June 2025 Newsletter
https://www.cyclewellington.org.nz/june_2025_newsletter
Calls to action
Fundraiser quiz night. Join us!
6:30pm sharp. Tuesday 1 July
Mean Doses, Level 1, 66 Tory Street, Te Aro
Cycle Wellington is the grateful receiving charity for the Mean Doses Quiz Night in July. Last year we received more than $1200 to support our work for better biking. Drink beer, have fun, raise money. Please gather your mates, make up a team, and join us there. Register your team here.
Note that: Tuesday 1 July is both a Cycle Wellington meeting and a Mean Doses quiz night. Let’s have a short meeting at the Trust - note the earlier 5:30pm start time - then head across the road for the quiz starting at 6:30 sharp.
Do you ride, walk, or run on Matairangi / Mt Vic trails?
Access to green space is one of the best things about Wellington. Do you ride, walk, or run on Matairangi / Mt Victoria trails for recreation or transport? WCC is reviewing how these tracks are used. What's your experience?
From WCC: "As part of the council decision to approve a new intermediate mountain bike priority track (Te Tuarā o Matairangi), officers were directed to reassess walking and biking trails on Matairangi, and investigate changing some existing trails to walking only. With recent signage upgrades, on-going improvements to track junctions, and Te Tuarā o Matairangi track complete, we now want to understand how different people are currently experiencing shared use."
Please share your experience or questions, so Cycle Wellington can take part in community engagement. Contact Patrick: [email protected]
Upcoming bikeness
Student Sports For All Students
8 - 9am 1 July 2025
Lower Hutt - steps of Parliament
New Zealand homeschooled students are excluded from over 1500 sporting events covering 75 sports. Opportunities available to every other student in NZ. Amelia Twiss (13) and George Fisher (12) are taking a petition to Parliament by bike at the end of this month requesting government funding of sanctioning sports bodies to be conditional on ALL students being allowed to play sport.
They will arrive riding from Lower Hutt at the steps of Parliament to be met by MPs in time for the petition to be tabled during Youth Parliament.
We invite riders to show their support for Amelia and George by helping to escort them into Wellington on the morning of 1 July or join them on the steps of parliament between 8 and 9am. We would love for people of all ages to come out and show their support as they arrive in Wellington. Check out the itinerary here.
Sign and share the petition here.
Next Cycle Wellington Meeting - note the earlier start time!!
5:30pm Tuesday 1 July 2025
Sustainability Trust, 2 Forresters Lane, and online.
Recent goings on
When tacks attack, we fight back
Wellington’s cycling community is fighting back against cycleway tack attacks with magnets, free puncture repairs and solidarity.
For a decade, tacks have been scattered on Wellington’s cycleways. No one has ever been caught, but instead of scaring cyclists away, the attacks have spurred a groundswell.
Once or twice a week, William Sim heads out to sweep the cycleways with a magnetic sweeper. The “metal box with a magnet” collects tacks -- along with other debris like wire and bottle tops.
As well as being a cyclist, Sim owns a commercial cleaning company that grew out of a student cleaning gig. He bought the magnetic sweeper as a trial, he said.
WCC
Amended Long Term Plan adopted - including the budget for the bike network being reduced, and longer timeframes for the remaining network coverage. *sad face*
Limited impact of an investigation into changes to the bike connection on Glenmore Street near the Botanic Gardens. Thankfully the bike lane will not be changed, for now, and instead the council are working to implement time limits to the parking that is already there to improve access for those arriving by private car.
Evans Bay work has started. There will be traffic management, changing conditions etc, so please be patient while work is happening.
Ngaio-Khandallah-Crofton Downs - a shoulder is going to be marked to try and increase visibility of where bikes might be.
Multiple projects in early stages:
- Rugby and Tasman Streets - work is starting on Tasman Street
- Cross-city routes - at concept design stage
- Dixon Street - design progressing
- Cuba St - processing feedback, doing business engagement
Workshop on Harbour Quays bus routes
Councilors recently heard from Greater Wellington Regional Council about work under way to design and deliver an extra route for express buses to move across the central city along the harbour quays.
A route for people on bikes to move through the area more freely is lightly talked about, but it is clear that the council are trying to fit a bike connection off of the road which differs from our hopes captured by the Quays Please proposal. The bike route project (happening separately) is currently in the design phase. If you feel strongly about what shape this route takes it is a good time to get in touch with Councilors or council officers.
Driving more driving through Mount Victoria
The connection between the central city and Hataitai is back in the spotlight again. Recent hearings did not provide any clarity on exactly what form this next iteration of induced demand will take, and whether or not any such project will improve conditions for people not travelling in private cars.
Cycle Wellington is wary of fights erupting over cycling provision for this project. While the walking and cycling facility in the existing tunnel is completely inadequate, we need to avoid wasting efforts and emissions budgets on digging massive tunnels that will do little but increase the number of private vehicle journeys on our roads.
More sensible, sustainable responses are needed; ones that focus on reducing traffic volumes (like congestion pricing), making public and active transport more affordable, accessible, connected, and efficient, and doing better with what we already have. While any new facilities that exclude people on bikes or undermine these priorities would be totally unacceptable, space for cycling should not be used as an enabling factor for an overall bad investment in transport and climate action.
Big tunneling projects for cars risks just digging ourselves into a massive hole, both figuratively and literally. The Government should focus instead on revisiting better funding conditions for active and public transport in Wellington and around the country, as opposed to the terrible settings under the 2024 Transport GPS.
If you feel strongly about this, please consider writing to the Transport Minister, Hon Christopher Bishop and Brett Gliddon from NZTA Waka Kotahi.
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