The options we considered

The aim of Wellington's bike network plan is to create a strategic citywide network of connected bike routes in order to improve safety for people on bikes, incrase the role of cycling in the transport network, and improve environmental and health outcomes. 

Our transport planners developed a long list of possible options for how this route could be improved, looking at things from a range of different perspectives, thinking about all the possibilities and what could be achieved in line with best practice national guidance. 

Aro Street to Chaytor Street

For the length of Aro Street and Raroa Road, the options were whittled down to a short list of three viable options: 

• Option 2B: one-way bike lanes on both sides, and removing all parking
• Option 2C: uphill bike lane only, with people on bikes sharing the downhill lane with general traffic and retaining parking on the downhill side and outside the shops on both sides
• Option 2D: retain the existing street layout so people on bikes would share the uphill and downhill lanes with traffic. This would have no real benefits for anyone. 

All three options include minor improvements for pedestrians and buses. 

Option 2B scored the highest. However, following a detailed parking survey, we’ve gone with Option 2C (an uphill bike lane with people on bikes sharing the downhill lane with traffic, and parking retained on one side). 

For full details, you can read the options considered and multicriteria analysis.

Considerations 

Things that were considered included connections for people on bikes, safety for people walking, bus improvements, street widths, intersections, and the effect on parking. We also considered the medium-to-long term shift to low carbon transport for the Aro Valley community, the importance of parking for Aro businesses and residents, and car share as another way of reducing the need for car ownership, especially for students. 

Things that weren’t part of the assessment of the long list included using a route away from Aro Valley as this connection was confirmed as part of Paneke Pōneke, shared paths (except for short distances where there was no better option), removing trees, and extensive kerb changes to make more space. 

We also looked at the need to improve the conditions for buses, in particular at the narrowest places on Aro Street and Raroa Road that are constrained by having cars parked on both sides of the road. Traffic often has to come to a standstill to allow vehicles to pass. 

As there is currently not enough space for all the cars owned by Aro Street residents to be parked on Aro Street, we have staged this project so they have time to adapt.  

• Stage one would give people living in Aro Valley time to adjust to future parking removal by creating more residents parking on side streets and installing dedicated car share, installing uphill bike lanes and cycle shoulders on Raroa Road as well as sections of uphill separated bike lane on upper Aro Street, removing pinch points for buses and cars, and raising a pedestrian crossing - making it more attractive to walk, bike, and bus.  
• Stages two and three would remove two sections of parking on Aro Street to create space to complete the uphill separated bike lane.  

We also considered the one-way section of Willis Street, from Aro Street to Ghuznee Street, as being particularly unsafe for people trying to ride or scoot to work and that most Aro Street residents already choose the route through Aro Park and Little Palmer Street.

To make sharing this space more enjoyable for all, we are proposing to widen these short sections of path, and designate them as shared paths. 

Improvements to this section of Willis Street will happen as part of Let's Get Wellington Moving's programme.