Building a Cycling Culture in Wellington

Councillor Sarah Free,

Portfolio Leader, Public Transport, Cycling and Walking

25 March 2017

Fitness and fun

affordable mode of transport

zero carbon

zero air quality impacts

independence for youth and seniors

less road space

less parking space

From a local and central government viewpoint, promoting cycling makes good sense…$37 million to spend in the next three years

The main barriers are perceived safety and lack of dedicated infrastructure

Planned Network

Costs, value for the money

Loss of convenience for motorists

Loss of parking

Fear of change, patch protection

Not seeing a need, low numbers of existing cyclists

We need to answer the “WHY?”

Changing road space allocation is hard for communities

Reported to Police:

But data alone isn’t enough to win people over….

Island Bay Crash Data

Year Total for Island Bay The Parade2016 5 32015 7 32014 17 102013 20 6

Building the Buy-In: Bikes in schools

$200,000 annually

First year: Holy Cross, Karori West and West Park Schools

Last year: Amesbury, Hampton Hill and Houghton Valley Schools

In the pipeline: Scots College, Ridgeway, Chartwell and St Anne’s Schools

“Fitter, healthier, more engaged young people”, (and their whanau)

Mountain biking

BMX track

Kids bike parks

Velodrome

Building the Buy-In: Cycling as Sport

new riders, ownership increasing

Removes barriers of wind and hills

Currently WCC has some walking and cycling tracks open to ebikes- 1 year trial

Building the Buy-In: ebikes will be transformational

Helping build a sense of fun, community and ownership

- Aotearoa Bike Challenge – Wellington continues

- Bike Space continues

- Newtown summer bike workshop series

- Edible garden e-bike tour

- New Zealand Bicycle Film Festival

- Change-makers refugee day

- Electric summer nights

- Girls ride bikes

- Show and Shine swap meet

Some events this summer/autumn

Lets Get Welly Moving results

54% want us to keep up the infrastructure improvements

19% would like to feel safe and confident enough to cycle to work

75% of comments support more improvements for people on bikes

Bike sales are booming and anecdotally more people than ever are riding

Thank you for listening.

Questions?