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.…
35 Comments 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.…
The Tourism Taskforce
Leading image: Anchorage, Abel Tasman National Park
This is a post by Paul Callister and Heidi O’Callahan
Tourism in New Zealand has suffered under Covid 19. As the Queenstown mayor says:
We must diversify our economy. We must also consider the negative side of global tourism and the concern for the effects of mass tourism on our communities and our environment.…
The Great Upskilling
Auckland will face some new transport challenges during Alert Levels 2 and 3. The space required for physical distancing when walking and cycling will conflict with higher traffic volumes when more people start driving. Cities overseas have shown how to respond to these sorts of conditions, including Bogota way back in mid March.…
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