Wellington City Council has stayed committed to improving cycling on our city streets. Why, when it’s been a real fight?

Quay St, Auckland – would Adelaide Road deserve the same?

Because getting more ordinary people cycling addresses a range of important issues, such as the need to meet our low-carbon commitments, improving traffic flow and safety, and supporting healthy communities.Learning from Island Bay and elsewhere, the Council is now creating a plan for making Mt Cook, Newtown and Berhampore easier to bike around. Last week an initial six-week engagement closed – a new approach which looked much better.

So how did it go?

WCC had received 738 online responses by Tuesday afternoon, plus an unknown number of hard copies. I can’t think of any similar community engagement that has received so many responses. Full credit to WCC for an active engagement process.It appears a wide range of people have had their say, judging from the age split. It’s particularly encouraging to see that one in eleven people responding were aged under 19.

Screen-grab of feedback results on the last day

• better public spaces
• he need to preserve and enhance the character of Riddiford St
• safer traffic speeds in line with other Wellington suburbs
• fix parking (whatever that means)
• provide children the opportunity to get around under their own steam
• support local businesses– cater to population growth
• address rat running.

The timeline: we’re near the beginning