Dr Chris Teo-Sherrell
President, Living Streets Aotearoa

On October 1, several new road rules came into force. One of them allows children up to the age of 12 to ride bicycles and e-bicycles of any size on footpaths.

It also allows people older than 12 to ride with the younger person if they are “supporting that child cyclist’s safety”.

Living Streets Aotearoa (LSA), New Zealand’s pedestrian organisation, wants everyone to be safe using our streets. Our position is that footpaths are for feet – meaning people walking or using mobility devices. Footpaths should be safe and feel safe for all pedestrians, be they young or old, blind or sighted, deaf or able to hear.

And roadways should be made safe for riders of all ages and levels of competence and confidence by installing separated cycleways and by lowering speed limits on most streets to a level the human body can generally survive (ie, 30kmh) if crashed into.

We are very concerned about the way adults have been given permission to ride on footpaths.

The consultation document on the Rule change said that the rule would: “Allow children aged 12 years and under to ride bikes on footpaths”, but specifically stated:

“The proposal doesn’t extend to adults or caregivers riding alongside children. This reflects concerns about the potential impacts of larger riders on other footpath users, particularly people with disabilities, older people, and those with visual impairments.”

LSA was pleased to see this as it reflected some of the concerns we had expressed to Minister of Transport, Chris Bishop when we met with him last year.

However, when the Minister announced that he was approving the footpath cycling rule, we were alarmed to see that it had been expanded to allow adults accompanying children under 12 to also ride on footpaths. This directly contradicted what the public had been told in the consultation document.

A core principle of consultation is that the proposal being considered must be described clearly and in enough detail that people can understand what it is and so be able to reach views on how it would affect them. Since the consultation document said the proposal excluded the possibility of adults doing so, LSA didn’t mention adult cyclists in its submission and many other submitters may have done the same.

The misrepresentation of the proposals and use of a loophole that allows the Government to ignore consultations gives the impression that this Government cannot be trusted.

Such tactics could be used on any number of issues, not just this one, so it has implications well beyond this particular case.

To make things worse, there has been no indication that the Government is going to monitor the impact of the new footpath cycling rule on pedestrians.

Living Streets has set up a reporting form to collect evidence of these incidents. If you have been hit by a rider (bicycle or e-scooter or other vehicle) on the footpath, or had a near miss, or been passed too closely or too quickly for comfort, you are invited to fill out a short form at https://forms.gle/H7kQ8i9w2YJciuWJ8