Children aged 12 and under will be allowed to ride their bikes on the footpath with an adult riding alongside them, under a package of land transport rule changes the Government confirmed today.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop announced the changes on Thursday after a public consultation that drew feedback from more than 6,000 New Zealanders. The new rules are expected to take effect before the end of 2026, once the necessary Orders in Council are passed.
Under the current rules, it is illegal to ride a bike on a footpath in New Zealand unless you are delivering mail, newspapers or leaflets, or the cycle has wheels smaller than 355 millimetres across. That wheel limit is small enough to rule out almost every standard bicycle, which means most children learning to ride on the footpath today are technically breaking the law, as are the parents walking beside them. The NZ Transport Agency road code spells out those existing limits.
The change makes footpath riding legal for younger children and, importantly, extends the same allowance to the grown up supervising them. That adult can be a parent, a caregiver, a teacher or an older sibling. The Minister said the shift was a practical response to how families already behave.
“Keeping kids safe while they’re learning to ride is common sense,” Bishop said in the Government announcement. “This change strikes the right balance between protecting young cyclists and ensuring footpaths remain safe for everyone who uses them.”
The Minister said one of the clearest messages from the consultation was that letting children ride on the footpath only solved half the problem if the adult riding with them still had to be out on the road. That gap in the original proposal, where a child could legally be on the footpath while a parent could not, was the reason the rule was widened to cover the accompanying rider as well.
Footpath riding for children was not the only measure confirmed. People will now be able to ride e-scooters in cycle lanes, bringing the rules into line with how many riders already use those lanes. Drivers will also have to leave a minimum gap of 1.5 metres when passing cyclists, horse riders and other vulnerable road users, replacing a more complicated set of variable distances. In addition, drivers will be required to give way to buses pulling out of bus stops on roads with a speed limit of 60km/h or lower.
A set of minor technical updates to traffic signs, signals and road markings rounds out the package. One proposal that did not survive was a plan to give councils more power to fine drivers who park on grass berms. The Government dropped that idea after the consultation suggested it would not fix the underlying problem.
Cycling advocates welcomed the footpath decision. Bike Auckland described the move as “absolutely sensible” and said it simply caught the law up to everyday life. “This law formalises what most people already accept as common sense,” the group said.
The advocacy group did question whether the age cut off was set too low, arguing that plenty of older children would also be safer on the footpath than on the road. “An argument can be made for kids older than 12 to be allowed to ride on footpaths,” it said.
On the new passing rule, Bike Auckland supported the 1.5 metre gap but wanted it applied at lower speeds too. The group noted that “one metre isn’t a lot when the passing vehicle is travelling at 50 or 60kmh,” and pushed for the wider gap to apply from 50km/h upwards rather than only above 60km/h.
For families, the footpath change is likely to be the most noticeable part of the package. Parents teaching a young child to ride have long faced an awkward choice between a technically illegal footpath and a road that can feel far too fast and busy for a beginner. The new rule removes that grey area for children up to 12 and gives the supervising adult clear permission to stay alongside them on the path rather than dropping back onto the carriageway.
The change does not turn footpaths into shared cycleways. Pedestrians keep priority, and riders, whether child or adult, are still expected to give way to people on foot and to travel at a sensible pace. The intent, as the Government framed it, is to protect learners without turning quiet suburban footpaths into busy thoroughfares.
None of the changes are in force yet. The Government has said the new rules will be enacted through Orders in Council, a form of secondary legislation, and that it expects them to come into effect before the end of the year. Until then, the existing rules on footpath riding, e-scooters and passing distances still apply.
The road rule package was reported by 1News and RNZ, and detailed in the official Government release.
Will these changes make it easier for your family to teach the kids to ride, or should the footpath rule go further and cover older children too? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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