Walking is almost totally invisible in any documents about Transport. The sustainable transport argument tends to rage about the allocation of funds between PT and roading capacity but all of us are pedestrians sometimes and could be much more. When walking does appear, it’s usually inextricably entwined with cycling while the two active modes have very different potential participants (in terms of age and mobility, for a start), distance covered and infrastructure requirements. Both modes benefit from less vehicle traffic that travels more calmly but crossings, signage, route markings and maps all need to be different. Both modes are complementary to public transport.
Total costs of transport to public and private could be summed and compared e.g. Todd Litman roading plus private car $8000, PT $800 and walking $80. www.vtpi.com . This is an important effect on the economy but car costs are understated in public debate since the private cots is ignored.
Analysis of numbers walking to school doesn’t include the follow-on journeys by caregivers. Most councils hold no information about percentages of children walking to school. The LTNZ Travel Survey data is not accessible. Health and transport benefit/costs need further integration – see www.sustrans.org
Pedestrian advocates face the argument that slowing traffic (speed or more crossings or pedestrian priority phasing) increases congestion therefore increases emissions therefore is an environmental no-no. We need to think of the longer-term effect cf Seoul highway removal – triple convergence aka induced traffic and its opposite. Road diets lead to people making decisions to travel by other modes, at different times or by different routes.
More road capacity is directly proportional to more vehicle km travelled (recently confirmed by Peter Newman during his visit as part of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s 20 year forum). There are also mathematical models that show greater throughput of vehicle traffic and smoother flow at lower speeds.
The Land Transport Management Act is too weak regarding climate change “being taken into account” – it needs amendment to direct Councils to set reduction targets. Witness Wellington RLTS that expects GHG emissions to rise. Note and lament insufficient! Still predict and provide rather than different target.
LTNZ subsidy levels to TLAs do not encourage more footpaths and footpath maintenance is not even eligible. Walking plan development subsidy is helpful at 53% but are all councils availing themselves of it and subsequently being audited against them?
ICB 100% central govt funding (+local for heritage preservation) since it’s SH1 but Safer Roads project to deal with area wide accessibility and safety subsidy is around 50%.
Having a walking and cycling strategy while road capacity building continues apace is worse than “lipstick on the gorilla”.
We promote a new Road user hierarchy (for urban design, transport corridor and district plan use) similar to City of York
Pedestrians with special mobility or visual needs
Pedestrian commuters and visitors
Cyclists
Public transport
Commercial vehicles (service and delivery)
Car share
Car visitors/shoppers
Single occupancy car commuter
We emphasise that cities should consider some priority for essential business use e.g. carpenters, plumbers and local delivery rather than 1-person 1-car commuters with no mobility difficulties.
Still we find that high cost projects are debated and prioritised e.g. re-opening rail lines (we support the Auckland rail renaissance) or Transmission Gully (which we don’t), but walking infrastructure improvements are left to local councils which are already struggling with increasing costs of transport, waste, water and community facilities. A real jump for walking needs a higher level of support without over-detailed application processes for Neighbourhood Accessibility improvements, packages to support Walking to School (including but not limited to Walking School Buses), 100% subsidy for new footpath extensions (if they meet some minimum criteria)
We strongly support a general 40k urban speed limit on most streets.
Multiple ownership (Ontrack/ Transit, Regional and local Council, private) around railway stations makes integrated approaches challenging. Flats above a ticket office and café would provide considerable surveillance benefits and offset the cost of the improvements need to access e.g. the disgusting dirty, smelly, poorly lit, in-signed subways to railway station, but there is little leadership seen.
The Urban Design Protocol is a useful guideline for walkable cities and towns but it offers little support beyond design concepts.
Health effects of transport are huge but easily discounted by Transport officials. The recent Wellington draft RLTS had a Health Impact Assessment. This was an excellent initiative of the Regional Council except they ignored its findings that damned their draft Strategy.
Urban land-use planning – smart growth and containment vs. sprawl
Videoconferencing – need stocktake and public opportunities – and decent Broadband
Tax and mileage allowances
If a car park is owned rather than leased, there is no FBT. Travel allowance for driving is up to 70c per km. There is nothing other than the ticket for PT and nothing at all for walking or cycling. LSA has a policy of equal recompense for all modes, assuming that the employee or contractor will use the most appropriate.
Higher Salaries commission refused to introduce any mileage allowance for walking or cycling despite unanimous submissions from WCC in the past.
Encourage councils to join CCP-NZ – Communities for Climate Protection – an ICLEI programme for both corporate and city/region measurement / planning for greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
For more ideas, e.g. our submission on LTM Bill, links to other walking sites and databases such as www.walkit.info see our website.
Celia Wade-Brown
President
Living Streets Aotearoa www.livingstreets.org.nz
P O Box 25-424
Wellington
home 04 938
6691
LSA office 04 472 8280
Walking - the first transport mode!
Efficient, healthy, cheap and fun!