Im supporting cycling

Andy Foster — Vote #1 for Council

ONSLOW-WESTERN

Press Release

I am a regular cyclist and runner.

As Transport Portfolio Leader I was responsible for pushing to get Walking and Cycling Policies (Wellington’s first ever), and following consultation personally made a lot of changes (check out the drafts versus the final), picking up a lot of great ideas from submitters to make them much more positive for cycling and walking. I must say that the several hundred submissions on the two policies were all really really positive.

Those policies were passed in November 2008, when of course we just had a change of Government. The Labour Government approach was – if something is in your policy then it’ll get funding support (which at 53% is of course really important). National changed the rules completely, focused very heavily on Roads of National Significance, and NZTA is only now almost in a position to start funding cycle projects. Wellington City certainly has some bids in for specific projects, in fact we had some of those in many months ago.

Backing up the Policy I got the budget for the ‘basics’ lifted in 2009 from $70,000 to $225,000, and then got $250,000 in 2009/10 and $500,000 every year thereafter for ‘Strategic Cycleways/Walkways’ which specifically means the Tawa/Porirua stream project, Great Harbour Way and Middleton Road. So there is real money waiting for what I hope/expect is imminent support from NZTA. Tawa – Porirua Stream is ready to go. That budget bid incidentally passed 9 votes to 6 (voting for Andy Foster, Celia Wade-Brown, Ngaire Best (who lead the original work to get the Tawa feasibility study done), Helene Ritchie, Hayley Wain, Bryan Pepperell, Rob Goulden, Stephanie Cook, Iona Pannett)

We (Celia, myself, Positively Wellington Tourism and the other TLAs) did rescue a bid for a Tourism cycleway from Marlborough to Martinborough. We thought it was a great bid, PWT did a brilliant job, and it had a lot of options to add on – eg round Lake Wairarapa. Unfortunately it wasn’t selected from among something like 70 applications. I will look forward to checking some of those new cycleways out !

So what concrete is happening ?
Thorndon Quay – 2nd time of trying we’ve just put in a morning peak clearway to address one of the most dangerous – high crash rates in the city.
Trial (working well) route up through the Botanic Gardens (Met Office to Cable Car) which has a grunty approach but is a safe route up to the Western Suburbs. Baleana Bay cycleway and allowing uphill cycling on the footpath into Birdwood St (Karori) are going through the traffic resolutions right now. We’re about to start work on the rest of Waterloo Quay down to the cruise ships. Speed limit reductions (Golden Mile and the first suburban centres) are strongly supported by CAW.

What’s coming up as soon as NZTA funding is released ?
Tawa Porirua Stream walkway. I’ve talked to Porirua City and they’ll connect in so over time that’ll get a good route all the way from Takapu Station to Pukerua Bay, as well as improve internal links within Tawa.
Hutt Road footpath – cycleway. We have $225,000 budgeted for that and Thorndon Quay. If the Nguaranga to Aotea capacity changes (motorway) occur then we have the opportunity to grab some space on Hutt Road itself – that’s a bigger later project.
Celia’s been part of an excellent group championing the Great Harbour Way (Pencarrow to Wgtn South Coast right round the harbour) and we both use every opportunity to push for its recognition. You will if either of us have anything to do with it see a lot of progress on that front. The hardest bits will be Petone – Ngauranga (some small but helpful changes made by NZTA at Petone overbridge recently), and getting through/around the Port.
Part of our bid to NZTA includes cycle grates. There’s a whole lot more in there too including Advanced cycle stop boxes, Diamond indicators at signals, Installation of grab rails on islands, Route marking signage, Coloured road surfacing at key locations, Changes to road markings, Use of permanent and/or peak hour parking prohibitions.

When NZTA briefed Councillors a few months ago about options for the Basin, they got a lot of feedback, even from councillors who normally aren’t cycling supporters, that we wanted to see how cyclists and pedestrians are catered for. There’s probably a lot of water to flow under this bridge but the Ngauranga to Airport Strategy specifically says that whatever happens at the Basin it’s first priority is separating NS from EW traffic (ie buses, cycling, walking from traffic). That – not capacity is supposed to be the key objective for the Basin changes. We’ll wait and see !

In Johnsonville ward councillors (Ngaire, Hayley, Helene) and I specifically got a paper on the Council agenda (SPC 17/11/09) having worked with officers to improve the roading plans for the Johnsonville triangle so that when the new Mall development and associated roading changes occur, pedestrians and cyclists are better catered for.

I’ve also been doing some exploring into a Bike Central facility which would feature Cafe/Cycle storage/Repairs/Showers etc. Celia and I have also been working with an interesting bike hire company (Next Bike) who are in Auckland but for the moment the economy is a barrier to expanding into Wellington.

I’ve been nagging for quite some time about signage on bus lanes to indicate that cyclists and motorcyclists are allowed to use bus lanes (not bus only lanes – which are as they say bus only). I know this is a bug bear and that I’m not the only one who’s had a bus driver who didn’t understand cyclists are allowed in bus lanes cut me off. That signage is coming in the next couple of months.

One thing I should add is the multi award winning Makara Peak. I’ve been the councillor who’s been a supporter and member since before the Park started. It is probably the best example of a community group doing a lot of fantastic work, for recreation, conservation, physically work and advocacy. Council’s been a supporter and our rangers do a brilliant job too. I’ve been proud of helping get the land in the first place, later buying the land in the middle of the Park that at one stage threatened to become a gap splitting the Park. Makara Peak was recently judged one of the 10 best MTB destinations – on the Planet ! Awesome ! Of course most Council reserves are now open at least in part for mountain biking.

So some things are being done and a whole lot more – bigger stuff (I’m sure I could’ve added more) is on the way. We’ve got Council money approved. We now need NZTA to come to the party. Cycling in Wellington is on the rise. The Stats prove it (Commuter cordon counts up about 250% in the last decade). There also seems to be a huge increase in the numbers of people recreational cycling. When we did a Council reshuffle at the end of 2009 I specifically kept Cycling and Walking part of Transport because I wanted to keep progress going.

It is really important to make cycling safer and more attractive, and I believe that as we do, more people will take up cycling as a sustainable, healthy and enjoyable form of getting around, and recreation. Please do let others know. The more people who are advocating for improvements for cycling the better.

Pedal on !

Andy Foster
Wellington City Councillor

July 2010

I’m Supporting Cycling

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