Subscribe to RSSThe Way We Need To Move
Today’s New York Times has an article which is music to my ears.
And it shows out completely out of tune our Government is.
While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars.
Cities including Vienna to Munich and Copenhagen have closed vast swaths of streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes eroded by bike sharing programmes.
Cycles are replacing cars in some cities
Drivers in London and Stockholm pay hefty congestion charges just for entering the heart of the city. And over the past two years, dozens of German cities have joined a national network of “environmental zones’ here only cars with low carbon dioxide emissions may enter.
Likeminded cities welcome new shopping malls and apartment buildings but severely restrict the allowable number of parking spaces. On-street parking is vanishing.
Fantastic stuff. Read the rest here
Which city in NZ will be first to have the courage to try that here?
Wellington with its Green Mayor looks as if it’s on the way.
Check out its Wellington 2040 plan which looks at global trends facing Wellington - new technologies, climate change, scarce resources and a diversifying population.
The goals?
People-centred city - we want to grow Wellington’s communities so they’re even more vibrant, healthy and resilient.
Connected city - we want to be connected with each other and the world physically, virtually and socially.
Eco-city - we’re confident we can lead Wellington and New Zealand with our response to the environmental challenges we all face, in particular, securing a resilient city.
Dynamic central city - we want to make sure our urban landscape keeps evolving so Wellington continues to be a creative and economic powerhouse - and a great place to live.
It’s a great read. Let’s hope it inspires Auckland’s Plan.
11 Comments
This is why I like Wellington, they aren’t afraid of thinking outside the box. I think it would be a good idea to introduce these to dstract people from the slow roll-out of the MAtangi’s and actually have Good-news to listen to.
2040?
why not 2012, why do all these reports have this idea that around 2030-2040 all of a sudden its all going to change.
Congestion Charge in Auckland would be a bloody good idea.
In london if you already live inside the area (from what I can remember) you don’t pay it.
if you have an elecy car or a motorbike or a scooter you don’t pay.
likewise if you use PT.
Limiting the number of car parks is a good idea, people in this country need to learn its time to leave the car at home (or at the train station) and get on PT.
not in 2020, NOW!
Because that way you can dream up a whole lot of bullshit, get paid for your pipedream fantasies, but not actually have to implement any of it.
If they said 2012, next year they’d be shown up as all talk, no walk.
It won’t matter for me, because by 2040 I’ll be a billionaire.
As an advocate, I have long since stopped caring about anything in plans and strategies that is further than 10 years away. Not worth the time.
When you really want to know what politicians and officials want to do, look at the 2-3 year figures.
@KarlHansen
Given the short political cycles in both local and National politics, these 30 year “plans” are simply
“wish lists” from the current administrations, they have no ability to bind future councils or government to them.
If a council or Government was serious about any of these plans, they would create them as a referendum item at the next election. If approved there would at least be some ability to a) judge whether the plans were acceptable to the voters, and b) a large pool of voters to punish candidates who acted against the plan
“wish lists” from the current administrations, they have no ability to bind future councils or government to them.”
Greenwelly, I disagree with you there - actually, many of them are smokescreens, not wish lists. They contain all the high-flown goals that these politicians never actually want to commit money to.
Their real wish lists are in their short-term plans. Witness Stephen Joyce “comitting” himself to strongly raising walking and cycling in urban areas by 2040, saying he supports the 2008 Transport Strategy (that set that goal) “in principle”.
And what does he do? Spend money hand over fist for motorways. Not in a couple years, for Puhoi - right now, he’s spending all our taxes on those projects.
“If a council or Government was serious about any of these plans, they would create them as a referendum item at the next election. ”
Again, I disagree with you a bit here. A government or Council that was serious about such plans would actually DO something with them, rather than turn it into another electioneering campaign. We aren’t a direct democracy. We are a representative democracy.
In some ways, I kinda admire Joyce - he gets things done. Sadly, the things he gets done will damage our country badly, for decades to come. But hey, at least he gets things done, eh?
At least, it seems that Auckland Council has understood at least part of that message, and is forging ahead on it’s own, rather than waiting for the world to change on its own.
Yes, the Auckland Plan is another long-term document (but they are legally required to do that, and not all long-term plans NEED to be waste of paper). The encouraging thing is (at least in most cases) their short-term and mid-term projects, where I think they are heading in the right direction.
forging ahead? 2040? um most normal cities already have things like this in place.
where about a good 20-30 years behind most places.
“Limiting the number of car parks is a good idea, people in this country need to learn its time to leave the car at home (or at the train station) and get on PT.”
Well people would do that if PT in this country wasn’t so crap!
It’s alright to go on harping about people to use PT, but you have to provide a half way decent and reliable service first.
How about convinience?? You’d think in Wellington at the stations I would be able to buy a ticket from a machine. After all, we have ATMs, drink machines etc. They’ve been around for years. Do you think they could implement them for trains??….Ohhh no…can’t do that…we’ll make you line up instead waiting for the one or two people who are selling tickets at the ticket counter!
And do you really think people like catching creaky old trains that were designed when Hitler was still in power??
If I was going to the airport (in my area in Porirua, there is no airport bus), I would have to lug my luggage on a bus, then train, and then another bus, and then pray to god none of those services is going to be late or break down (fat chance of that happening).
You know, cause I can afford to be late for my plane that waits around for me because PT is constantly late!!
I’m all for PT, don’t get me wrong (I catch it everyday), but until this country gets its act together and funds AND maintains its PT networks properly, your never going to encourage users from there cars.
” and is forging ahead on it’s own, rather than waiting for the world to change on its own.”
“forging ahead? 2040? um most normal cities already have things like this in place.”
@Carl - I am talking of Auckland, not Wellington, and I am talking of Auckland Council pushing on with the CBD rail tunnel, or with projects like Shared Space, and two-waying Nelson and Hobson etc… - all projects they see happening way before 2040. That is what I mean with forging ahead - rather than wait for Joyce’s blessing, which they will never get.
Also, people should remind themselves that Brown and his Councillors haven’t been in place for much more than half a year yet, so don’t expect them to have solved decades of neglect please. Some stumbles have already accompanied the successes and that will happen again (not keen on more CBD car parks, Mr Brown!) but on the whole, I feel this Council is very much on the right track.
Wellington is a long way behind Palmerston North on bike lanes.
Wellington is in decline. It’s like, what, the 13th or 14th biggest city in Australasia? The government is reducing the size of the public service. Today 100 Defence jobs are gone. The earthquake-risk glass towers along the Golden Mile are struggling for tenants. CBD based retail is in decline.
Growth in NZ, if any, will come in Auckland, Tauranga and Palmy. Not in old cities like Dunedin and Wellington. And everyone will still cross the Ditch at the drop of a hat.
Wellington in 2040. There’ll be a light switch in Plimmerton, and another one in Upper Hutt. Last ones out, please turn off the lights.