Kia ora Bill, There have been two annual updates on these numbers since this post, the latest recently in early January – https://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/2023/01/21/chch-cycle-counter-update-2022-lockdown-jitters/. Even that data is probably out of date, as various counter records have been broken since then during February…

It will be interesting to see what effect bus fares have had (and will do), although I seem to recall that Canterbury had agreed to continue with discounted fares for target groups. In the past I suspect that the development of the cycleway network has certainly attracted new people from bus users as well as motorists, although some early research had identified more take-up from driving – https://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/2017/12/10/are-major-cycleways-working-first-surveys/

Great news we are also getting 100 new buses (electric?). What will a “turn-up and go” bus service do to long-term cycle commuter numbers?
Warm regards Bill G 🙂

Thank you LennyBoy

Hi James, this is based on the actual number of bikes detected crossing the counters – if you cross them twice then you will be counted twice. No different to any motor traffic counter; it just counts what crosses it. It’s not always the case that a simple halving of these counts will give you the number of riders; some people may bike along different routes back and forth, while other people may make multiple trips in a day. Also note that some of the counters only record bikes in one direction only anyway.

There are quite a few other counters that also show a “sag” from mid-2018 to mid-2019, so it doesn’t appear to be just all on one site. But casting our mind back, 2018 was the time that Oxford Tce and Antigua St near the hospital were being reconstructed, which necessitated a number of detours for cyclists. This may have put some people off biking this way at the time?

My cynical reason for choosing Springfield road is that it has a give-way at the top end, not a red stoplight. So I don’t have to wait as long on average. I also strongly dislike the Colombo street lanes – being on the left of parked cars has bitten me before.