Making it easier for everyone to move around in our growing city
Connecting the places where people want to go
Opening up our streets for people of all ages and abilities
Reducing our emissions from road transport
Route approved for installation
On 14 December, Koata Hātepe, the Council’s Regulatory Process Committee, approved this route for installation. Work is expected to begin in March 2023. However, as part of routine road maintenance, Raroa Crescent is being resealed in early January. When road markings are repainted, these will include the planned downhill sharrows and sections of uphill cycle shoulder between Chaytor Street and Moana Crescent.
We’re rebalancing our existing street space to make it safer and easier for people to walk, ride, scooter, or use public transport. The Aro Valley connection project will make it easier for more people to bike/scoot into the city from Karori, Highbury, Kelburn and Aro Valley.
Project at a glance
Karori is about 5km from the city via Aro Valley, Kelburn and Northland only 4km, and Aro itself is just a 6-10 minute bike ride into the city centre.
Bus and bike improvements along the route will include:
New street layout with a separated uphill bike lane on Aro Street and Raroa Road
Extended 30km/h zone from 148 Aro Street down to Willis Street
New raised pedestrian crossing by Aro Park and four speed humps introduced on Aro Street
New car share parking spaces on Epuni Street
New mobility car park on Epuni Street
Better bike parking in the shopping village
Footpath widening at the bus stop outside Aro St Cafe
Changes to widen paths through Aro Park and Little Palmer Street to create shared paths
A new bus stop on Raroa Road at the bottom of the Harrold Street path.
Extending the path on Raroa Crescent uphill to Northland Tunnel Road and making it a shared path
Changes to parking on Aro Street, Raroa Road and some side streets - see parking changes for full details.
This project will be delivered in two stages, with the first work starting from April 2023.
Stay in touch and get involved
We're keen to involve the community as we go, so we will be sending updates when there are opportunities to get involved or have your say.
To stay in touch with project progress, sign up to the mailing list.
This is a primary route in the bike network plan, and connects to future planned routes to Karori and Thorndon, as well as planned work down Willis Street through Let's Get Wellington Moving. This will also then connect to the Brooklyn uphill bike lane.
We worked with groups in the community and wider stakeholders to design the improvements along the route. We made changes in response to feedback from the community on the preliminary designs. For full plans, artist impressions, parking impacts and more, see the project details.
We took the proposed plans and community feedback through a traffic resolution consultation. In December 2022, Council approved the plans. Work to install the first stage of the route with adaptable materials is expected to begin in March 2023.
Once all the changes are in, we’ll be working hard to gather feedback on how it’s going and improve things such as signs, street markings, and the position of dividers between the bike lanes and traffic.
From June 2022, we began engaging with residents and businesses about planned improvements for people walking, riding or using buses along this route.
Following discussions with groups in the community and stakeholders, we included the following changes in our proposed designs:
Retaining all short stay parking in the shopping area
Changing one P20 car park to six bike parks in the shopping area
Changing one unrestricted car park to a mobility car park near shopping area
Providing car share parking as an alternative to private car ownership
Proposing a staged approach over two years to make it easier for people to adapt to change in parking availability
Reallocating parking - changing coupon car parks to residents' car parks, and changing unrestricted side street parking to residents' parking
Relocating bus stops to make it easier for people to get on and off buses, and moving one to avoid blocking entrance ramp to Waimapihi Reserve
Installing a new bus stop on Raroa Road
Removing one bus stop outside 47b Aro Street.
As part of our engagement, we’ve worked closely with groups in the community and stakeholders to make changes to the proposed design.