A metro map of Wellington’s cycleway network. Image: Joel MacManus, MetroMapMaker.

SocietySeptember 17, 2024

Windbag: How Wellington’s bike network has grown, in three maps

Wellington editor

A metro map of Wellington’s cycleway network. Image: Joel MacManus, MetroMapMaker.

Few cities have ever attempted to build a connected cycling network this quickly.

Windbag is The Spinoff’s Wellington issues column, written by Wellington editor Joel MacManus. It’s made possible thanks to the support of The Spinoff Members.

Wellington’s cycleway debate is an interminable bore. We’ve had the same mind-numbing arguments over and over again for years. Bike lanes are constantly being knocked back by legal cases, budget cuts, and comment section outrage. The pace of change feels incredibly slow when you’re in the middle of it.

Last week, I caught up with Skye Duncan, the executive director of the Global Designing Cities Initiative. Her team was in Wellington offering training and support to council staff as part of the Bloomberg Initiative for Cycling Infrastructure. Wellington was one of 10 cities worldwide that won a grant from the organisation last year.

Bloomberg and the Global Designing Cities Initiative are interested in Wellington’s cycleway programme because it is a rare case study of how quickly a city can build widespread cycling infrastructure. It was a refreshing perspective to note that Wellington is moving at light speed by global standards. Only a small number of cities have ever built a network this large this fast: Seville in Spain, Fortaleza in Brazil, Bogota in Colombia and… that’s about it. London, Paris and New York have all made big moves in recent years but they’re on such a different scale that it’s not a fair comparison.

The theory behind Wellington’s rapid rollout is that people will adopt cycling in much higher numbers once there is a connected network of protected bike lanes that cover most daily trips. To get there as quickly as possible, Wellington City Council is taking a speed-over-quality strategy using cheap plastic barriers and temporary but changeable designs. It’s a shift from the previous approach of expensive, stand-alone cycleways that don’t connect to anything (*cough*Island Bay*cough*).

If the goal is a connected network, what will that look like and how far away is it? None of the maps on the council website answered the question. So I stayed up very late one night making my own and cross-referencing it against a pile of council traffic resolutions, because I guess this is my life now.

Map #1: The future

This is what Wellington’s commuter bike network will look like once all the cycleways under construction or in advanced planning stages are complete.

A map of Wellington’s commuter bike network once current construction is complete (Image: MetroMapMaker/Joel MacManus)

The biggest gap in the network is the city centre. Let’s Get Wellington Moving was supposed to build bike lanes in the CBD while Wellington City Council handled the suburban routes. Since LGWM was shut down, that part of the network has languished. Still, except for the final few streets, almost every suburb will have a direct and protected cycling connection to the city centre.

Map #2: The present

This map shows the current status of Wellington’s bike network. Black lines indicate cycleways under construction. Grey lines represent those in the planning and consultation phase.

The construction status of Wellington’s commuter bike network (Image: MetroMapMaker/Joel MacManus)

The most significant missing piece is Te Ara Tupua, the seawall and cycleway from Ngā Ūranga to Petone being built by Waka Kotahi NZTA, which will connect the city network to the Hutt. Filling the gaps from Newtown to Island Bay and from the Botanical Gardens to Karori will significantly increase the total population the network reaches. Wellington City Council voted last week to defer the Wadestown section, putting the connection to Wilton and Crofton Downs in doubt.

Map #3: The Past

Five years ago, almost none of this existed. I went back through the timeline of projects to see what the cycling network looked like on this day in 2019.

Are you ready?

Are you sure you’re ready?

OK.

Here.

It.

Is.

Wellington’s commuter cycle network circa 2019. Image: MetroMapMaker/Joel MacManus.

The only part of the commuter bike network that existed in 2019 was a short protected lane on the busiest part of Oriental Parade, and an early version of the controversial Island Bay cycleway. The Avalon to Melling section is only listed here because it is part of the Hutt River Trail, though that is primarily a recreational route.

Wellington bike lanes completed since 2019:

Beltway Cycleway (Hutt City Council)
Pito One to Melling (Waka Kotahi NZTA)
Wakely Road shared path
Hutt Road shared path
Ngaio connections
City to Botanical Gardens
Aro Valley connections
Brooklyn transitional bike lane
Newtown to city
Tahitai: Oriental Bay to Miramar (Waka Kotahi NZTA and Wellington City Council)

Currently under construction:

Te Ara Tupua: Ngā Ūranga to Petone (Waka Kotahi NZTA)
Kilbirnie connections
Karori connections
Thorndon connections
Thorndon Quay
Berhampore to Newtown

In the planning or consultation phase:

Wadestown connections
Brooklyn permanent cycle lane
Te Motu Kairangi connections

‘Hutt Valley, Kāpiti, down to the south coast. Our Wellington coverage is powered by members.’

Joel MacManus
— Wellington editor

Keep going!

Photos: Supplied; design The Spinoff

OPINIONSocietySeptember 16, 2024

We deserve to go to school without worrying the roof will fall on us

Orla Sweeney

Guest writer

Photos: Supplied; design The Spinoff

The Ministry of Education knew the biggest building at Wellington Girls’ College wasn’t up to earthquake safety standards, but didn’t inform staff or students they were at risk. That’s not good enough, says year 12 student Orla Sweeney.

Wellington Girls’ College is an all-girls school that was considered decile 10 under the old guidelines and had a pretty good reputation. Minimal press coverage, a good NCEA turnout and some quality reviews from others meant that my parents were happy with sending me there.

One thing to note, though, was that when I arrived, WGC had begun to have some huge building issues. In 2019 the main block, Tower, had been found to meet only 15% of New Building Standards (NBS). The school was told it needed to be torn down for safety reasons and that new classes would be put on the field for the time being. Coming from a primary that had been a building site most of my time there, I thought I would be used to the bashes of hammers and the smell of sawdust, so I walked in on my first day of year 9 with my pinafore far below my knees, a backpack half my size, and a pep in my step. So naive.

While I’ve been at WGC, we’ve been hit with some surprisingly rough stuff. A lockdown in year 9, the parliament protests down the road in year 10, and the teacher strikes in year 11. But coming into year 12, I had this quiet confidence that this was our year. No outbreaks, no riots and no strikes. No disruptions. Turns out I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

We were led to believe that our only earthquake-prone building (one under 34% of NBS) was the Pipitea block and that it was still safe to work in. We continued to learn, blissfully unaware that at any moment, a different roof could collapse on us.

In early August, we found out that a large chunk of our current biggest building, which held up to 360 people, met only 15% of NBS. This was discovered by accident in a document the Board of Trustees learned of in which the Ministry of Education suggested the Brook block may be unsafe and earthquake prone.

When the Ministry of Education found out its Wellington headquarters met only 25% of the building standards, they were very quick to move staff to a new building. The ministry has known about our likely earthquake rating since at least 2020. That’s four years during which they could’ve done something, but instead they sat in silence.

A quote from secretary of education Iona Holsted that stood out was, “We will keep our staff updated and connected throughout the process [of what would happen]”. Why were we not updated about our own building, where more than 360 people could’ve been at risk? A fellow year 12 student, Lucy Hansen, had similar thoughts. “Four years they have known about the risk posed to our students and staff, letting us go to school completely oblivious. Four years. Do our lives mean that little to them?”

In August, Wellington Girls’ students protested by setting up classes on parliament’s lawn (Photo: Supplied)

Why should I feel scared to go to school? I’m pretty sure it’s not a part of the universal high school experience to be afraid that tomorrow will be the day the once-in-a-1,000-year earthquake strikes and the roof collapses on top of me. The ministry has let me down by refusing to address the problem. Our school is already small enough. Unlike our brother school, Wellington College, we do not have a spare field to put prefab classrooms on. The hallways are congested and the heating doesn’t work and the ground is covered in trip hazards. We do not have the time, space or resources to make all these problems go away as quickly and quietly as the Ministry of Education would like.

I’m a student rep, which means we look at the problems in our school and how we can try to lessen them. Once we had come back from derived grades (which had to be held in Sky Stadium due to our lack of space – at least the ministry could arrange this for us), all the reps in my year group got together and had a conversation about what we wanted done. Many suggestions and wishes were thrown into the ring but for most of us it came down to two things. We want the Ministry of Education to apologise and to make a real promise. We deserve a ministry rep to come to our school and assure us that we will get the buildings we deserve. I deserve to go to school in buildings that aren’t at risk of killing me. Future students deserve a school that is safe and sturdy.

We also want the Ministry of Education to say sorry for the way we were treated, and that they will do better. Not only for us, but for all schools across the country. We do not want your apologies that somehow end up pinning the blame on us and absolve all your actions. We want a real apology, where the faults of the Ministry of Education are owned up to by the Ministry of Education. Is that really too much to ask?

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Toby Manhire
— Editor-at-large