With just a week to go before we head to the polling booths, we thought it timely to update our Vote page with a summary of the cycling policies of our political parties. Some of them are stand-out, while some are abysmal.
Go have a look here on the Vote Page, where we also explain why we ranked each party with a particular number of stars.
The best outcome for cycling after 20 September would be in Labour/Green/Maori policies, with NZ First, Internet-Mana and United Future not averse to supporting increased funding.
The worst outcome would arise from National/ACT/Conservative policies.
In essence, it comes down to the centre-right promoting funding on roads to support economic growth, leaving precious little funding for cycling infrastructure. The centre-left take a more holistic view, seeing cycling as fundamentally important in congestion reduction, healthy people, healthy communities, and reducing the contributors to climate change.
We’re struggling to see why the centre-right parties can’t also embrace this view, and encourage them to do so. The health of our people, communities and environment relies on it.
Whatever the Government make-up after 20 September, you can rest assured that Cycle Action will continue to engage with those in power to promote the benefits of cycling, and encourage a tilting of transport funding towards a greater investment in cycling.
Our vision of cycling being an attractive, safe and viable every-day choice for all our communities is far from realised. There’s a lot of work yet to do.
