It’s fair to say that the current Government hasn’t been a big fan of cycling. So it was something of a minor surprise when about a month ago, Transport Minister Chris Bishop announced a raft of proposed Land Transport Rule changes, including a few that will affect cycling. For better or worse? Well, it depends…
As seems to be the current mantra from this Government, the announcement was couched in terms of “improving productivity”. And to be fair, there do seem to be a number of changes aimed at reducing some administrative burdens around fewer WOF/COF inspections, enabling digital driver licences, electronic notifications from NZTA, etc. But there were also three interesting planned changes to Road User Rules:
- The first is to allow e-scooters to be able to use on-road painted cycle lanes. At present, this isn’t allowed, although they can use paths and separated cycleways (as well as just ordinary roadways). In practice, I tend to see them already often using cycle lanes to scoot around, so it would just be legitimising what has become fairly common practice. And it might possibly mean that we also see fewer of them on adjacent footpaths instead…
- The next proposal is to allow children to ride bikes on footpaths. Although quite common over in Australia, this issue really only got looked at in more detail here around about 2016, with some research into its effects and also a petition started up. It even made it into the Accessible Streets legislation package in 2020 so, after that got quietly scuppered, we might have thought we’d seen the last of it – but apparently not… It’s potentially a contentious issue, especially from walking advocates, but if anything it is likely to help legitimise what already happens a lot in practice when parents aren’t keen on letting their young ones take to the streets on their bikes.
- Finally there is also a planned proposal to introduce a minimum overtaking gap for motorists passing cyclists, and also horse riders. Again, there was research on this back in 2017 and it was also in the ill-fated Accessible Streets package, which proposed a 1m gap on urban roads and a 1.5m gap on rural roads. The recreational horse riding lobby have been very active lately too, ensuring that the on-road rights of horse riders are also considered at the highest levels of government, which is great to see. And in case you need a refresher on the merits of such a Rule for cycling, have a look through this previous Q&A.
The timeframe for these proposed legislation changes is not until early-mid 2026 (noting that many of them had already been previously consulted on with the Accessible Streets package) – let’s hope that this Government is indeed “productive” about getting these over the finish line…
What do you think of the proposed cycling Rule changes?
Good to see children on footpaths is something that’s moving along. The fact that a 4 or 5-year-old legally has to share the road with 10 tonne trucks and buses, just because their bikes’ wheels are a bit bigger than the maximum (very small diameter) for footpath use is absolutely insane
Paying the fine for riding the footpaths with your kids is better than paying the toll for sharing the roads.
Great to see the passing distance is very likely to become law. It has been a very long time coming. Enforcing it will be quite difficult, unless cyclists invest in rear facing video cameras. I have both front and back, and the police are reluctant to judge distance sufficiently to enforce with a fine. It will be interesting to see how this is enforced when it becomes law.
Maybe if all cyclists use a metre marker with a metal tip fixed to their carriers it will encourage drivers to keep their distance? Anybody coming close risks a gouge to their paintwork and quite a bit of expense for repairs.