Palmerston North has a fairly comprehensive 65 km on-road bicycle lane network, particularly in high traffic areas, to make it safer for people to get around the city by bike.
The cycle lane network has been criticised for a number of reasons. Motor traffic is often too fast, and there is no physical barrier between bicyclists and motorists. Most bicycle lanes in the city are marked out with parking spaces for motorist parking, making those lanes 'pointless' and raising the risk of motorists opening car doors into the path of passing bicyclists.
Rebecca Oaten, the so-called 'Helmet Lady' who campaigned nationwide in the late 1980s for a New Zealand bicycle helmet law, is from Palmerston North.
Bus
Five urban buses and one campus bus leave the terminal in Main Street East (in front of Palmerston North Courthouse) at least every half hour. Services are coordinated by Horizons Regional Council and a Masterton-based bus company, Tranzit.
Occasional regional services run to the nearby towns of Linton, Ashhurst and Feilding.
Inter-regional routes are operated by Intercity and Nakedbus. Intercity's routes run south (to Wellington), north (towards Auckland, via Wanganui, Rotorua and Taupo, or Napier) and east (to Masterton) from a terminus at the intersection of Main and Pitt Sts. Naked Bus runs from outside the iSite in The Square.
Air
Palmerston North International Airport in the suburb of Milson, is a secondary international airport. However, there have been no international services since Freedom Air ceased to operate in March 2008, and proposed replacement carrier OzJet cancelled its plans only days before they were due to commence. Palmerston North International Airport's last international flights stopped at around the beginning of 2007.
Domestic services are operated mostly by Air New Zealand.
