Cycling is a mode of transport which has historically had high levels of modal share in Wellington, New Zealand. However, the dominance of the car in the city and broader changes in transport patterns have made it a very marginal transport mode by the 21st century. Following a national decline in utility cycling levels post-WW2, cycling as a mode of everyday transport within Wellington began a slow resurgence in the 1970s, and the 2000s saw renewed advocacy and new infrastructure projects.
History 19th century: early days The bicycle was first introduced to Wellington in 1869 with the arrival of the velocipede. In August of that year, a former Wellington Fire Brigade captain rode his velocipede to a blaze, demonstrating its potential as a fast and practical means of transport in an urban setting. Throughout the 1870s, the velocipede dominated streets until it was eventually superseded by the penny-farthing. Wellington had cycling clubs relatively early in New Zealand, with the Wellington Bicycle and Tricycle Club launched in 1881. By the early 1890s, women were also riding bicycles and soon formed their own clubs. A report from 1896 noted that as many as 150 women could regularly be seen cycling in Wellington.
The 1890s saw the arrival of the "safety bicycle," which used a chain drive rather than pedals fixed directly to the front wheel, as on the penny-farthing. Coupled with the newly developed pneumatic tyre, this design made cycling faster, safer, and much more suitable for women and children, quickly establishing the bicycle as an affordable means of personal transport around Wellington. In 1897, Wellington City Council passed a by-law to curb "scorching"—the practice of cycling fast along city streets— by having a maximum speed around corners of 8 miles per hour. That same year, letters to the editor of The Evening Post expressed concern that mixing pedestrians, cyclists, and horse-drawn cars on the same roads, without any form of separation, was becoming increasingly dangerous.
By the late 1890s, public pressure grew for the City Council to provide separate cycle tracks, eight to nine feet wide, along routes such as Clyde Quay, Thorndon Esplanade, Thorndon Quay and a track from Hutt Road to Ngauranga. In 1899, the City Engineer submitted a proposal to the City Council advocating for the construction of a cycle track along Kent and Cambridge Terraces. During this period, cycling had become firmly woven into city life: Oriental Bay was a favourite route for riders, and in winter the Basin Reserve served as a popular place for beginners to learn to cycle.
Female cyclists were often hindered by restrictive dresses, though some—controversially—began adopting knickerbockers or bloomers, influenced by the rational dress movement. By the 1900s cycling had become a major fad in Wellington, embraced by both men and women.
The bicycle was adopted as a practical means of transport; by 1905 police were using bicycles. Tall bicycles were built for use by street lamp lighters. 20th century
In 1901, a proposal was made to establish a legal framework for cyclists to contribute financially to the construction of a cycle track connecting Wellington to Lower Hutt. The proposed annual contribution from each cyclist was five shillings. This proposal received widespread agreement from almost all cyclists in Wellington. That same year, the City Council accepted a tender to construct a cycle track on Clyde Quay, with work scheduled to begin in 1903. When the track was eventually completed, pedestrians used it, leading to conflicts and accidents between them and cyclists.
In 1903 the Hutt Road Improvement Act was passed, recommending a 15-foot-wide cycle track along Hutt Road to connect Wellington with the Hutt Valley. The Railway Department undertook the construction, but instead of building a segregated cycle track, they created a 20-foot-wide shared path for pedestrians and cyclists. Construction commenced in December 1903.
When the Great Depression hit, both bicycle and motor car sales decreased, but the bicycle quickly recovered. By the 1930s, cycle touring had become a popular pastime among Wellingtonians.
From the 1950s, the government invested heavily in motorways. In 1957, Wellington Mayor Frank Kitts announced the construction of a combined pedestrian and cycle subway beneath Wellington Airport. The structure was designed to provide a safe and direct link between Coutts Street in Kilbirnie and Miro Street in Rongotai, areas that would otherwise be divided by the runway expansion. The subway was 798 feet long and 22 feet 8 inches wide. Within this space, a raised pedestrian footpath 5 feet 3 inches wide was provided alongside a 9-foot cycleway at a cost of £NZ81,000.
When Robert Muldoon opened a section of the Wellington motorway in 1978, 75 protesting cyclists rushed into the Terrace Tunnel. The oil shocks of the 1970s triggered the first of several bicycle resurgences. In 1993, 34 percent of people in the Wellington Region had tried cycling at least once over the previous 12 months. In June 1995, Transit New Zealand built a cycleway costing $160,000 under the overbridge on the Ngauranga Gorge road at the Newlands intersection.
In November 1996, the Cycling Action Network (CAN) was founded in Wellington, becoming a leading national voice for cycling advocacy. Since then, CAN has championed safer, more accessible cycling infrastructure across Wellington and New Zealand.
In June 1995, Transit New Zealand proposed a two-way off-road cycle path running from Cambridge Terrace to the Terrace Tunnel as part of stage two of the Wellington Inner City Bypass project. The path was eventually completed in 2007, providing a link for cyclists through the bypass corridor. The cycle path alternates between shared and separate spaces, leading to pedestrian conflict.
Mākara Peak Mountain Bike Park opened in 1998, when the Wellington City Council set aside 200 hectares of retired farmland in Karori southwest of Wellington for its development. Work on the park began almost immediately, driven largely by volunteers who planted trees, removed pest animals, and carved out new tracks.
21st century: renewed interest Early in 2001, the City Council planned to install a 2-metre cycle lane on Thorndon Quay, and around 200 people submitted their views, with about 80 opposing it. In April 2002, 40 car parks were removed between Tinakori Road and the railway station to paint a cycle lane between parked vehicles and the traffic lane. By the late 2010s, there was a growing political and institutional appetite in Wellington for a substantially expanded network of separated cycleways. The City Council announced in December 2013 that it would triple the cycling budget from $1.5m to $4.5m. The city's 2015 cycling master-planning laid out a long-term vision. Still, early projects (notably the Island Bay cycleway) generated public controversy and legal challenge, slowing delivery.
Facilities Tactical urbanism
Rather than seeking only high-cost, fully engineered schemes, Wellington adopted a "cheaper, faster, lighter" approach, described as tactical urbanism. This method uses lower-cost materials to deliver routes more quickly, while allowing designs to remain flexible and responsive to community feedback ahead of more permanent changes. Design work and public engagement continued in parallel.
International figures and bodies have highlighted Wellington as an instructive example; Former New York City transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and other city-planning commentators have praised the approach for demonstrating how quickly cities can trial and scale protected infrastructure. The shift followed years of frustration over the over-engineered and costly Island Bay cycleway—part of a 2015 cycling master plan—which stalled at the suburb's edge after prolonged controversy and legal challenges.
In 2021, Councillor Tamatha Paul secured an amendment to Wellington's long-term plan, allocating $226 million over a ten-year period to complete the city’s cycling master plan network. The master plan aimed to create an interconnected network of cycleways linking the city centre with suburbs across Wellington, including Tawa, Johnsonville, Karori, Ōwhiro Bay, Island Bay, Lyall Bay, Seatoun, and Miramar.
Alongside the Council’s investment, the cycling network was to be delivered in partnership with Let's Get Wellington Moving, which planned to install up to 33 km of additional cycling infrastructure, primarily within the CBD.
At the time, Wellington had just 23 km (14 mi) of dedicated cycleways, mainly along the coast. Tactical urbanism techniques—designing and engaging with the public simultaneously—cut build times from the usual 3–10 years to an average of 18 months per cycleway.
Problematic sections were addressed with low-cost, adaptable solutions, while permanent stretches received concrete dividers and tree planters. Practical tweaks were also made to accommodate other road users: speed bumps were reshaped for quicker fire truck exits, a loading zone was created for a car dealership, and barriers outside a bus depot were removed to allow easier bus turns.
By 2023, cycleways serving Newtown to Berhampore, the Botanic Garden, Aro Valley, and Ngaio had been completed. Six additional major cycleway projects were completed in 2024 in Kilbirnie, Thorndon, Karori, Wadestown, and Brooklyn, expanding the network to 73 km, with a target of 166 km (103 mi) by 2030. As of June 2025 38% of the cycling network is now in place.
The first two of the new bike lanes (Newtown to City and Botanic Garden route) cost about NZ$750,000 per kilometre, considerably below the national average of NZ$1.6 million per kilometre, and were delivered in under half the usual time. The Newtown to City route (2.1 km) was completed in under two years with street changes including bus lanes, separated bike lanes, and relocated bus stops.
Te Āti Awa Taranaki Whānui has collaborated with the City Council to incorporate a te ao Māori perspective into the city's cycling infrastructure. Bikeways now feature niho taniwha motifs and other cultural markers intended to acknowledge ancestral narratives and local landscape histories.
Challenges remain. Foodstuffs threatened legal action over a planned route past its Thorndon store. The city's ten-year cycling budget was cut in 2023 from $191 million to $111 million.
Even so, Wellington's programme stands as a rare case study in how quickly a city can roll out extensive cycling infrastructure.
Cycleways Ngauranga By the 1970s, the cycle track wedged between the railway line and the state highway had deteriorated significantly. It had been reduced to a single lane and was cut off at both ends by highway traffic lanes. The surface of the track is very rough for most of its length, with broken glass and other rubbish appearing on it. Most cyclists elected to ride on the highway shoulder towards Wellington, and had no option but to ride on the shoulder towards Petone.Following severe flooding in 2013 and 2015, it became evident that Wellington required a seawall to safeguard the railway line and highway linking the city to the Hutt Valley. In response to these longstanding issues, a solution has now been completed. The construction of a seawall strengthened protection for the railway line and state highway along Wellington Harbour, and created the opportunity to incorporate a shared walking and cycling path along its top, providing a public amenity at relatively little additional cost.