When Bike Auckland challenged the transport agencies and Auckland Council to turn a disused motorway off-ramp into a path for people to walk, wheel, and bike, they didn’t expect that less than a year later, they would be cycling along a new Auckland icon: Te Ara I Whiti, the Lightpath.
Ten years on, we’re celebrating the impact the Lightpath has had.
That impact includes almost 2 million cycle trips, but not only. Te Ara I Whiti features in countless photographs of the city. It’s a popular destination both for tourist selfies, and for proposals and wedding photoshoots. Its coloured ‘piano keys’ have hosted numerous art installations over its first ten years.
Te Ara I Whiti begins by Upper Queen Street. It crosses the motorway via a bridge and continues to the top of Nelson Street. There, a further protected cycle lane conveys riders into the heart of the city centre. It is now at the core of an ever-expanding connected network of Auckland cycling routes.
The anniversary ride
Close to 100 smiling riders sang happy birthday to the path as they cycled it this morning with Bike Auckland. Many shone in pink as they sported the path’s signature colour.
It was moving to see many of the faces which were at the opening of the path ten years ago. This truly is a people-powered movement for positive change, and a decade of showing your support is so wonderful.
Shoutout to Jo Hallatt, whose idea this event was, and to the volunteers who showed up. Carol Green was our main ride marshall keeping us safe. Simon Murcott captured the event with his camera.
Does the magenta need a touch up?
Shane Henderson is an Auckland Councillor and Deputy Chair of the Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Delivery Committee. Henderson said Te Ara I Whiti was appreciated as much for its uniqueness as a cycleway as for the creativity of the art that plays on its piano-like keys.
“Te Ara I Whiti is a great example of the council seeing an infrastructure conundrum and turning it into a triumph,” he said.
“Bringing innovation to transport solutions like the council group did really well with this, helps us encourage many more people to give different modes a go, mixing the way they move around the city.
“The path has been so popular and so well-used over its first decade, there are plans to look at refreshing it. It’s a good problem to have,” said Cr Henderson.
What can the Lightpath teach us?
Advocacy and sheer people-power made the Lightpath possible. That in turn enabled other great connectors to come into being. Today it sits at the nerve-centre of a growing circuitry of popular shared paths. From these, Aucklanders are linked with destinations across the region. Aucklanders can feel justifiably proud of their unique Lightpath.
The project was a perfect conjunction of visionary leaders who were eager to go boldly forth, and an incredible delivery team. They worked themselves to the edge of exhaustion and beyond to get it built in record time: engineers, artists, and everyone in between.
And the Lightpath has been like a beacon of light. It called Auckland into its next phase and irrevocably changed our cityscape.
In whimsical pink, it’s a joyous ribbon dropped amidst the dark tangle of motorway, a highlight in the largely monochrome cityscape. Photographers feature it in what seems like every beauty shot of the city centre. Tourists and locals alike are excited to experience it. People have their wedding photos taken on it. With its pulsing lights, black steel, huge koru design and incredible views, the design elements immediately elevated it from a thoroughfare to a destination.
Who was involved in creating the Lightpath?
Bike Auckland’s Max Robitzsch put forward the original idea for repurposing the disused Nelson Street offramp for active modes. Later, Barb Cuthbert famously threw a challenge from the floor of a crowded Aotea Centre challenging city leaders to create what would become the Lightpath. Just one year later, it was a reality.
Auckland Council, Auckland Transport and NZ Transport Agency partnered to deliver the project.
The project team worked with Māori artist, Katz Maihi and iwi throughout the urban design stages to ensure the path had a distinctly New Zealand identity.
Pippa Coom shared a more comprehensive list of the many parties who contributed to make Te Ara I Whiti a reality.
Transport Minister, Simon Bridges; Councillor, Chris Darby; Bike Auckland’s Barb Cuthbert and children from nearby Freeman’s Bay Primary School opened the path.
How are we marking the Lightpath’s anniversary?
As well as the 3 December group ride on the Lightpath, Bike Auckland hopes to host a public event for Aucklanders to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the path in mid-summer 2026.
