Where once motorists had been able to sort themselves unofficially into two lanes in the hope of getting to where they were going a little quicker, they were now reduced to one. Traffic jammed up on an unprecedented scale, particularly at weekends. A trip from Takapuna to Devonport that would normally take 10 minutes became at times a 40-minute crawl. Tempers flared. And not just in the Metro office, which has an unusually high proportion of staff living in the area. For several days our city-side-dwelling colleagues had to put up with the morning rant about "what the hell have they done to Lake Rd?"; "How many cyclists do you ever see on Lake Rd anyway?" and "Why do they think Auckland — which is not flat — can be turned into an Amsterdam, which is?"

Invariably the rant would move right along to a bitch about cyclists in general. Or at least it would if I were there. (Blatant declaration of the writer's bias, in case you missed it.) The basic issue: why does a whole line of traffic have to slow down for one fitness-obsessed rider in terrible pants, with a geeky helmet and scant regard for the road rules (although, it must be conceded, nice legs).

And not only that, but those cyclists have this nauseating missionary zeal. They're so self-righteous and pious, claiming to be saving the planet and the health costs of a sedentary lifestyle by reducing a modern city to a bicycle economy.

They have websites where they organise into lobby groups and encourage one another to turn up at community board meetings to discuss installing cycle lanes in areas where they don't live. They write pro-cycling letters to the paper. They smugly circulate research suggesting motorists sitting in traffic are breathing far more polluted air than they are out there on their bicycles.

So the North Shore City Council has a slogan declaring, "Cycling Is For Everyone." Really? The aged? The disabled? Toddlers? Parents transporting 2.5 children? Tradespeople?

Do they really think we all want to arrive at work or a meeting panting and sweating? Can you carry the weekly supermarket shopping home on a bicycle? What if it's raining or blowing a gale? Isn't cycling just a trendy pursuit among a small group of middle-class men and women who want to own the road in their particular way? And now they want to be able to cycle over the Harbour Bridge. Well that shouldn't be an option — it should be compulsory, particularly in high winds with no safety barrier. [That's enough tasteless anti-cyclist bias — Ed]

The steady flow of letters to the local papers, the Devonport Flagstaff and the North Shore Times, suddenly became a deluge. Flagstaff editor Rob Drent says it's the largest amount of correspondence he can remember receiving on a Devonport issue. Opinions were evenly split, he says.

North Shore MP Wayne Mapp weighed in, telling Metro, "There's been too much focus paid to cyclists' needs and not enough to motorists' needs."

He can see the argument for cycle lanes between Esmonde Rd and Hauraki Corner (where road widening is taking place) but no further south than that. As something of a cyclist himself (he's done Taupo, and cycled as a doctoral student at Cambridge University in England), Mapp says the biggest danger for cyclists is turning right at intersections, and cycle lanes do nothing to ameliorate that. When he's cycling he prefers routes on which he only has to turn left. He has, as a result of expressing similar views in the local press, received lengthy emails from the cycling lobby and been invited to go cycling with them. "My view," Mapp says, "is that it's an unsuccessful experiment." He adds, "I don't believe it will encourage people on to bicycles."

It's not just a Devonport issue. Cycle lanes have begun appearing like crop circles all over Greater Auckland (except in Manukau City, which is still a cycling desert or motorists' paradise, depending on your view.)

As happens when car meets bike, a them-and-us mentality quickly emerged in Devonport, as it has elsewhere. One dedicated commuter cyclist told Metro she put her bike away for a period after the cycle lanes were installed because she felt so much hostility from motorists who, after all, pay extra for the roads through registration fees and petrol levies.

Yet not all of Devonport's cyclists are in favour of the Lake Rd cycle lanes; some point out they're poorly designed and therefore dangerous. They stop and start abruptly, particularly outside the shops at Belmont where cars park. In other places they force both cycles and cars towards the centre of the road, when intuitively we both feel safer nearer the kerb. And, hey, haven't we always been advised to keep left? In one part, the cycleway directs cyclists off the road up a steep footpath — a detour most refuse to take. In another, a cycle lane veers up on to the footpath at the exact spot where people stand waiting to cross at a new set of lights.

Local author, teacher and broadcaster Dr John Reynolds has launched, with fellow Devonport resident Colleen Maingay, a petition calling for the cycle lanes to be removed, which they will present to new North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams. Reynolds says that when he stands outside the supermarket collecting signatures he's besieged by people keen to sign it.

He can't understand why a road that hasn't been widened since he was a boy cycling along it to Takapuna Grammar in the 1950s has now effectively been narrowed, despite the huge number of motorists using it.

An average of 39,000 vehicles use Lake Rd each day, while the number of cyclists arguably totals around 300. I say "arguably" because the anti-cycle lobby reckons the recreational cyclists who go out sensibly around 6am before the traffic builds up and cycle in large packs were included in the count, when in fact the lanes are intended for commuter cyclists who, from observation, are about as rare as kiwi in the bush. Cyclist-spotting has become something of a Devonport hobby, with motorists sarcastically announcing, "I saw one".

Community board member Roger Brittenden has been a lonely opponent of the cycle lanes. He says that even if the figures are correct, 300 cyclists account for just 0.75 per cent of the traffic movements along Lake Rd. His point is that this tiny minority has been given a $1 million cycleway (funded 50-50 by ratepayers and Transit New Zealand) at the expense of an increasingly irate majority.

According to the city council's strategic cycle plan, most of the Shore's commuter cyclists live in Devonport, but their number is less than the national average and declined from 1.64 per cent of the population in 1991 to 0.78 per cent a decade later. The council's goal is to double that percentage by 2013 — to get 1.5 per cent of us cycling to work by then.

Brittenden is also concerned about the cycle lanes' safety. even though they passed a safety audit. He says council staff told a community board meeting that the lanes are for experienced cyclists only and are not suitable for anyone younger than 13. He failed in a motion to have that clearly stated to local residents, but did succeed in getting the board to write to local schools telling them there are safety issues for children using the cycle lanes.

That the lanes are suspended at the Belmont shops is his particular concern: "I think it's irresponsible to invite people to use a cycleway, which by its nature suggests a high level of safety, only to find when it gets to the most dangerous section of all, it's suspended. Cyclists are told, `Sorry, you're on your own here, but if you make it through this mayhem of converging traffic, you'll be delighted to know the cycleway restarts 200 metres further on".

Brittenden wants the council to abandon the cycleway along Lake Rd and instead complete and enhance the Green Cycleway, a network of off-road pathways that already link Takapuna to Devonport. He thinks it would be safer and certainly more scenic and the air is sweeter to breathe.

Metro also put this suggestion to city council roading engineer Kit O'Halloran, who has been in charge of the Lake Rd cycleway, but he rejected it instantly. Turns out that commuter cyclists want to get where they're going the fastest, most direct way possible. And that means using the road that motorists are trying to use. Only now we're held up because of the cycleway, and O'Halloran sees nothing wrong with that.

John Reynolds suggests that if cyclists want to get where they're going by the fastest, most direct route, they should buy a car.

O'Halloran is, it turns out, intimately acquainted with the psyche of the commuter cyclist: he's one himself. Now semi-retired, he cycles from his home in Northcote to the council offices in Takapuna for his three-day-a-week job overseeing the installation of cycleways. There is, he says, quite a group of commuter cyclists working at council. Metro spoke to one who lives in Devonport who says she wouldn't use the green route because "that would add 10 minutes to the journey and that's a big difference in my working day". She cycles to save on the cost of parking in Takapuna and says the cycle lanes have made her feel safer on the road.

Far from being a personal crusade, O'Halloran points out the advent of cycleways stems from the government, which wants councils to promote walking and cycling as the lynchpin of its sustainable transport policy. As he says, the government isn't going to give money to widen roads any more. If a council goes looking for funds for roads that don't cater for cyclists, the government is going to ask why not.

Establishing a cycle network on the Shore has meant designing new roads to cater for both cars and cyclists (no quarrel there) as well as converting existing roads for both — the cause of the current argument. Lake Rd, O'Halloran admits, is something of a test case — if it works there they'll do it elsewhere on the Shore.

He thinks the current angst from motorists is temporary and the situation will settle down, especially when other non-cycling-related roadworks are completed. But he firmly believes cars should go slower — less than the speed limit if necessary to make the road safer for cyclists. Quite simply, the authorities Auckland-wide are looking to change the culture from one where the car rules to one where motorists learn to share the road with other, slower, less-predictable users.

This is a philosophy clearly espoused by Auckland's well-organised cycling lobby, Cycle Action Auckland, a not-for-profit organisation begun 12 years ago by cyclists advocating better cycling conditions. Chairman Bevan Woodward is a former corporate high-flyer who in early middle age organised his affairs sufficiently well so he doesn't need to work fulltime; instead he devotes much of his time to cycling advocacy.

In the process he also abandoned his diesel-guzzling, status-symbol SUV — which he drove because "I wanted respect on the road and I wanted people to be impressed" — for bicycles. He owns four, including a folding one he can take on the bus, because getting around Auckland can mean covering some impossibly long distances. Really.

Woodward agrees there's a "them and us" divide between motorists and cyclists, likening the feeling to racism or sexism and implying a little bit of education and enlightenment should solve it.

"At the risk of getting further into trouble," Woodward ventures, "New Zealanders suffer from low self-esteem. We compensate for that by what we drive."

He might have added, by how we drive.

But that, too, can be applied to cyclists, especially the ones who run red lights, or kick the cars as they go by. Woodward acknowledges cyclists aren't always obeying the road rules and encourages them to do so.

After a perfectly convivial chat with Woodward, I reveal that what really gets to me about cyclists is when I'm driving on a busy road, going uphill, with traffic banking up behind me, and am unable to reach the speed limit because there's a cyclist struggling in front of me and I'm unable to get past. Should I really have to tolerate that?

Woodward admits his view on this casts him as a radical, but yes, he says, I should wait and so should all the cars behind me, because the cyclist is taking up minimal space and not polluting the air and therefore has the right of way.

He says he's arguing for balance in the relationship between cars and cycles in Auckland. He not only rides the it's-better-for-the-environment-and-your-health line, he also thinks cycling improves cities.

That was after he was first elected to the North Shore City Council in 1998 on a public transport platform and immediately set about advocating better cycling infrastructure on the Shore. It began as what he calls "a lonely campaign". His fellow councillors and council staff were opposed to cycling and thought only of cars. He found $50,000 in an unused cycling budget and pumped air into it, getting someone hired to advance a cycling strategy.

The main thing you notice is that few are wearing Lycra or even cycle helmets, given they're not compulsory in either place. They're in regular clothes, and they're not hunched over their handlebars as though they're riding for gold in the Tour de France.

No one's quite sure why in New Zealand we equate cycling with having to wear Lycra, although no one would suggest abandoning the helmets, surely.

Cayford doesn't wear Lycra, but his regular work clothes, with clips on his trousers. He says that of the cyclists he sees on the ferry, he's among the 20 per cent not in the shiny stuff. He says he has no need for a shower on arrival. But, no, he doesn't cycle in the rain.

Of course, Copenhagen is flat, but Cayford assures us that with modern gears on bicycles, hills aren't really an issue. Eugene, meanwhile, is a university town famed for its counter-culture sensibilities.

Can you impose a cycling culture on a city that is neither of these things? Cayford argues that if we're going to avoid total gridlock, crippling fuel prices and global warming, we have no choice.

Joel Cayford's wife is Jan Holmes, deputy chair of the Devonport Community Board and, not surprisingly, in favour of cycleways. She's a member of the working party responsible for approving the design, but also — because she drives along Lake Rd more than she cycles along it — she's sensitive to the traffic-flow issues.

Holmes says the initial problems with traffic flow arose because the phasing of the lights at the Bardia St intersection hadn't been altered to get Lake Rd traffic flowing better. She feels badly let down by the council over that, saying it unleashed hostility that's been impossible to quell. She suspects the cycle lanes are being blamed for congestion not of their making.

Holmes says the board went to considerable effort to consult the community and were surprised when detractors complained they'd been taken by surprise. Which suggests people don't oppose cycleways in general, they're just hostile to this one in particular.

There have been other cycleway hotspots where the opposition rallied before the lanes could be established. The well-heeled residents of Kitchener and Hurstmere Rds in Milford have so far staved off a cycleway there. They were furious at the prospect of losing their on-street parking and felt the council's consultation was abysmal.

Community board chairman Martin Lawes says they also felt the need for a cycleway was never satisfactorily demonstrated. He watched the road from 7 to 8.15 one morning and counted three commuter cyclists. "These cycle lanes," he says, "were being pushed through in the belief there would be a need. They were being pushed by council officers and cycle action groups from as far away as Titirangi. We said, `We don't see cyclists; we see queues of cars'."

Even more bitterly fought was the recently completed cycleway along Mt Albert Rd, where early last year both the local community board and residents were presented with the plans as a fait accompli. The loss of on-street parking caused an almighty furore. The community board, which was largely in favour of the project, succeeded in getting council planners to retain one-third of the parking spaces they wanted to abolish. The arguments were familiar, though. Opponents asked, "Have you ever seen a cyclist along Mt Albert Rd?" while proponents assured doubters, "Build it and they will come."

The loss of on-street parking spaces along Lake Rd was less of an issue, arguably because most had gone long ago and those that were left tended to serve mainly lower-income rental properties. It can be a surprise to discover that on-street parking outside your house for your visitors is considered a privilege, not a right. Which means creating a privileged class of people who don't live on arterial routes where the council wants to put cycleways.

Indeed, Maungakiekie Community Board chair Bridget Graham says cycleways are causing an uproar wherever they're planned because of the loss of on-street parking. Unlike those who say it's a privilege, not a right, she believes it is a right because the road is public property.

Right now there's a battle raging between residents of Mays Rd in Onehunga and the council over the loss of parking. The council has offered to install indented parking but that means the loss of the grass verge and some trees in what could be an attractive street. Graham says people don't realise the cycleways are part of the regional cycling policy or understand why the council is "spending millions to accommodate cyclists who aren't there". They don't get the chicken-and-egg argument either. She says the issue has aroused "a certain note of anti-cyclist sentiment".

Because things have so often turned to custard when councils have set about planning cycle lanes, the Auckland Regional Transport Authority brought in an independent consultant to look at what was going wrong. Andrew Stevenson, whose business covers both market research and public consultation by central and local government, looked at eight projects in Auckland and reported on how well they had been handled. Under the terms of his contract he isn't allowed to talk about specifics, and the cycling lobby hasn't been allowed to see his report either. All he can offer is general advice to councils on how to introduce cycleways without provoking a backlash.

Stevenson's first, easy-to-follow piece of advice is for council officers to get the elected representatives involved early. The second step is more complex, but crucial: first hold consultations on the problem, not the solution. This is key. For example, don't go to people and say, "We're putting cycle lanes along Lake Rd. You have 10 days to tell us what you think." Rather, go to them and say, "Lake Rd is congested. We think it would be a good idea to encourage more people to cycle rather than drive. How can we do that?"

Public consultation, Stevenson says, is a big problem for councils. But if they can put up large signs on roads when work starts on them, why can't they put up large signs inviting public discussion about the issues on those roads?

The North Shore Council did tell residents along Lake Rd they could no longer park there, ever, but hasn't told the people most likely to do so — the visitors, who now unwittingly risk a $60 fine because there are no signs telling them not to park.

This year, we're going to see a massive advertising push to encourage motorists to be kinder to cyclists. Billboards, bus-backs and newspaper advertisements will scream, "Hey, we're on the same road. "There'll be Bike Wise Week and Go By Bike Day. There'll be an Auckland City Council-sponsored breakfast for people who cycle to work.

Right now cyclists are in the ascendancy. They trot out a statistic declaring more bicycles than cars were imported in 2006. They're not going away — at least not until it starts raining.

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