Ellen Blake from Living Streets Aotearoa has concerns about the Waterloo Quay shared pathway been used by pedestrians and cyclists.

Pedestrians have had enough – they want cyclists off the footpath.

The battle for control of the pavement erupted in Wellington on Thursday when the city council voted to convert a footpath between Westpac Stadium and Wellington Railway Station into a "shared" walking and cycling path.

It was supposed to be a fairly innocuous tweak to the capital's traffic laws. But Living Streets Aotearoa, the national body that advocates for people on foot, was having none of it.

MARION VAN DIJK Kiwis who like to get about on foot are fed up with having to share their footpaths with cyclists.

The organisation's Wellington representative Ellen Blake told councillors that having bikes – or "vehicles" – on the path along Waterloo Quay was putting pedestrians in danger.

Anecdotal evidence suggested a significant number of pedestrians were being struck by cyclists on shared paths across the capital, sometimes by cyclists travelling in excess of 20kmh.

Shared paths were not great facilities for pedestrians, particularly young children, the elderly and the disabled, she said.

Blake also scolded the council for trying to satisfy cyclists' demand for more cycleways by simply allowing them up on to the footpath.

The council was using bylaws to legalise an illegal activity, she said.

"Bikes may be a lot smaller than cars, but some of them can be a lot bigger than a human," she said.

"I don't know why cyclists can't just get off their bikes and push them along footpaths, like they should be doing."

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But Cycle Aware Wellington spokesman Alastair Smith said the organisation saw no problem with having Waterloo Quay as a shared path.

While a separated cycle lane would be more desirable, the route had been operating as a shared path for a number of years without any evidence of conflict between pedestrians and cyclists, he said.

"The layout of the shared path is a boulevard rather than a footpath."

Blake said it had become common in Wellington to see footpaths converted into shared paths, despite those routes not being properly designed to handle a mix of pedestrians and cyclists.

She pointed to Waterloo Quay, Karo Drive, Woodward St, several footpaths in the Johnsonville town centre and the path through the Mt Victoria Tunnel as examples.

The New Zealand Transport Agency was also using the tactic a lot more these days, and Living Streets Aotearoa was starting to notice more shared paths in Auckland and Christchurch, Blake said.

Paul Barker, Wellington City Council's safe and sustainable transport manager, said Waterloo Quay was always intended to be a shared path since the council spent $4m widening it and improving the area in 2010.

The council received very few reports of pedestrians being injured by cyclists, but did get a number of complaints about near-misses, he said.

"They [pedestrians] generally get upset about the 'whoosh' as cyclists fly by."

Blake said it was likely that pedestrian versus cyclist injuries were more common than the council's data suggested.

"It takes a lot of effort to complain about this stuff," she said.

"Pedestrians are some of the most tolerant people. They will get injured and often not report it, and even if they do they're not taken seriously half the time."

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