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
We’re rebalancing our existing street space to make it safer and easier for people to walk, ride, scoot, or use public transport. The Wadestown Connections project connects Wadestown to the city by making minor street changes to improve the safety and comfort along the route.
These improvements are funded by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Transport Choices programme, formed out of the Emissions Reduction Plan and Budget 2022 to make it easier for people to participate in a low carbon transport system. These essential street changes will make it easier for more of us to be less reliant on our cars and free up space for people who need to drive.
As part of providing a safe and connected citywide bike network, this project is looking at safety improvements to make it easier for more people to get around in low-carbon ways. Wadestown is about a 15-minute ride from the central city.
This project would connect to Thorndon, where street changes have recently been approved to rebalance the street for people walking, biking and on public transport. In the next few years, bike network connections from Wadestown through to Karori and Ngaio are also planned, to make it easier for people to travel between the suburbs. Some minor improvements are planned between Crofton Downs and Wilton later in 2023.
We’re looking at delivering the Wadestown section of Wellington’s bike network in two parts:
We already know there are limited options along the first part given the narrow width of the road. These changes are likely to be minor, so we’re keen to talk with affected residents soon.
In the second part, there’s more to explore with the residents and businesses to understand what will best suit this area – so we want to make sure we have the time to build this understanding together.
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 or sports and recreation.
We know that parts of Wadestown have parking pressures, and so later in 2023 Council will be working more widely with the Wadestown community to look at an area wide parking management plan in line with our Parking Policy 2020.
In town centres, we aim to retain car parking for businesses. Our parking surveys also show that along this part of the bike network route, there are low parking occupancy rates, so we anticipate that that changes we’re looking at are unlikely to have a significant impact on parking availability for residents and businesses in the area.
The changes we’re looking at right now will be interim improvements – so they won’t be perfect or include much landscaping but will make it safer, easier and quicker for more people to go by bike or e-scooter. The designs will be developed by technical experts and will incorporate feedback from key stakeholders and businesses along the route.
We would use adaptable materials like road paint so we can quickly install changes if the design is approved. This means people can start using the route sooner, then make suggestions to help refine the designs once they’re installed. Making changes in this way will help to get the bike network in place as quickly as possible so more people can benefit.
We’re working on designs now that we’ll be able to share with the community later this year.
We’ll be seeking community feedback before taking the plans to Council for approval. If approved, work to install the first section of this route with adaptable materials is likely to begin in early 2024.
Once all the changes are in, we’ll be working hard to gather feedback and data on how it’s going and tweak the designs where necessary. Using feedback and data will inform more permanent changes to follow in the next 5-10 years.
We’re gathering thoughts on things like how safe people feel using the current route, and how people move to/from and around Wadestown. We would love to hear how you currently experience this route, so we can better understand the area and evaluate the changes.
This survey will take about five minutes to complete.
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, you can subscribe for updates.
Got questions about the project? Email us at wadestownconnections@wcc.govt.nz
Wellington is expected to grow over the next 30 years, which will dramatically affect the way our city looks, feels, and operates. If we continue at our current rate of car use, our transport network will grind to a halt.
Our goal is to be a city where people of all ages and abilities can move easily and freely in low-carbon ways. These essential street changes will make it easier for more of us to be less reliant on our cars.
We’re rebalancing our existing street space to make it safer and easier for people to walk, ride, scoot, or use public transport. The changes we’re developing will take time to get used to, but we need to adapt to make sure we can still get around.
In line with Council strategies, policies, and plans, we have developed Paneke Pōneke, a citywide bike network plan. Changes as part of Paneke Pōneke will happen alongside improvements for people walking, scooting, and taking the bus.
Making it safe and easy to bike, walk, and use public transport for everyday trips is key to rapidly cutting emissions in Wellington. It’s vital that we create a connected network, particularly for beginners and less confident riders, as well as people who are experienced riders, so that more of us can get around more often in low carbon ways.
The following strategies, policies, plans and research provide the context for the development of a safe, connected and high-quality bike network alongside other sustainable transport improvements.
Our sustainable hierarchy was first adopted in the Urban Growth Plan 2015 (now superseded by the Spatial Plan). The hierarchy prioritises movement by walking, biking, and public transport, so that our city’s streets work better for people.
The bike network will connect suburbs to the city centre and destinations, helping to get people of various ages and abilities from where they live to where they work, study, shop, and play. Paneke Pōneke, Wellington’s bike network plan, was adopted in March 2022.
We consulted on the bike network plan between 2 November – 14 December 2021 as part of the Our City Tomorrow engagement. This engagement also included the draft District Plan and options for mass rapid transit routes through Let’s Get Wellington Moving.
The Long-term Plan updated the city outcomes and priority objectives. It also provided $226 million over 10 years to develop a bike network. This is supported by investments in Let's Get Wellington Moving, which will provide for safe biking in the city centre and key corridors connecting to the city centre.
The Spatial Plan 2021 provides a blueprint for more housing to accommodate a growing population over the next 30 years. This includes supporting tens of thousands more people to live in the inner-city suburbs and within walking distance of the city centre and rapid transport stops.
A well-connected walking and biking network is key to accommodating more people in the city without adding to car congestion or putting pressure on our bus services.
This plan sets out the strategic direction for transport investment across the Greater Wellington region, including targets to reduce transport emissions and increase the proportion of people walking, biking, and using public transport.
Wellington Regional Land Transport Plan 2021
The Parking Policy provides a framework to guide future decision-making on the management of all Council-controlled parking spaces, and how parking supports achieving the vision for Wellington. The Parking Policy refers to the sustainable transport hierarchy, which gives highest priority to active modes of transport, such as walking, biking, and public transport. This means that when we make decisions on using road space, these active modes take a higher priority to parking.
We aim to become a net zero carbon city by 2050. Road transport emissions represent 34% of our city’s emissions – making them the single biggest source. Electric vehicles alone can’t solve this problem, given their relative expense. Making it safe and easy to bike, walk, and use public transport for everyday trips is key to rapidly cutting emissions in Wellington.
Te Atakura - First to Zero Blueprint and Implementation Plan 2019