Wellingtonians love their city. It’s relatively compact and a great place to live. With all the benefits of city life as well as the sea, hills, bush and birds. It scores well worldwide for quality of life.
To make living here even better, we’re changing to a more sustainable transport system.
Our goal is to be a city where it’s easy for people of all ages and abilities to choose low or zero carbon transport options. Where kids can get themselves to school in ways that are great for their health and the environment. Where people can easily choose to live without a car if they want, and where our suburban streets are quiet, safe places.
Creating a citywide network of connected bike and scooter routes in tandem with walking improvements and big public transport changes will make that possible.
This is an ambitious plan. We must act swiftly to change how we move around to reduce the city’s carbon emissions and have a comprehensive network in place by 2031. To help us get there, we’ll be making interim improvements where we can, using lower-cost materials and involving local communities.
Changes are being planned or underway on a number of routes including upgrading The Parade in Island Bay, Newtown to the city, the Botanic Garden ki Paekākā to the city and Brooklyn hill. We're also prioritising where and when work will happen on other streets.
As part of decisions made in June 2021 on the Long-term Plan 2021–2031, Councillors agreed to invest $226 million in a safe, connected bike network for the city.
They requested a new plan for how the network could be developed and changes made quickly – to make things safer and easier for more people of all ages and abilities to bike (or scoot), and reduce transport carbon emissions as part of Te Atakura, the city’s climate action plan.
Paneke Pōneke updates the 2015 Cycleways Masterplan with much more detail showing the streets that are included in the network and how it will be built.
Following consultation in late 2021, and in response to feedback we received, we've made changes to the bike network plan. The revised plan was approved on 10 March 2022 by Purōrō Āmua, the Planning and Environment Committee. You can see the changes made following consultation in the responses to submissions report.
The network map shows where changes will happen. These are primarily the main routes that people use now to move between suburbs.
The map includes the changes that were approved in response to community feedback. Details about what we heard and the changes that were made as a result are in the responses to submissions report.
Over 300 kids shared their thoughts on riding bikes in Wellington.