Island Bay bike usage slows post cycleway
Island Bay’s controversial cycleway has gently put the brakes on the uptake of commuters cycling in the seaside suburb.
Figures obtained from Wellington City Council show cycling numbers along The Parade during the morning rush-hour rose steadily between the 2006 and 2013 censuses but dropped once the cycleway was completed in early 2016.
Council project manager Phil Becker said the figures ‘‘didn’t lie’’ but he believed a true picture could not be painted until the city had a fully connected cycleway network.
Cycling Action Network’s Patrick Morgan agreed with Becker about the ‘‘network effect’’, and said uptake would rise once there was a continuous route through Newtown.
The council audit involved clicker tracking during a single day between 7am and 9am in February or March each year from 2014 to 2017, recording 95, 124, 109 and 100 trips respectively.
Statistics NZ census figures measuring the old route – including people riding in from neighbouring Owhiro Bay – showed cycling commutes increased 95 per cent from 137 in the 2006 census to 268 in the 2013 census.
Meanwhile, other figures obtained from the council show it spent nearly $240,000 on ‘‘reengagement’’ costs after botching the first version of the $1.6 million cycleway.
Fixing the problems with the cycleway has now been projected to cost up to $7m, with costs still to be refined once detailed designs are completed.
When the options were unveiled in July, some residents were unhappy they did not include simply restoring The Parade to how it was before the cycleway first opened.
Total re-engagement costs were $237,773, including $70,000 to Wellington business design studio Empathy, which touts itself as bringing ‘‘deep expertise in anthropology, product and service design, business strategy and communications’’ by using ‘‘ethnographic research and design-led thinking’’.
Council project manager Phil Becker said the firm was paid as tech support for the council’s independent facilitator to help in the specialist field of participatory design and running the Love The Bay project – a series of workshops and community engagement exercises formed in response to a public backlash against the cycleway.
Auckland-based environmental engineering consultancy Tonkin + Taylor were paid $48,282 for coming up with design options for the soon-to-be reconfigured cycleway, public engagement and market research firm Global Research was paid $23,600, while rest was made up from $68,223 in ‘‘other professional services’’ and $15,278 in ‘‘other costs’’.
Island Bay Residents’ Association president Vicki Greco said she believed the usage audit’s methodology was questionable, and it was unfortunate the cycleway had not been adopted by the community.
Greco also said council officers had undermined the neutrality of the Love The Bay process between cyclists, residents and the council by going on unannounced tours with Empathy and Tonkin + Taylor.
A decision on the cycleway’s future is due to be debated on September 27 at a full council meeting.