Later this month, I’ll be heading down to Wellington for the NERI Energy Conference 2014. The conference organisers kindly agreed to give the blog a free ticket, and I’ll be attending on our behalf, tweeting updates during the conference, and taking screeds of notes for writing up into posts later.
The major theme of the conference is energy efficiency, and I’m particularly looking forward to the keynote address on that topic. A lot of what we talk about here at TransportBlog comes down to efficiency (although we’ve got wider interests, and we’re certainly not interested in efficiency at the expense of all else!) Public and active transport is a very efficient way of allowing large numbers of people to get where they need to go, as happens on a daily basis in cities around the world. It’s efficient in terms of the amount of land it needs, and it’s efficient in terms of energy use.
If we were trying to reduce transport energy use, we could either travel less, or we could be more efficient in our travel. This efficiency could come about from shifting to more efficient modes (public/ active transport), or more efficient vehicles (hybrids, etc), or altering our driving style. There’s potential for New Zealand to do all three, but public transport will play a major role in any shifts.
The Energy Conference takes place over two days, 20th-21st March, and will feature more than 30 speakers. One of the conference sessions is devoted to “energy efficiency in transport”. As part of that session, I’m giving a presentation looking at “household spending on transport fuels in Auckland”: this is using data I’ve gotten hold of quite recently, and which I’ll write a bit more about over the next couple of months as I get further into the research. Suffice to say, I’m quite surprised just how big the differences are between what households spend in the inner suburbs and the fringe suburbs.
I’ll also be giving a Pecha Kucha presentation on the Congestion Free Network – of course, if you’re reading this then you’re probably already quite familiar with it. Matt, Patrick and others have done amazing work on the CFN over the last year or more, and trying to boil that down to 20 slides at 20 seconds per slide is tricky.
It should be a great conference, and based on having attended it last year, I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in energy or transport research.
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Good luck. I wish I could go. My experience is that Wellingtonians just don’t get Auckland transport issues. Their idea of efficient transport is a small car on low rolling resistance tyres. If you can leave them with one message please let them know that in Auckland it’s not the internal combustion engine that’s the problem, it’s the CAR itself that’s the problem.
It’s not Wellingtonians that are the problem. It is New Zealanders in general. Or at least those born and bred during the car-boom years who have swallowed the line that New Zealand hasn’t got the population for anything other than cars and high-cost motorways, etc etc.
In fact it is a white anglo-saxon disease, because the same basic attitude pervades in all the English-speaking countries and has been similarly responsible for destroying and retarding alternative approaches to transport for decades, in each of them.
I doubt the proportion of Wellingtonians who appreciate good public transport and support sensible restraint on cars is any lower than that of Aucklanders. It may well be higher, given the stronger culture of PT use here.
Unfortunately most politicians, leaders, senior bureaucrats and managers are among those whose view of the world is largely through the windscreen.
I would say it is not the Car itself that’s the problem. It is the mentality which people have towards it that’s the problem, and the societal blind-spot to the serious detrimental effects of our gross over-dependence on it.
You’re absolutely right. I was thinking of the Wellingtonians I have had discusssions about Auckland Transport with. They all see to be of the generation you mention. And typically Anglo-saxon. These tend to be the people in the decision making roles.
“it is not the Car itself that’s the problem” – That is such a good message to push and one that makes the whole “war on cars” thing such a strawman argument.
It is like any unhealthy thing. Do it sometimes when the situation requires it, no problem. Do it every day as a default option and it starts to cause real damage on a personal and societal level.
The opposite situation as with cycling. That is the transport equivalent of eating a well balanced diet. Good for you, good for society in terms of health costs.
There are so many people in Auckland who never even consider whether there is another option to jumping in the car – regardless of the distance to be travelled. There are a lot of my neighbours who I have never seen leave their house except by car. As a consequence I never speak to them.
“There are a lot of my neighbours who I have never seen leave their house except by car. As a consequence I never speak to them.”
You don’t speak to them because of prejudice? What an ass you must be 🙁
Seems more likely that he never has a chance to speak to them, if they’re driving straight out of the garage or driveway – wouldn’t you say, Phil?
“Unfortunately most politicians, leaders, senior bureaucrats and managers are among those whose view of the world is largely through the windscreen.”
…of a chauffeur driven, government-owned vehicle.
Policy makers could hardly be futher detatched from the day-to-day realities faced by citizens trying to get around our urban areas.
John, can you add your twitter address to the contact page? …so we can follow you at the conference and everywhere else 🙂
I don’t have one yet, I’ve never used Twitter… stay tuned for an update on that!