Top Down: Bike Parking and District Plans

One way to get more bike parking happening in your local area is to ensure great bike parking and end of trip facility provisions are included in the Transport Chapter of your District Plan. If you are successful, this will help ensure new developments / redevelopments requiring consent, need to meet minimum standards for bike parking.

So how do you get Bike Parking and End of Trip Facilities into your District Plan?

Get Bike Parking, Active Transport and Everyday Cycling on the priority list for your council or local authority. The best way to do this is to work with your local bike advocacy group.
Find out when the Transport Chapter is due for review. Watch for the opportunity to provide public submissions on the proposed plan changes.
Write your submission. If you can, take the opportunity to provide an oral submission also.

Tips for your written submission

Link up your submission with objectives and policies of your own council and their regional authority. These might include values/objectives/priorities such as:
- sustainability
- resilience
- health
- lifestyle / liveability / attracting individuals and businesses to reside
- decreased congestion
- local character / local business
Make your business case: what are the benefits of active transport and bike parking. You’ll find supporting information here. CAN submissions can be seen here.
Find relevant examples of ‘best practice’ or at least what other councils are doing, e.g Christchurch, Auckland, Hamilton. There are some comparisons in this presentation, and you can find the detail on each council website.
Be clear and concise on what you support and don’t support about the proposed plan change, then state what you want to see added and why.
Remember the distinction between visitor/short stay bike parking and end of trip facilities for staff/students. Both are important and need to be provided.