Double the bike lanes in three years but slowdown ahead

Wednesday, 8 May 2024

Left: cycleway network in 2021. Right: cycleway network by the end of 2025.

Wellington has twice as many bike lanes as it did three years ago, but money problems are ahead for the city’s ambitious cycleway network.

The fast cycleway roll-out – 23km to 51km in just three years – is described as world-leading by cycling advocates but has found pushback in the suburbs. Businesses have bankrolled two court cases against the city council, and staff now require security guards at community consultation events, after volatile interactions.

Mayor Tory Whanau said the rapid progress showed “cycleways work and the more we have, the more people use them”.

Changes on the horizon will make it difficult to continue at pace. Earlier in the year the Government announced the draft Government Policy Statement on transport, which almost halved the funding pool for walking and cycling, forcing councils to compete for less money. (Funding of at least 50% from NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi has been the norm for Wellington’s cycleways.)

Mayor Tory Whanau says funding changes are a real concern. (File photo)

The funding change was a “real concern”, Whanau said. “We know that Wellington’s population is projected to keep growing so if we want to avoid gridlock and meet our climate goals we need to invest now in helping people shift to more walking, cycling and public transport.”

The council’s own budget is an issue too. Although the council approved a plan to build 166km of cycleways back in 2022, only two-thirds of the network (estimated at $334m) was funded.

The draft Long-Term Plan, which will set the budget for the next ten years, has now cut the budget for cycleways by $66m – leaving $111m to deliver the remaining 115km. That budget was made on the assumption there would be “funding assistance from NZTA for all projects”, said council spokesperson Richard MacLean.

One of the new cycleways, along Adelaide Rd in Newtown.

“Once we see the final final National Land Transport Programme (NLTP) in August or September, we will be able further advise on funding options to deliver our on-going transport programme.”

Sarah Free chairs the Regulatory Processes Committee, which has the job of approving various legs of the cycleway network. She said the big picture of how changes in government funding and the Long-Term Plan would affect the cycleways was not yet clear.

“We feel like we’re not completely certain on what funding we’ll get,” Free said.

“I’m pretty keen to see that we prioritise our delivery, obviously we’d like to deliver everything we plan to do, but I think it’s important that we do prioritise the areas where we’ve got gaps, particularly in the CBD.”

Patrick Morgan from Cycling Action Network says the first section of the roll-out has happened at “hypersonic speed”. (File photo)

There was a gap in the central city, which was supposed to be handled by the now-disbanded Let’s Get Wellington Moving. The city council would have to reabsorb that part of the network into its own budget.

Cycleway opponents believed the council needed to re-evaluate the plan. Diane Calvert said the council needs a stocktake of which cycleways it can afford.

Calvert hoped the council would learn from the cycleways it had installed and use that knowledge to consider whether it was getting “the best bang for its buck” on the legs of the network that had been planned.

Cycling advocate Patrick Morgan said the construction of the first 28km network had happened at “hypersonic speed for this council” but he understood a slowdown was around the corner because of the council’s financial headwinds.

“I think the signs are that they can’t go at that speed any more. It’s taken a toll on staff and councillors, so I understand they want to take it a bit easier.”

One signal of the slowdown was the council unexpectedly putting the brakes on the Brooklyn cycleway on Monday night, with chief planning officer Liam Hodgetts citing issues around funding.

Morgan said it was “unacceptable” that the council had promised a permanent cycleway, voted it through earlier in the year, and was now placing it on hold.

“To go back on that is not okay. The temporary materials are showing wear and tear and must be upgraded to permanent infrastructure.”

The project intended to upgrade the temporary bike lane up Brooklyn Rd, installing seven raised pedestrian crossings, changes to some bus stops and a downhill bike route on Ohiro Rd through to Aro Street.

The council said the budget for the project had assumed 51% funding through NZTA. However that hadn’t been confirmed and the change in government policy indicated it might not eventuate.

Katie Underwood, chairperson of the Greater Brooklyn Residents Association, welcomed the decision.

She said there had been a lack of “true and honest consultation” and that the proposal had been over engineered, “didn't really take into account the safety of pedestrians”, and ignored the heavy use of the road by vehicles, including trucks carting rubbish to the tip.

“It was a huge cost for the benefit of very few.”

Meanwhile another Brooklyn resident Alex Gray had last week written to NZTA asking for it to look into three areas of potential non-compliance, and to Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop asking for an independent review of the costs and benefits of the project and for the project to be placed on hold until the review was complete.

He queried the timing of the announcement on Monday, saying residents had been told in April the project was still on track, as agreed by the Regulatory Committee last August.

“We were told nothing could be changed as the amended plans had been approved by Council.”

The Brooklyn project was Wellington City Council’s demonstration project as part of NZTA’s Innovating Streets programme. MacLean said the success of the trial had led to the adoption of Wellington's bike network plan Paneke Pōneke.