When you put the numbers together, it is not surprising car drivers feel they own the road.
New Zealand is in the top four of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries in terms of car ownership.
"We’re over 800 cars per 1000 people," University of Otago Assoc Prof Ben Wooliscroft says.
The 1000 people in that statistic included everyone, even babies and children too young to own a car.
"We have an excess.
"It’s also very cheap to own a car here.
Dr Wooliscroft, a cyclist who works in the department of marketing and has researched barriers to active transport options, said he regularly spent time in Austria, where the cost of owning a car was "horrendous".
The low cost of ownership in New Zealand meant more people owned cars, and it was easy to keep them on the road for a long time.
Other countries provided incentives to get old cars off the road, or introduced emissions levels, meaning cars were tested and failed if they produced too much pollution.
High vehicle numbers here and a rise in cycling for both health and environmental reasons — as well as council and government initiatives to provide cycling infrastructure — meant roads in New Zealand and overseas were now a place of "stress" between the two transport modes.
"It’s cultural.
"We have conflict between drivers and cyclists, drivers and pedestrians, drivers and trucks and so on, when we have culture of entitlement that is car-centric."
The result in Dunedin has been anger as people struggle to learn to live together on the road.
But Dunedin is just one of many cities across the world trying to promote healthy and sustainable travel.
In Canada, for instance, the Vancouver City Council says despite a 4.6% population increase since 2011, there has been a 32% decrease in the distance driven per person since 2007.
Its Transportation 2040 plan includes strategies to enable more trips to be made by walking, cycling, and public transport. In Austria, the Vienna City Council has reduced the price of annual public transport season tickets and provided "a massive boost to cycling and public transport".
Dr Wooliscroft says Vancouver is a good case study.
He was there 15 years ago when it was "car-dominated".
"They decided to change."
That included reducing traffic in the inner city by pedestrianising some streets, and putting in cycling infrastructure.
There were separated cycle lanes and some streets where the top speed for everyone was 30kmh.
He said people’s behaviour changed, and their attitudes changed.
That needed to happen here, even if it meant supporting the exercise options — and fashion options— of middle-aged men who had taken up cycling.
"We need to be a bit more tolerant about not judging why other people are doing things, and what clothing they’re wearing."
Middle-aged men were the most likely to die of heart attacks.
"This is a group of people who are getting out there, who are doing a low-impact exercise and protecting their health.
"We should be cheering them from the side of the road."
Dunedin also needed to pick up on some of the ideas developed overseas.
He said that a 30kmh speed limit should be introduced in Dunedin’s campus area, running from the one-way system to Anzac Ave.
"That’s best practice all around the world now.
"We don’t need people going through at 50kmh."We have a massive number of students who walk to their lectures. They shouldn’t be exposed to fast traffic."
The speed reduction would mean vehicles would take "a couple of seconds" longer to drive through.
He would also like to see George St as a pedestrian zone.
Mayor Dave Cull said some sort of pedestrianisation of George St was "definitely" on the cards as the city’s central city plan was developed.
He said transport infrastructure was, historically, oriented towards cars, and worldwide it was realised there needed to be a reprioritisation.
"What I would like to see is a greater understanding on the part of the whole community — everyone, not just motorists, not just cyclists — there is a finite amount of space and it has to be shared.
"They do have to recognise the status quo isn’t going to stay the same, it’s not going to be a total priority for motor vehicles as it’s been up to now."
The city would see more changes to roading to reflect that in future.
On a social media post last week Mr Cull called on the city to "move away from this us-versus-them narrative".
He noted road user charges and petrol tax were not the only revenue sources for roads and cycle lanes.
Everybody who paid rates directly, or indirectly through rent, contributed to the cost of local roads and cycleways.
"We all have a right to be there, and we can all be a bit more considerate of and patient with each other."
Kiwis say ...
A survey of 2434 New Zealanders in 2016 found:
• 30% said roads were not for cars first and foremost (29% said they were, 41% neutral).
• 46% thought the Government should prioritise people moving under their own power (walking and cycling) when making roading decisions. (38% neutral, 16% disagreed)
• 76% thought a good public transport system was an indication of a developed nation (19% neutral, 5% disagreed).
• 65% thought New Zealanders needed to change the way they moved about our cities and country (30% neutral and 5% disagreed).
• 40% often feel unsafe on NZ roads (31% neutral, 29% disagreed).
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Comments
Get up, get out of your lazy cars. Step and cycle to it. "What Now!" knew what it was talking about.
I’ve never learned to drive and don’t need car. In fact this is my most careless year ever. I have been in a moving motor vehicle less than 30 times all year. 4 times on a bus, 4 shuttles, 6 taxis and 9 times in private cars. In the next few years I will be buying a cargo bike and then the cars will not be needed at all for shopping, as that makes up over half the reason I need motorised transport.
Never been fitter, lighter or healthier.
Making parts of the Octagon and George St pedestrian makes sense. However, Dunedin's geography and spread out population is different from Vancouver or Vienna. We are not stacked upon one another- thankfully. Try smaller (privately owned and operated) buses/vans and encourage walking. So less need for under-utilised cycle-ways which costs heaps and disrupt traffic.
Blowing huge amounts of money from our rates (approx 10% pa) supporting a bus system that hardly anyone uses off peak (and even peak times except for school students) makes no sense. My gut feeling- less than 1% of Dunedin adults use buses regularly. So why support a service that we do not use or want? Take an Uber, taxi or walk- and we would save heaps from our rates which just keep on going up and up and up every year.
The comparison to Vancouver is flawed as it completely ignores the effect of good public transport. Without such a good public transport system of buses, trains, and ferries I have strong doubts that the reduction in car use would have occurred as significantly.
Look at the public transport system in Dunedin. Where there is any it's very poorly organised and doesn't achieve much in the way of ease of use to get where customers (i.e. us) want to go. Since the most recent timetable and route changes it now takes longer and often requires multiple buses to get to your destination.
Fix the public transport system and more passengers will use it.
No mention of the conflict between cyclists and pedestrians, I see — the 'entitlement culture' of the former certainly wouldn't fit the narrative.
And attempting to equate the Dunedin situation to densely-populated Austria is, well, mischievous.
"We have conflict between drivers and cyclists, drivers and pedestrians, drivers and trucks and so on, when we have culture of entitlement that is car-centric."
We have a NEED to move people and goods around NZ!
The amount of space given to cyclists on our one way system is crazy!
That is the cause of the anger / danger / frustration. Bad design and a sense of entitlement as well as arrogance of the few over the needs of the many.
The number of cyclists using the cycle way on the one way system, I have seen on my many passages each day, I could count on one hand, total!
Totally in favour of walk and cycleways. Totally discussed with the stupidity of mixing them with the only, previously unobstructed route north / south, across the city.
Total madness when so many other decent options are open amongst the side streets.
IMHO the reason for the hate is because the amount of coin spent on. cycle lanes( rate payers and taxes) + the amount of stuff ups + the cyclists not always using them + people see other maintenance services not being done in the city + cycle lanes crossing from one side of the road to the other. Any idiot can put concrete barriers and paint down and call it a cycle way. + lack of other transport options.
What use is a "survey of 2434 NZ'ers" in determining the future of Dunedin transport? Surely only a survey of Dunedin commuters is relevant to this very specific issue. This article is ridiculously one sided and cherry picks all the positives for the for side, and all the negatives for those against. It is ridiculously unfair. The councils attitude on this is that the tail is going to wag the dog regardless of the wishes or needs of the city.
If Professor Wooliscroft thinks my motor vehicle insurance premium is "tiny", he's deluded. Despite never had an accident or made a claim, the premiums keep increasing because, as my Insurance Company says, the cost of parts has increased dramatically. My question was, "why am I paying for everyone else's car parts?" Answer: "that's just the way it is". Not good enough.
The last time I was a passenger in a car on the one way street heading south and commenting about the dangerous concrete obstacles installed by the DCC, what did I see? Two people riding bicycles on the footpath!!! Cyclists are the most selfish, dangerous people it's ever been my misfortune to encounter. They ride 2, 3, and sometimes 4 abreast then get nasty when a vehicle won't pass them because it's too dangerous. It's time their mode of transport was required to be registered.
I will wager that there has never been a road death or injury when a car has been driven legally on our roads? We cannot regulate against every possibility and cyclists and pedestrians must also take responsibility for their actions. Most cyclists own a car but ride like idiots and probably drive in a similar manner.