We first consulted on routes in Kilbirnie in 2018 as part of a wider eastern connections project. Several routes were completed following that consultation including Crawford Road, the Kilbirnie end of Evans Bay Parade, Rongotai Road, and Te Whiti Street.
Paneke Pōneke, Wellington's bike network plan, identified the routes that would fill the gaps in the Kilbirnie network, and better connect the bike paths and lanes that were already in place.
From 2022, we've 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 May 2023, Council approved the plans. Work to install the first stage of the route with adaptable materials is expected to begin in August 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 mid-2022, we began engaging with residents and businesses about planned improvements for people walking, biking or using buses in these streets. These discussions led to numerous changes in the proposed designs we took to the public for consultation.
Following community feedback through this formal consultation, we took our original proposal along with further changes to Koata Hātepe, Council's Regulatory Process Committee, for a decision.
The changes we made to the original proposal as a result of community feedback include:
- changing from proposed separated bike lanes to painted buffered bike lanes on Onepu Road between Wha Street and Lyall Parade, retaining over 50 car parks
- keeping bus stop 6327 in its current location and modifying it to improve accessibility, rather than the proposed relocation outside the Salvation Army.
As part of our early engagement, we worked closely with groups in the community and stakeholders to make changes to the original proposed design.
These groups included:
- Bus services
- Cycle Wellington
- Greater Wellington Regional Council
- Kilbirnie BID (business improvement district)
- Kilbirnie/Lyall Bay/Rongotai residents group
- Let’s Get Wellington Moving
- Living Streets Aotearoa
- Local businesses
- Local Police
- Local schools
- Rita Angus retirement village
- Supermarkets
- Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.