This blog is run and maintained by Sustainable Wellington Region Transport (sustwelltrans), a group of people from the Wellington region intent on seeing a sustainable, prudent and long-term approach to transport in our region. Our members live in the Hutt, Kapiti, Porirua and Wellington City.
Our view is that the private car – whilst a very useful device – should not be the exclusive focus of transport planning. We need effective public transport, safe cycling and walking, and an investment strategy that delivers better outcomes at lower social, environmental and economic cost.
We work closely with Mayors, councillors and transport agencies to advance a sustainable transport agenda for the Wellington region.
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Sustainable Wellington Transport 
The early planning for the Golden Mile Restoration went ahead without both the WCC Cycling and Walking policies despite their specific “demand management” status as implied by the authors Celia Wade-Brown and Andy Foster. It was dissapointing for the Association concerned with pedestrian health and safety in the Central City of Wellington to learn about this during a hearing in the Environment Court from one of it’s officers Teena Pennington. The City is Ours objectives effectively have been ignored and consequently not met by this omission by council officers. While cycling and walking policies are essential if no one checks to make sure they are implemented at the crucial planning stages of any transport project they are rendered useless. With city’s like Copenhagen and Oslo adopting sinking lid policies on carparks the cycling community has been able to grow and now makes up 36% of all transport modes. This is benificial not only for citizens health but saves on energy costs and wear and tear on public roads.
By: The City is Ours on September 20, 2010
at 10:24 pm
Bikes on Buses
Do you remember the days when prams and bikes were attached to the front of the big red buses in Wellington?
While this early example of integrated transport was abandoned by many New Zealand cities in the 1970s and 80s, there has been a resurgence of interest over the last decade. Today, as part of their cities’ integrated transport planning many US and European cities have modern fold-up bike racks attached to their buses.
In June 2011 Greater Wellington Regional Council (GW) will consider the issue of bikes on buses as a follow up to its release of a bikes on trains policy. GW has been watching with interest the adoption of bike racks on Christchurch bus routes, following their successful trail.
The benefits of bike racks lie in the ability to integrate two modes of transport.
Their availability as a “back-up” service gives budding cyclists confidence to roll out, as well as encouraging car users to switch trips from car to public transport/cycle for their journey.
Bike racks are also great “range extenders”. They encourage people who are not currently on a bus route to start using public transport.
In Christchurch if you’re taking a cycle on the bus rack:
• it’s free to use the bike rack.
• cyclists are responsible for loading and unloading their bike.
• the bike rack takes two bikes at a time.
• racks are designed to carry bikes with wheels larger than 16″ diameter.
• the maximum insured value of any bike on the rack is $1500.
• bus drivers take no responsibility loading, unloading or secure storage of bikes.
If you haven’t seen a modern bike rack in operation then we recommend this short clip: http://www.bicycleracks.com/video/SportworksBikeRacks-Buses_512Kb-640×480.wmv.
The bike racks used in Christchurch cost approximately $2,000 + fitting costs. They will need to be maintained and replaced over time. With more than 100 buses servicing Wellington City alone we will need to be assured that bike racks are cost effective. Tim Hughes, NZTA provides us with some assurance, with calculations indicating that there are nett savings to the community of up to $35 a day for each car commuter that moves to cycling.
We look forward to your views on this subject as we lead in to the Regional Council debate on bike on buses in June 2011.
Daran Ponter Paul Bruce
Regional Councillor Regional Councillor
By: Daran Ponter on April 30, 2011
at 12:54 am
GREAT so I get on the bus with my bike at the Railway Station and I want to get off in Manners Mall but hang on bikes are not allowed here, that means I have to get off either before in Willis Street or after the Mall in Courtenay Place, this is crazy. Offering this service on buses would work well if the same could be said about the trains, in our opinion until that is sorted this could be a “dead duck” and a waste of $ 200K. Considering cyclist used to travel quite happily through the Taranaki/Willis Street precinct now a no go zone, manifesting clearly cycling policies were ignored for a bus-priority despite their demand for management as suggested by their authors Celia Wade-Brown and Andy Foster.
By: The City is Ours on May 2, 2011
at 4:11 pm