Active transport supporters are disappointed to learn the council has delayed, once again, significant investment in Wanaka’s cycle network.

Last week the Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) revealed its draft Long Term Plan (LTP), indicating funding for future projects over the next 10 years from 2021-2031, and while $16M was budgeted for investment in Wanaka’s cycle network, the work on designing and building it won’t start until 2025.

Active Transport Wanaka (ATW) spokesperson Simon Telfer said three years ago the QLDC “promised” Wanaka would receive “meaningful investment” in its safe and separated cycle network.

“We have the vision of a network of protected cycleways in Wanaka. One that gives all of us the choice to safely bike between home, school, work, shop and play,” he said.

This draft LTP, he said, just “kicks the can down the road”.

The planned Mt Aspiring cycleway has now been canned and active transport initiatives aligned with the Wanaka town centre masterplan have been halted, according to the LTP document.

Cycling on safe paths separated from the traffic on Anderson Road has been delayed until 2023.

A continuous shared pathway along the lakefront, from the marina to McDougall St, will now not be completed until 2026 at the earliest. 

During the last LTP consultation process in 2018, 43 per cent of all submissions received related to a comprehensive cycling and walking network, especially in the Upper Clutha, Simon said. 

“The only cycle infrastructure that was fully delivered in Wanaka over the past three years is the SH84 underpass,” he said.

Investment is needed now

Simon said Wanaka is not seeking more money, just a change in priority and a reallocation of the $16M already earmarked for investment in Wanaka.

ATW’s submission to the current LTP process will request council brings forward this substantive investment in Wanaka’s active transport network to 2021-2023.

It also wants to prioritise the building of the long-awaited ‘Schools to Pool’ protected cycleway; to ensure the lakefront shared pathway from the marina to McDougall Street is completed by 2022; and to deliver the long-promised Wanaka active transport business case by August 2021.

“We believe that QLDC can make this happen,” Simon said. 

And to guarantee ongoing investment in the network, he said the LTP should include a funded programme through to 2030 to complete a comprehensive cycle network in Wanaka.

The completion of this shared path along Roys Bay foreshore to the marina, started in October 2018, isn’t scheduled to be complete until 2026.

Increases in urban cycleways and shared paths should also be a key measure of council’s transport performance, ATW says.

“We would like to see developers of new residential subdivisions and commercial precincts be required to link their subdivisions to the Wanaka urban cycle network, not just provide pathways within the development that stop outside the front gate,” Simon added.

Getting serious about climate change

Simon said if the QLDC truly wants to mitigate climate change then embracing walking and cycling is one way to achieve it. 

Road transport accounts for 37 per cent of this district’s greenhouse gas emissions, he said. The QLDC’s climate action plan states a key outcome is to have a “low carbon transport system” with “public transport, walking and cycling [being] everyone’s first travel choice.”

Yet the draft LTP indicates most of the $450M to be spent on transport is focused on motor vehicles with comparatively little invested in active transport. 

He said ATW believes replacing shorter car journeys with walking and cycling was one way for households to reduce individual greenhouse emissions and it was the council’s responsibility to provide protected walking and cycling infrastructure to the community.

Make your voice heard

ATW is encouraging public submissions to the LTP process and has drawn up some submission guidelines which are available on Bike Wanaka’s facebook page.

Submissions can also be made here.

The submissions process is open for only a month and closes at 5.00pm on Monday April 19. 

PHOTOS: Wanaka App