Global Research 150 Office Rd Merivale Christchurch 8014 New Zealand +64 3 355 4562 www.globalresearch.nz 2 | Page Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Public comment analysis 3 | Page Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Public comment analysis 4 | Page Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Public comment analysis 5 | Page Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Public comment analysis Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) is a joint initiative between Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and the New Zealand Transport Agency. We’re working with the people of Wellington to develop a transport system that improves how the city looks, feels, and functions. Our focus is the area from Ngauranga to the airport, including the Wellington Urban Motorway and connections to the central city, port, hospital, and the eastern and southern suburbs. In 2016 we talked with people around the region to learn what people like and dislike about Wellington and how they get around the city. Using feedback from more than 10,000 people, we developed a set of urban design and transport priniciples to guide our work. We then collected extensive transport data, and used the principles and ideas from the public to develop scenarios to improve Wellington’s transport and support the city’s growth. In November and December 2017, we released four scenarios for Wellington’s transport future and promoted these in a region-wide public engagement programme. The scenarios were presented in the document Have Your Say…on Let’s Get Wellington Moving and on the website yourvoice.getwellymoving.co.nz. As a result, LGWM received 1,994 online and hardcopy-form responses, 147 letter/report style responses (including 55 from stakeholder groups), and 35 Facebook posts. We commissioned Global Research to analyse, collate, and summarise the responses in this report. To learn more about the scenarios and the public engagement programme, or to join our mailing list, please visit www.getwellymoving.co.nz. LGWM will use the feedback from the public engagement to help direct our work and develop a recommended programme of investment. This will lay out LGWM’s preferred approach to Wellington’s transport in the future. We plan to publish our recommended programme of investment and seek the public’s views later this year. Best wishes The Let’s Get Wellington Moving team 6 | Page Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Public comment analysis This report presents the findings of the Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) engagement process, which is focused on the future of Wellington’s transport network. As a result of the public engagement, LGWM received 2,176 contributions from community individuals and organisations, in these amounts: 1,914 online and 80 hard copy LGWM form submissions; 55 letter/report-style submissions from stakeholders; 92 letter/report-style submissions from members of the public; and 35 Facebook comments. This report commences with Let’s Get Wellington Moving key themes, which combines multiple interconnected topics, discussed in detail throughout the report. The presentation of the topics reflects the interconnected nature of challenges and opportunities that the LGWM initiative faces. The next section, Scenario Assessments, presents a synthesis of all the comments that were received by respondents on the four Scenarios, A,B,C,D, in their response to the prompt questions: “What do you like about it?”, “What don’t you like about it?”, “What would you change?” (12 prompt questions); the form responses to the question “Is there anything else you would like to tell us?”; plus, all the stakeholder and the community responses provided in their own response formats. The analysis is divided into six themes: Transport mode discussion; Transport infrastructure discussion; Transport pricing discussion; Future thinking discussion; LGWM delivery discussion, and; Outcomes for Wellington discussion. Note that in answering questions, respondents didn’t solely discuss aspects that they liked in the “What did you like about it?” section or things that they didn’t like in the “What don’t you like about it?” section. We have analysed comments within the section where each comment was made, interpreting answers based on what the respondent stated. For each topic, under each of the six themes, the body of the report first presents a summary of the comments made by stakeholders and community members in their own formats, and then a summary of the responses made to the 12 prompt questions. A synthesis of the comments made in response to each of the 12 prompt questions, on each sub-topic, is presented in the Appendix of the report. There are links provided within the report which take the reader from the summary sections to the full discussions of what respondents liked/didn’t like/would change in each Scenario, and back, if required. Hyper-links attached to page numbers enable the skips between the different report sections. The report then presents, the Analysis of Scenario preferences section. The number of respondents who selected each Scenario in answering the question, “How far would you go?” (options were A,B,C,D or Unsure) is presented in charts and tables. A summary of the comments made by respondents in explaining why they preferred the particular scenario they selected in answering the question “Why?” is 7 | Page Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Public comment analysis then presented. A full synthesis of all the comments made by respondents in answering this question is presented in the Appendix. The final section of the report presents a summary of comments made on key places around the Wellington region. These summaries have been collated from all responses that included comments on these places, in earlier sections of the report. As with the other report sections, a summary is presented in the body of the report and full analysis is provided in the Appendix. The number of points/comments made on each theme and topic are presented throughout. These numbers indicate the weight of discussion on particular issues, making comparisons possible regarding the general amount of interest. The numbers alone do not indicate that a theme or topic is more or less significant than others though. There are many reasons why more comments were received on some topics, and less on others. Reasons included: agreement or disagreement with what was presented in particular scenarios and also the amount of discussion stimulated within the community; for example, light rail received a high level of community interest and subsequent discussion. The numbers though allow a comparison between the relative level of interest respondents had on particular topics, in this phase of LGWM. The reader should be aware that each comment does not contain the same amount of information or detail (some are a few words, while others are a few paragraphs), and so again, the quantification of amounts should be treated as indications of general interest in topics. In the report we have consistently called the amount of discussion on each topic ‘comments’, but depending on the number of words contained in each, they could equally be considered to be ‘points’ or ‘ideas’. The following descriptors have been used throughout the discussions to consistently describe the number of comments made: Very large amount/number of comments = 150+ Large amount = 100–149 Sizeable = 75–99 Substantial amount = 50–74 Considerable amount = 25–49 Moderate amount = 15–24 Several comments = 8–14 Small number = 4–7 Few = 3 Couple = 2 The use of specific portions such as: “half”, “three quarters” or “two thirds” of a particular section, have also been used when appropriate. It is important to note that these proportions are only for the particular section being described, and do not represent the proportion of respondents who hold a particular view point across the whole project. In most cases the topics within each theme are ordered by greatest to least number of comments. The exceptions are when similar topics were considered more informative when grouped together, such as light rail and trams. 8 | Page Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Public comment analysis Direct quotes are included from participants to illustrate specific points; they are italicised and indented from the margins. Each of the 2,177 community and stakeholder contributions has been read and categorised into appropriate topics by Global Research analysists when preparing the findings in this report. This analysis process was assisted by NVivo qualitative analysis software. Similar ideas contained in different comments were organised into common topics. Most comments contained many ideas. In total, over 49,000 ideas were identified in the 2,177 contributions made by individuals and organisations. The analysis enabled a complete and objective presentation of the ideas, points and opinions expressed regarding the proposals presented in each scenario, and the collective aspirations that Wellingtonians have for their future transport network, city and region. 9 | Page Let’s Get Wellington Moving – Public comment analysis The following key themes emerged from all the comments received and the analysis completed on LGWM. They combine the key interconnected topics identified by LGWM respondents and present overarching challenges and opportunities for Wellington City and its transport. Public transport was LGWM’s most discussed topic, with nearly 6,000 points made. Public transport that delivers network improvements through greater reliability; shorter travel time; reduced fares; better routes and timetables; dedicated lanes; and integration of different transport modes, including payment systems, were sought. Often walking, cycling and public transport were grouped together as a collective future solution. A large number of respondents suggested changes to improve the existing bus network, including: encouraging increased passenger use, possibly through reduced fares; better connectivity between the bus service and the wider public transport network (buses and trains); more and better routes, particularly to the North and East; improved passenger and pedestrian comfort and safety, and; improved reliability and efficiency.