycle lanes. “It’s only the first 400 metres on the road, then it’s cycle lanes the rest of the way.” The geography lecturer and former scientific adviser to the Ministry of Transport has always been a fan of cycling, but as Christchurch’s cycle lanes have become more popular, he’s been joined by others. “There’s still a bit of lycra and high-vis,” he says. “But I’m increasingly seeing people in cargo bikes with kids on the back and people wearing regular clothes.”
Kingham, toting a branded bike helmet from a transport conference in Vancouver, is the kind of transport nerd (and middle-aged man) who’s most likely to be cycling. But the range of ages, abilities and types of bikes he sees is a sign that things have changed. So are the traffic jams. “I’ve talked to people who say sometimes it’s getting to the point where cyclists are missing traffic lights, there are so many people on some of the separated cycleways.” At peak hours, commuting routes like the Strickland Street lane, from the southern part of the city to the CBD, can have more than a dozen cyclists waiting at the lights, a rare sight in other cities.
Fox Bennetts has seen it too. The co-chair of advocacy group Spokes Canterbury has been riding in Christchurch since they moved here around the age of 10. They’re a competitive cyclist, ready to speed with aerodynamic handlebars and experience on cycling tracks, but it’s not just them riding around their suburbs in north Christchurch. “There are a lot of retirees out there on their e-bikes having a grand old time, it’s just wonderful,” they say.
Christchurch certainly has a reputation as the New Zealand city that’s best for cyclists. That’s at least partially because of its geography. “It’s just so easy to bike, it’s so flat,” says Bennetts. Most of New Zealand’s other big cities have big proportions of their populations living on hills. The weather is good, too. “Wellington is windier, Auckland is wetter,” says Kingham. Christchurch, though colder in winter, has more average sunshine hours than either.
But stable weather and the horizontal streets enabled by the Canterbury plains can only get so many people on bikes. What really helps is extensive cycle lanes. “In Christchurch’s case, the earthquake was an opportunity,” Kingham says. In the middle of destruction, the extensive rebuild “allowed us to rethink and invest a lot in infrastructure”, Kingham says. As Christchurch put itself back together, cycle lanes were added as the streets were repaired.
Cycle advocates, at least, believe Christchurch deserves its reputation as the best city in the country for cycling. Cycle Action Network, a national coalition of bike advocacy organisations, hosted its annual meeting CAN-do in Christchurch last weekend, a group of perhaps 30 that surely represented New Zealand’s largest concentration of people likely to use the term “mode shift” in everyday conversation. Naturally, several hours on both days of the conference were dedicated to exploratory bike rides.
“That’s not at all safe – watch for the roundabout exit,” called Stephen Wood, one of the ride leaders, as a group of six (myself included) followed the bike path beside QEII Drive in Christchurch’s northeast. He then turned into the red zone, a reminder of how many of these cycle lanes came to be built: through forces strong enough to require houses to be removed from hundreds of hectares beside the Avon River.
Riders paused to take photos of shared pedestrian and cycle bridges and the timber foundations of the City to Sea shared path, which is in the process of being built (with the first section alone costing $7.6m as part of red zone renewal, Wellington clearly doesn’t have a monopoly on expensive infrastructure linking metropolis and ocean). On the parts that have been finished, there were already kids on skateboards and scooters, families walking and some older people whizzing past on their e-bikes. Phone calls and text updates came in from the other riding groups, who had gone to explore cycle networks to the south and east of the city, and there was a pause to debate the merits of a bike crossing light in the middle of a road, rather than at an intersection.
So where does the city with all the cycle lanes go next? Cycle infrastructure is unevenly distributed; census data shows that while 20% of people in Beckenham, Kingham’s southern suburb, cycle to work, only 3.6% of people in northern suburb Harewood use two wheels to get to work or study. Despite these stark differences, Canterbury has far more cyclist commuters than any other region. In the 2023 census, more than 14,000 people in Canterbury said they were biking to work (compared to around 8,000 in Auckland and 7,000 in Wellington) and more than 12,000 people were biking to education (compared to around 3,000 in Wellington and 7,000 in Auckland). According to transport planning and delivery manager Jacob Bradbury, Christchurch City Council has consulted with local bodies around the country about the technical aspects of building bike lanes, like designing lights that won’t trigger if cyclists move before their green light illuminates. They’ve also used elements of designs from elsewhere to experiment with lower-cost cycle lanes.
In a 2023 city council survey, 34% of respondents said they travelled by bike at least once a month, and 30% of that group said they had increased how frequently they used their bikes. Most agreed that biking was easy. However, the majority of people who said they had been involved in a transport accident in the last 12 months said they were travelling by bike at the time – which is why despite extensive cycleways, there is still a feeling of danger for many when riding. Given that 95% of respondents said they regularly drove (although 21% of those were driving less frequently than 12 months before), it’s clear that having bikes as an option gives people more choices, rather than totally replacing cars.
“Where I live in the northwest, there are no cycleways,” says Bennetts. “Where there are cycleways, there are more people cycling. Where there are no cycleways, there are fewer people cycling – and those people are people like me, who are forced to cycle on busy roads. I’m brave enough to cycle on the road, because I’m a competitive cyclist, and I’m very careful.”
Some of Christchurch’s arterial roads, like Colombo Street in the city, or the four avenues (Moorhouse, Bealey, Fitzgerald and Deans) that bracket the CBD, are busy roads with heaps of traffic. They’re unpleasant to cross on a bike, let alone turn on, if you want to access the big box stores or supermarkets on them. Other places, like Yaldhurst, are difficult to travel to without going on busy, fast roads.
With very little funding from the central government, and lots of other budget cuts putting pressure on councils, the money to connect existing cycle lanes may be wanted elsewhere. The anticipated “Wheels to Wings” cycleway through Papanui has had construction paused after changes to NZTA funding last year meant there wasn’t enough money for the $32m budgeted for its completion. Planned major cycleways and links to the university route and a cycleway through Heathcote also had government co-funding pulled. Bradbury says the council still has allocated funding in its 2024-2034 long-term plan for 13 major cycle routes, but central government funding will be a factor when deciding which ones to prioritise.
While many on the city council are supportive of cycle lanes, Aaron Keown, the councillor for the northern area of Harewood, is not one of them – and not shy about sharing his views on his Facebook page, where he has described people asking for cycleways as a “dictatorship”. Mayor Phil Mauger, meanwhile, has said that he wants to redesign a proposed cycle lane connection to make sure there are more on-street carparks, despite 500 new carparks being built for the new Christchurch pool and recreation centre nearby. The connection is important, says Bennetts. “It’s like with the Orbiter bus route – we have to be able to get from one bus route to the next, from one cycleway to the next, without having to go all the way into town.”
And improved cycle infrastructure has to go beyond just functionality. Kingham points out that for many people, riding a bike is associated with recreation, because it’s fun. “People go on holiday and ride a bike, then get back to the city and jump in a car to go to work,” he says. His favourite part of his commute is the cycle lanes through parks, the green space peaceful and pretty to look at. It’s the kind of experience that no amount of dry statistics about the health and social benefits of cycling can capture, and that routes like the winding, scenic City to Sea path will particularly promote. “People say [increasing cycling numbers] is all about feeling safe, but the next stop is actually enjoying it – because if you enjoy it, you do it.”
