Wellington woman Sue Tait has been abused by cyclists as she is forced to park across a bike lane so her disabled husband can get to their house, after the street was stripped of parking.
By Charlotte Cook of RNZ
Over the past three years, Wellington's Aro St had 18 residents' and 52 coupon car parks removed and replaced with an uphill cycleway. That means there was nowhere to pull over safely along the main road through the suburb of Aro Valley.
Tait said the road was a nightmare for some residents.
"It's completely ignoring sick people, disabled people, elderly people, parents."
In 2023, her husband Brennan Wood had a stroke, which left him with pain and limited mobility. The only option now to get him in and out of the house safely was for Tait to pull her car over the cycle lane outside their house.
"I just cannot give a damn because his health is more important to me than some parking meter person coming along."
She said that's exactly what happened a few weeks ago.
"He [the parking warden] came over ready to give me a ticket, and I said, 'what am I supposed to do'?
"And he just took one look at Brennan hobbling back into the house and just walked away. It's shocking."
When the couple purchased the house in 2012, there was parking all along the street.
Now, when they need to use the car, Tait must walk 500 metres to a side street with limited residents' parking, before hopping in the car, driving back to the property, and blocking the cycleway so she can pick up Wood.
The closest mobility park was 200 metres away on Palmer St - but she left that for their neighbour who also needed it.
"This block of houses, three of the four of us are disabled, two with cancer that can hardly walk after they've had treatment.
"You're talking about elderly people, disabled people, tradies and parents of young children all trying to unload, or safely unload, either children or disabled people.
"It's just so short-sighted."
It's not just accessibility, that's the problem; it's the way they were treated, Tait said
As well as judgement from onlookers, some cyclists abuse her or give disapproving looks.
"I say to them... you're able-bodied. You're telling me that if the bus was stopped, you would have abused them, like you just abused me?
"If a cyclist can duck around a bus, or they can duck around that cycle park... they can duck around disabled people."
She said it's not all cyclists.
"The big problem isn't the locals that are going along in their ordinary clothes.
"It really is a white, middle-class, lycra-clad male problem."
Aro Valley retiree Judy Buchanan had lived in the area for nearly 30 years - but the past few had taken a toll.
After surviving cancer treatment, she now had limited mobility, needing a walking stick.
When finding a car park in the area became too hard, she and her partner Brent ditched their car, relying instead on Ubers.
She said it takes "military precision" to get out of the house.
'It's like, okay, call the Uber... I walk with my walking stick, holding onto the neighbour's fence down to Aro St."
She said it created such a feeling of anxiety and stress trying to move as fast as she could before throwing her bag and stick into the car.
"It always feels like it's someone else's space.
"If it's a cyclist coming, they would feel they have right of way."
The alternative was the Uber blocking the footpath, she said.
Buchanan said on one occasion she had pedestrians take photos of the Uber parked illegally over the footpath so she could get in the car.
She said people didn't want to stop and visit because parking was too hard - and she felt awkward getting rides from friends.
"It's horrible for them.
"I feel like I'm asking them to break the law to stop where they are not supposed to stop."
For her, it's bigger than just being able to get a good park or easy access, it's about community.
"It's quite sad, because it's really important to socialise when you're retired or at home.
"Brent has to really encourage me to go out."
Buchannan said if she was undergoing cancer treatment now, with the new road layout - it would be impossible.
"There were days I felt so sick that I could just barely get into the car.
"So I can't imagine what it would be like now doing it with the anxiety that would go with trying to get in and making sure it was not going to have someone wagging their finger at me."
Buchannan said she's not anti-cycleway, but the road changes had only been designed with one group in mind.
"If you were in a wheelchair in any of those houses along here, or even a woman with a couple of little kids, there's all sorts of ways that not having car parks impacts on you."
Tait wrote to the council to complain about the lack of disability parking in the area. They responded and said they were within the law.
"The law is that you have to have a disabled park per 50 parks, or something...
"And I said 'yeah, but you took out all the bloody parks, of course you're within the law because there's no longer 50 parks on Aro St' ".
Tait said she wasn't anti-cycleways.
"It's that it's just looking after one small part of the community that are the able-bodied cyclists."
She said there should be more disabled parks and a drop off zone to ease the pressure on residents.
Feedback on the parking changes proposal in 2022 received 56% support with only 47% of them being locals.
A submission said "I do not support removal of 70 car parks, this will have huge impacts on those who use those parks... Our street is full of tradies and delivery people - where will they park? I support cycling but feel that Aro St is too narrow for two lanes of cars let alone including a lane for cyclists."
Another said the plans were designed to suit people who transit through the area rather than live there.
Data from the City Council doesn't count all the cyclists on the new cycleway, only those who head towards the city.
It shows in the past six months, three% of the total traffic had been cyclists with about 150 people travelling down hill each day.
Buchanan had always submitted feedback, but it felt ineffective.
"One little old lady trying to say, actually, this is this is not going to be great for me.
"The cyclists, they're fantastic lobbyists."
The Wellington City Council consulted with residents and stakeholders including Cycle Wellington and Disability Action groups before starting the redevelopment.
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