John Street to Taranaki Street Connection

About the route

Our work covers the 2.3km route that runs from John Street in Newtown, along Wallace Street, and down Taranaki Street to the waterfront. The work we are planning will tie in with changes planned for the Golden Mile, the Greater Wellington Regional Council and Wellington City Council public transport and cycling projects, and in the longer term, the introduction of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to Wellington. 

This is a key transport route into Wellington’s central city, carrying large numbers of people riding bikes, or travelling in buses and cars. It provides a key connection for people travelling between the southern suburbs and the city, as well as for people travelling from Massey University and Wellington High School. 

The high-frequency Number 3 bus uses this route to take people from Lyall Bay to the Wellington train station. Over 20,000 vehicles travel the route between the Countdown supermarket at the intersection of John Street and Adelaide Road to the waterfront each day, along with a large number of residents who commute to the city by walking. 

The work we are doing

So much traffic in this narrow space makes it feel unsafe for people walking and riding bikes – particularly at peak times – so we are exploring how to make it easier and safer for people to walk, cycle, and use public transport on this route. 

As a key bus route, we have some early ideas about how to make it easier for buses to access bus stops and safer for passengers to get on and off. This work will also consider how best to manage more buses travelling this route as part of the longer-term work on the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project for the city. 

To improve the safety of those on bikes, we are considering creating cycle lanes that link to the wider Paneke Pōneke Bike Network being developed by Wellington City Council. 

We’ve also started thinking about improvements for people who walk, including raised crossings and signals at busy intersections, to make pedestrians more visible to traffic and to slow vehicles down. We also have ideas about possible improvements on side streets where the visibility is poor as it joins main streets, making it safer for people to cross. 

Opening streets up to make them safer and more accessible for buses, cars, and bikes may include removing some on-street parking, so we need to understand the implications of that.  We have ideas about how to minimise impacts to businesses and are working with the Wellington City Council on a parking management plan that includes business and operations in the area. 

Our aim is to balance the needs of all those using the space now and into the future, to help keep traffic flowing for buses, deliveries, and people who need to drive, as well as those who walk or use a bike. 

What happens next?

We will gather feedback from your community and other Wellingtonians, document it and share it with you, so you can see what we have heard and how others experience the walking and transport routes in your area. We will make it available here, on our site, or you can receive it by email, if you sign-up for updates.
 
We will also make the information we have gathered available to the teams working on the designs to improve how people walk, bus, and use their car or bike through the high-traffic route in your area. This will be a key consideration as they develop the design, which we plan to share next year, ahead of construction starting.