https://www.cyclewellington.org.nz/bunny_street_submission_guide

Wellington City Council are seeking feedback on changes to Bunny Street in front of the main train station. Originally slated as a part of Thorndon Connections set of routes, Bunny Street was deprioritised and remains an important location with a lot of people moving through this location.

Have your say. Go to the survey here.

The same survey is asking for feedback for both this location and the Brooklyn Road improvements project. Be prepared for both if you like. We have a complementary guide for Brooklyn Road here

Feedback closes at 5pm, 3 August 2026

Survey questions

Overall, do you support making the proposed changes to Bunny Street?

Select: Support

Do you have any comments to make about the proposed changes to Bunny Street? 

Your response here will display on the consultation website. Some key things you might like to express:

• Share why you think delivering a connected bike network is important to you and / or your family.

• Point out that this project doesn't deliver an appropriate crosstown biking link, instead sending more bike traffic onto the waterfront.

• Council needs to return to a credible strategy to provide a safe cycling network, especially through the central city as they are drafting the next Long Term Plan

• The design needs refining to give greater priority to pedestrians to access our central train station entrance, with a safer midblock crossing and more dedicated pedestrian space.

What is your main relationship to the Bunny Street area?

Answer as appropriate.

How do you normally travel to and through the area?

Answer as appropriate.

Would you like to upload a file in support of your feedback? 

If you want to express more detailed feedback to the council team, create a separate document and upload it to attach to your submission.

Suggested comments:

Bunny Street is problematic for people on bikes due to the excessive number of private cars that routinely compromise the painted bike lane space. It is also an iconic gateway to our city for thousands of people arriving and leaving by train every day. The space here needs to work well for pedestrians first.

The recent opening of Te Ara Tupua has seen a new and significant influx of people riding in and out of the north of Wellington. This uptick is a fantastic proof-point of the network effect of good cycling infrastructure; joining up safe, comfortable routes for people on bikes grows the number of folks willing to get around by bike for their everyday journeys.

While Bunny Street is an important piece of Wellington’s bike network that needs fixing, it is hard to come to terms with the Council failing to continue so much else that is needed for biking. Without a return of a budget from the city and, (especially), central government funding, the remainder of the bike network programme looks unlikely to be finished any time soon. The Golden Mile project has been cancelled. Whatever comes of the fallout from that will obviously be significantly lower quality and possibly not deliver any improvements for cross-town connections by bike.

Wellington needs leaders in government, both local and central, that understand how important it is to enable more people to ride their bikes. For cost of living, for climate action, for public health, mental health, resilient infrastructure and energy, and providing an appealing place to live for everyone, Wellington needs leaders that prioritise making biking better in our city.

People cycling need comfortable, convenient and connected routes through the central city to the east and south. Retaining the magic of our wonderful waterfront requires the city to find space for faster, cross-town cycling journeys elsewhere. Cycle Wellington advocates for repurposing a general traffic lane on the harbour quays, as detailed in the Quays Please campaign. Such a design could connect brilliantly from Bunny Street to the east, but more work will be needed to connect well to Brooklyn Road and Mount Cook.

A downside of the Bunny Street project is that, without more people speaking up, it looks at this point like people on bikes will need to share the central city with cars and trucks as per usual, and / or contest the waterfront with people walking. The treatment that extends around on to Lady Elizabeth Lane reflects what people on bikes often tend to do now. This project solidifies sending more people onto the waterfront, when a better design would start repurposing traffic space on Waterloo Quay.

We need to do better with the space we already allocate to moving through our city. Sending more people cycling onto the waterfront, and the changes needed to make that perform well, expands the space mobility uses which is a missed opportunity to do the right thing.

Design changes

• The main new pedestrian crossing looks too narrow for realistically accommodating the large volumes of people walking out of and into the railway station. This crossing should be at least the same width as the paved concourse that runs through to the station’s main entrance.

• The multiple changes in the surface of the bike lanes seems excessive. Is there a way to have a single raised platform across the entry / exit of the railway dropoff access? Or an up-up, down-down profile (as opposed to up-down, up-down, up-down in the proposed design)?

• The raised platform across Bunny Street without standard crossing stripes does not have the pedestrian priority that would make crossing here safer and more comfortable. A pedestrian priority crossing is needed, as considered in the safety audit. Motor vehicles not needing to access the station can choose to drive via Whitmore St, limiting the extra queuing a crossing could cause, or the pedestrian crossing could be upgraded to a signalised crossing.

• Why do the cyclelanes approaching the pedestrian crossing area need extra red warning level paint treatment and not the road approach? The heavy vehicles approaching and crossing this are far more dangerous than people on bikes are. Returning the paint treatment to standard pedestrian crossing paint would be more familiar, consistent and evenly applied for bikes and cars, as well as being more aesthetically pleasing (if paved / handled nicely).