Over the coming months, Wellington plans to upgrade its bus and bike routes to make it easier and safer for people to commute from the suburbs into the city centre, according to Wellington City Council. The New Zealand capital’s bike network plan, Paneke Pōneke, will initially be updated with two transitional bike and bus routes from key suburbs - the first from Newtown and the other from the Wellington Botanic Garden ki Paekākā.
Paneke Pōneke is connected with the Let’s Get Wellington Moving programme (LGWM), a partnership between central and local government that is working to align transport and urban development and help address the climate crisis. The interim changes will integrate with the development of LGWM’s projects, including improvements to footpaths.
According to Councillor Iona Pannett, Chair of the Council’s Planning and Environment Committee, feedback received on Paneke Pōneke showed 87 per cent of residents support or strongly support the plan. She said: “Students, workers, and low-income whānau living along these routes will have more options to get around safely whether that’s by bus, bike or on foot. These are examples of the groups of people we want feeling safe to take up low carbon methods of moving about our city.”
The interim bike and bus lane improvements, which are scheduled to happen between April and September this year, will help inform decisions about permanent upgrades in the future, says the City Council.
