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Wellington City Council Complaints & Information Assurance Team

Dear David

 

Thank you for your request submitted via FYI.org.nz on 15 October 2018
 requesting information about cycleway usage in Wellington City.

 

Our team will manage your request under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 which requires us to respond as soon as
possible, but no later than 13 November 2018.

 

1.    The reference number for your request is IRO-7547.

 

Please contact us if you have any further questions.

 

Kind regards

 

Jessica Hall
Assurance Services Coordinator  | Wellington City Council
| W [1]Wellington.govt.nz | [2]Facebook| [3]Twitter

 

 

The information contained in this email is privileged and confidential and
intended for the addressee only.
If you are not the intended recipient, you are asked to respect that
confidentiality and not disclose, copy or make use of its contents.
If received in error you are asked to destroy this email and contact the
sender immediately. Your assistance is appreciated.

 

References

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1. http://wellington.govt.nz/
2. https://www.facebook.com/wellingtoncityc...
3. http://twitter.com/wgtncc

Hello David,

 

In response to your information request, submitted to the Council through
the fyi.org.nz website, concerning cycleway usage in Wellington City, I am
pleased to be able to provide you with the following information.

 

Since late 2017 we have begun to install electronic counters on key routes
to provide information about the number of trips people are making by bike
in Wellington City.

The data from these counters will give us year-round 24/7 counts, showing
seasonal variations, and what’s happening at different times of the day,
something we haven’t had in the past.

It’s early days, but over time, we want to see how the numbers change as
safer facilities for people on bikes are developed, the population grows,
and we eventually start to have a connected cycle network.  We will also
use data from the counters for planning purposes.

These counters are mainly on the road, or on paths shared by people on
foot and on bikes, because in Wellington we have very few dedicated
cycleways, or facilities specifically for people on bikes. We are however
beginning to plan and develop some dedicated bike paths and lanes that are
separated from traffic.

We are currently collecting cycle counts in 7 locations across the city
with these counts collected via tablet on a monthly basis. This
information is being uploaded to our BikeThere website. Here are the
counts from September:  [1]http://bikethere.org.nz/monthly-biking-s...

In the next couple of months, we will also be putting more comprehensive
information, data and graphs about the counters and what they are
measuring on the Council’s website transportprojects.org.nz. So in the
near future you will be able to keep an eye on that if you are interested
in the figures for specific locations.

Your question was specifically about cycleways. The closest we have at the
moment with a counter would be the one on the Hutt Road shared path, which
recorded 14,318 trips in September. You might also be interested in the
one on the Oriental Bay shared path which recorded 13,947 trips in
September.

In addition to these 7 locations, we are planning to put counters in 12
more locations, with 10 of these scheduled for installation before the end
of 2018.

This second tranche of counters will allow us to fill in the gaps in the
network and gather bike counts in locations where we do not have accurate
bike volumes at the moment, but where there is increasing demand. They
include routes typically taken by people on bikes from the Tawa in the
north and Johnsonville, the west through Kelburn and Northland, from the
south through Island Bay, Berhampore, Newtown, Mount Cook, Brooklyn and
the east through the Mt Victoria Tunnel and Kilbirnie.

Again, most of these counters will be on the road rather than ‘cycleways’.

Of the new locations planned, only Island Bay has any existing facilities
for people on bikes, and at this stage, these facilities don’t connect
through to the city. We plan to improve this route through to the city
over the next few years, so the new counters will allow us to monitor use
through the southern suburbs now, and in the future when safer facilities
are available.

Based on other places around the world, we would expect to see numbers
start to rise once we have made significant improvements to a route that
connects suburbs with the central city.

This will take time, as it is going to take many years to develop a
citywide connected cycle network that people of all ages and abilities
will feel safe using.  

The electronic counters work in a similar way to the vehicle detection
loops we have at signalised intersections to help activate the traffic
signals.

Thin cables are laid into the road or path surface, which feed information
to a logging chamber. The  chamber stores the count data for collection.
The counters detect the electro-magnetic signature of bicycles and
distinguishes them from other vehicles. They can also determine and record
the direction of travel.

In most locations, we are only counting bikes. In a few locations –
typically where the path is shared or the footpath is right next to the
bike path – we also count pedestrians.  At this stage, the counters are
not able to detect carbon fibre bikes.

The Zelt counters are supplied by the French-based company Eco-counter,
which is a world leader in cycle and pedestrian counting technology. Ours
are sourced through an Auckland supplier.

The counters are used by a lot of councils around New Zealand including
Auckland, Christchurch, and many of the regions. The manufacturers supply
this technology to more than 50 countries worldwide, which together have
more than 14,000 counters in place.

I trust this information is of use.

 

Kind regards

 

Chris

Chris Brown | Assurance Advisor | Complaints & Information Assurance |
Wellington City Council
P 04 803 8368
E [2][email address] | W [3]Wellington.govt.nz | [4]Facebook|
[5]Twitter
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From: BUS: Assurance
Sent: Tuesday, 16 October 2018 9:50 a.m.
To: [FOI #8878 email]
Subject: IRO-7547: Official Information request - Cycleway usage

 

Dear David

 

Thank you for your request submitted via FYI.org.nz on 15 October 2018
 requesting information about cycleway usage in Wellington City.

 

Our team will manage your request under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 which requires us to respond as soon as
possible, but no later than 13 November 2018.

 

1.    The reference number for your request is IRO-7547.

 

Please contact us if you have any further questions.

 

Kind regards

 

Jessica Hall
Assurance Services Coordinator  | Wellington City Council
| W [6]Wellington.govt.nz | [7]Facebook| [8]Twitter

 

 

The information contained in this email is privileged and confidential and
intended for the addressee only.
If you are not the intended recipient, you are asked to respect that
confidentiality and not disclose, copy or make use of its contents.
If received in error you are asked to destroy this email and contact the
sender immediately. Your assistance is appreciated.

 

References

Visible links
1. http://bikethere.org.nz/monthly-biking-s...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://wellington.govt.nz/
4. https://www.facebook.com/wellingtoncityc...
5. http://twitter.com/wgtncc
6. http://wellington.govt.nz/
7. https://www.facebook.com/wellingtoncityc...
8. http://twitter.com/wgtncc