> The government money for the cycle lanes comes mostly from car and fuel taxes:
My experience from the US is no doubt leading me astray.
However, you have mischaracterized your source. It says "Revenue in the NLTF comes from two main sources – fuel taxes and road user charges."
The entry for "Road user charges (net)" says "$6 billion End customers of freight carriers in the prices paid for goods and services. Light diesel vehicle owner payments."
It does not give a breakdown for just cars, and even people without a car pay for goods and services which are transported over roads.
Furthermore, the National Land Transport Fund is not the only organization which funds roads. It took a while to find it, but I see that "Council receive Transport related revenue from several operating streams. These are rates, borrowing and the National
Land Transport Fund (NLTF) subsidy, via the National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) which Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency administer on behalf of the Government." at https://ccc.govt.nz/assets/Documents/The-Council/Plans-Strat... .
You therefore need to include rates and borrowing into the total budget sources.
According to https://www.nzta.govt.nz/planning-and-investment/national-la... , for example, the "Total for Canterbury › Christchurch City Council › Local road maintenance" for the "The total cost of the activity’s phase for all years, including local share" is NZ$ 548,783.1 while the NLTF funding is 32,772.9+35,390.3+40,024.8 = 108,188 or less than 20% of the total cost - if I understand it correctly.
If I understand "Total for Canterbury › Christchurch City Council › Local road improvements" correctly, under 10% is from NLTF funding.
The main entry point to this statistics is https://www.nzta.govt.nz/planning-and-investment/national-la...
That sure seems like far less than half the funding for roads in Christchurch come from car and fuel taxes.
Can you find a better breakdown?
Lastly, look at the breakdown of NLTP funding. "In 2021–24, $24.3 billion of funding is forecast to be managed under the NLTP" of which $910m is "to walking and cycling improvements".
That is 3.7% for walking and cycling.
You wrote that in Christchurch "3% of trips are by bicycle".
Are those numbers pretty proportionate?
Especially given the growth in cycle traffic in Christchurch over the last few years? ("with the city seeing a 30% increase in cycling over the last five years" says https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300918660/back-to-the-cyclo... ).