Kevin Stent/Stuff
Cycling advocates want Wellington City Council to increase its cycleways budget by more than $100 million over the next 10 years. (File photo)
A woman hit by a car while cycling in Kilbirnie two years ago is urging Wellington City Council to increase its cycleways spending to improve safety for inexperienced riders. Stephanie Cairns, who was hit by a car at a roundabout on Crawford Rd in 2019, was one of several public submitters on Monday who encouraged the council to commit to its “full” cycleways programme over the next 10 years. That would require the council to find more than $100 million of extra funding in what is already a crammed budget that proposes a 13.5 per cent average rates rise and an increase in borrowing.
Joel MacManus05:00, Apr 30 2021
NZTA
The Ngauranga-to-Petone shared pathway project will receive up to $190 million in funding from Waka Kotahi. (Video first published in September 2019).
The $190 million Ngauranga (Ngā Ūranga) to Petone shared path will cost the equivalent of the entire country’s maximum annual cycling and walking budget, working out at $4.2 million for each 100 metres of cycleway. A large chunk of the extraordinary cost is due to the need to build a new sea wall along 4.5-kilometre-long pathway, and has cycling advocates worried it will leave little money left for the rest of the country. “This a much-needed project, but it will crowd out other worthy projects around the country, and the rest of the country will miss out,” Patrick Morgan of Cycling Action Network said. “Using the walking and cycling budget to fund a seawall is wrong.”
In a statement, Waka Kotahi said more than 700 cyclists currently made the trip between Ngauranga and Petone daily, and that number was expected to triple within the next decade. Patrick Morgan, of Cycling Action Network, said the estimate was a conservative one. “It will be an instant success. This is a reward for years and years of hard work by a lot of people,” he said. “It will be a transformational project, and we will wonder why we didn’t do it decades ago.” Morgan said the announcement would increase pressure on the Hutt and Wellington city councils to improve the safety of access to either side of Te Ara Tupua.
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Walking and cycling track from Wellington to Lower Hutt gets green light
6 Feb, 2021 07:30 AM
2 minutes to read
The project is 4.5km long and 5m wide. Photo / Supplied
RNZ
Approval has been given to build the harbour-side walking and cycling link between Wellington and Lower Hutt.
It is the first project to get the go-ahead under the new Covid fast-track process which largely bypasses the Resource Management Act with the decision made by a panel of experts chaired by an Environment Court judge.
The Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said the Ngā Ūranga to Pito-one section (Ngauranga to Petone) of Te Ara Tupua is the largest walking and cycling project in the region.