{"id":531602,"date":"2026-03-10T18:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531602\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:48:10","slug":"cyclists-frustrated-by-drivers-illegally-parking-on-aucklands-cycle-lanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/531602\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclists frustrated by drivers illegally parking on Auckland&#8217;s cycle lanes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4JRYHJ2_WhatsApp_Image_2026_03_10_at_8_18_58_PM_jpeg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Two vehicles parked on the cycle lane on Orly Avenue near M\u0101ngere town centre.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nTwo vehicles parked on the cycle lane on Orly Avenue near M\u0101ngere town centre.<br \/>\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Luka Forman\n<\/p>\n<p>A South Auckland man who was hit by a car while cycling believes drivers illegally parking on cycle lanes is a safety issue in the area.<\/p>\n<p>He said during busy periods some cycle lanes were clogged up with cars, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/588201\/proposed-road-rule-change-would-endanger-pedestrians-living-streets-aotearoa-says\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">forcing cyclists onto the road<\/a> or footpath.<\/p>\n<p>A cycling advocacy group said it was an issue right across Auckland.<\/p>\n<p>M\u0101ngere man Selwyn Lilley knows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/576372\/cyclist-left-for-dead-in-hit-and-run-feared-he-would-never-walk-again\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the danger cars pose to cyclists<\/a> &#8211; he was hit by one while coming around a roundabout near M\u0101ngere town centre on his bike.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This car came up from Bader Drive and collected me. So I was lucky&#8230; got out of it with just with a couple of cracked ribs and a chipped pelvis. But I spent three weeks on crutches.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lilley no longer cycled for fear of being hit again.<\/p>\n<p>There were now several cycleways covering the area around M\u0101ngere town centre, but Lilley said drivers parking over the lanes were causing problems for cyclists.<\/p>\n<p>Some days it might be one or two cars, he said, but on busy weekends or when there was an event on nearby, whole streets could be clogged up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you have car after car after car where the road is pretty busy. They don&#8217;t take any notification. Then they honk at you and say &#8216;use the cycle lane that&#8217;s what it&#8217;s been built for&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Most people would turn around and say &#8216;hey, we&#8217;ll use the cycle lane but you cars are in the way&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4LEBO9D_MicrosoftTeams_image_6_png.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"787\" alt=\"Auckland councillor Alf Filipaina at the community hub at M\u0101ngere rec centre on Tuesday 31 January.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nManukau councillor Alf Filipaina.<br \/>\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Felix Walton\n<\/p>\n<p>Manukau councillor Alf Filipaina said part of the problem was that there were not enough carparks for families living in new apartments in the area.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll see a lot of the cars parking on the verge, because they don&#8217;t have sufficient car parks &#8230; especially when you&#8217;ve got multiple families in there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hopefully we&#8217;ll have an alternative &#8211; I know they want to get people out of their cars but when you&#8217;ve got the car that&#8217;s for all the family members, there&#8217;s no option.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Filipaina wanted a community campaign to encourage people to make use of the cycle lanes in the area.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s use some of our community people to sort of let them know the benefits. But also realise that sometimes we just can&#8217;t get the bikes for the kids for them to use the cycle lanes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Co-chair of Bike Auckland Karen Hormann said people parking on bike lanes was a problem right across the city.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s forcing people riding bikes, expecting the protection of a cycleway, to be forced out into the traffic. It&#8217;s actually really unsafe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4L1CJ64_karen_hormann_bike_auckland_jpg.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"1637\" alt=\"Bike Auckland chair karen hormann\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nCo-chair of Bike Auckland Karen Hormann.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n<p>It was important to keep on top of the issue because getting people onto different modes of transport was the only way to improve congestion in Auckland, she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Auckland is very congested. And drivers are getting frustrated. They&#8217;re also parking on footpaths and berms and blocking people&#8217;s access. We really need to allow for all of these different mobility modes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Auckland Transport (AT) head of transport and parking compliance, Rick Bidgood, said enforcement with consequences was the only real way to deal with the problem. The fine for parking on a cycle lane was $70.<\/p>\n<p>As cycling was relatively new to Auckland compared to European cities, it would take time for people to recognise it as a real form of transport, Bidgood said.<\/p>\n<p>AT head of active modes Tania Loveridge said when the new stretches of cycleway were being built in Mangere, it ran a targeted communications campaign edcuating people about changes to parking.<\/p>\n<p>There had been an average five percent growth per year in cycling across Auckland over the past three years, Loveridge said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two vehicles parked on the cycle lane on Orly Avenue near M\u0101ngere town centre. Photo: RNZ \/ Luka&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,1590,63,1589,784,44,1591,1588,1586,1587,85],"class_list":["post-531602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-audio","tag-australia","tag-current-affairs","tag-cycling","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}