Forming Policy on Low Traffic Neighbourhoods
On Monday, Stuff published an article by Holly Walker, on low traffic neighbourhoods and their importance in the New Zealand context. Holly is from the Helen Clark Foundation, an independent public policy think tank, and today, she is releasing “The Shared Path,” a report on the subject by the foundation and WSP New Zealand.…
45 Comments Taking the sprawl out of our transport plans
The two most important documents that set the transport programme for Auckland are being updated or written at present: The Auckland Transport Alignment Project (ATAP) and the Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP).
Strong leadership of change will be required if they are to reflect the Zero Carbon Act and the Auckland Climate Plan, and support Labour’s work on children’s health, equity, wellbeing and poverty.…
The Auckland Freight Plan
Image Credit: KiwiRail
A plan being released this week will have implications not just on how we move stuff around Auckland, but on safety in our road corridors and on our climate response. Its summary, the Auckland Freight Plan Summary Report was presented by Auckland Transport at the September AT Board meeting.…
School Traffic
School traffic – it’s probably not on anyone’s list of favourite things. But it’s a problem worth tackling. If children are safe to make their own way to school, their health and learning would improve, parents would be freed from taxi driver service, and congestion, emissions, noise and fumes would all reduce.…
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.…
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.…
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