Making it easier for everyone to move around 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
Councillors have approved this route for installation - with construction starting at the intersection of The Terrace and Bowen Street from 22 August.
We're rebalancing our existing street space to make it safer and easier for more people to walk, ride, scooter, or use public transport. The Botanic Garden ki Paekākā to city route will be part of the western connection from Karori, and make it safer for many more people to bike/scoot between Tinakori Road and the waterfront. A new bus lane will also mean quicker journeys for people taking the bus.
Overall, the changes along these streets will make things safer and easier for people using this busy route and provide more options for how people can get to and from work, school, or tertiary study, drop kids at day care, visit local shops, sports and recreation, or visit the Botanic Garden ki Paekākā.
Find out how the route is being installed and get the latest updates.
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. Council approved the plans, and work is now underway to install the route with adaptable materials. We expect the route to be completed by mid-January 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.
The changes won’t be perfect or include much landscaping, but will enable more people to go by bike, e-scooter or bus sooner. These changes will be made permanent as part of Let’s Get Wellington Moving’s plans for the central city in the coming years.
Councillors gave approval to consult on a connected citywide bike network that will make streets safer and healthier for everyone, at a meeting of Pūroro Āmua – the Planning and Environment Committee – on 23 September 2021.
At the same meeting, Councillors also voted to get going quickly on two of the critical routes in the bike network - between Newtown and the city and the Botanic Garden ki Paekākā and the city - and develop these using adaptable materials so people can use them, make suggestions, and help to refine the design once they're installed.
Engagement with businesses on the Newtown and Botanic Garden ki Paekākā to city routes started in November 2021.
We worked with technical experts and a stakeholder group to develop the design options and wider feedback was gathered via a public survey and individual conversations with businesses along the route. Data on things like parking use and numbers of people on bikes and buses is being gathered now so we can evaluate the changes in the future.
The bike network plan, Paneke Pōneke, was approved by Councillors on 10 March 2022 following consultation in late 2021.
Then in July 2022, Wellingtonians had the opportunity to provide feedback on the traffic resolution for the changes for the Botanic Garden ki Paekākā to city route. Over 700 pieces of feedback informed the designs that went out for consultation, and Council analysed 638 pieces of feedback from individuals and 17 organisations about these designs, alongside advice from technical experts and the working group.
On Thursday 11 August, at a meeting or Pūroro Āmua, Councillors approved the route with one amendment – extending the peak-hour bus lane by an hour.
You can read a summary feedback report and all public submissions.
A recording of the meeting and minutes are also available on the Council website.
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.
Got questions about this project? Email the team: botanicgardentocity@wcc.govt.nz
Look at the plans, parking management plans, detailed information on the options we considered and more.
Read moreWe'll be monitoring and evaluating the street changes alongside community feedback.
Read moreWe developed a list of possible options that could improve this route. We looked at things from a range of perspectives.
Read more