Mind That Child
Image Credit: De Cafe Racer
In the last few years, child-friendly transport improvements have been made in many cities around the world. Parents, communities and councils, sharing the common desire to nurture children, and give them the best start in life, have found many stepwise – and sometimes radical – ways to make streets healthy and safe for kids.…
28 Comments Conserving Aggregate
Road building delayed because governments ‘fail to plan for quarries’
This was the title of a Stuff article last month by Wayne Scott, the chief executive officer of the Aggregate & Quarry Association (AQA). He said:
politicians of all persuasions have paid only lip service to ensuring the rock, stone and sand which form the foundation for all infrastructure can actually be provided…
Transmission Gully’s delays and cost blowouts are the latest example.…
The Forty Decision-Makers
There are forty people who will decide whether we decarbonise transport in Auckland, and New Zealand’s ultimate climate response depends on achieving this by 2030. The legacy we leave our children – a city of health and opportunity, or a stranglehold on freedom – will be determined by these people making the right decisions now.…
Alert Level 3
Queues to the Quay St supermarket following the announcement. Credit: Damian W via twitter.
Today, Auckland returns to Covid Alert Level 3 and the rest of Aotearoa returns to Level 2. The official Covid site currently says: Here are the basics about moving around.…
The Political Economy of Car Dependence
Leading Image: Sacrificing pedestrian environments and green infrastructure to sell (electric) cars.
Why do both our major parties plan to spend billions of dollars on new roads and sprawl development of farmland?
Our government is catching up on the backlog of rural road safety issues, is slowly improving rail and public transport, is funding “three waters” infrastructure maintenance and upgrades to assist brownfields housing developments and has introduced internationally-renowned planning changes to enable regeneration of our cities.…
Building Up or Out – US and UK examples
Leading image from Don Kostelec via twitter.
Creating as compact a city as we can makes good sense from a climate and liveability point of view, yet Auckland is still extending its reach into farmland.
Below are some excerpts from two interesting studies – the effects of going up in the US, and of going out in the UK.…
The Power of Disruption
Image: CICLOVÍAS EMERGENTES Lineamientos de Implementación – Gobierno de la Ciudad de México
Good leaders seek ways to change what needs to be changed. And for climate, safety and equity, there is much that needs to be changed.
One powerful, democratic tool to enable change, is disruption.…
Appointment of Auckland Council Chief Executive
Tomorrow the council will make possibly its most important decision for a long time, and for a long time to come: Who will be its Chief Executive.
The importance of the decision has been highlighted by the recent ‘emergency budget‘ which has seen projects slashed and delayed in the wake of decimated revenues following the disruptions caused by COVID-19. …
Alert to Changing Default Speeds
Yesterday, Auckland Transport announced:
New and safe speed limits on more than 600 roads across Auckland will come into force from 30 June 2020 onwards.
In an email they also advised:
This tranche will be completed by November 2021.
It’s a huge relief that these changes bringing in safe speeds have not been cut in the emergency budget.…
The 1point5 project
Safe, healthy, decarbonised and accessible to all
How much do New Zealand’s carbon emissions need to drop? How quickly? And what’s the best way?
These are the questions being tackled by the 1point5 project. We’ve mentioned this project twice in Weekly Roundup posts: its founder, Paul Winton, ran a webinar last week, hosted by the Association of Consulting and Engineering, and was interviewed by Vincent Heeringa for a podcast a few weeks ago, on This Climate Business.…
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