Abstract Remit
The NZ Transport Agency wishes to support local authorities throughout New Zealand in achieving increased levels of walking and cycling activity. In meeting this goal, it is exploring mechanisms to identify and share best practice in service delivery across local authority policy and strategy determination, infrastructure programming and delivery, promotion and road safety related programmes.
Based upon successful international benchmarking and best practice sharing techniques, the Agency commissioned MWH New Zealand to assist it to adapt those techniques to the Agency's needs, as the basis for assisting local authorities to maximise their performance returns and value for money from a range of activities directed in whole or part to supporting cycling.
A framework has been developed, that can be applied flexible at a number of levels, depending on how fully the auhtority concerned wishes to engage .
Best practice is described by a series of statements for for each element of the framework,
Each authority can self assess aginst this framework, or engage further with peer review process.
A suggested set of indicators is proposed, along with methods of data collection.
Based on the framework developed for cycling by MWH, Colin Buchanan & Partners has developed a draft tool for walking.
The presentation will explain the background and reasons for developing the tool, provide an overview of progress to date, and share some examples from parts of the tool being considered for benchamrkign of provision for walking .
Regional consultation workshops will be held during three weeks after the conference, that will go into the details and permit participants to contribute to a consistent set of benchmarks.
Author Profile
Tim Hughes is the senior engineer walking and cycling guidelines for NZ Transport Agency. For most of his 30 year career he has specialised in road safety engineering with NZTA and its predecessors. He is responsible for developing guidance and tools that foster best practice provision for walking and cycling, also leading or contributing to research and development on walking and cycling.
Tim Cheesebrough was for nearly two decades Group Safety Engineer for a major UK highway authority, where he also led on the delivery of a number of strategies and programmes for cycling infrastructure, School Travel Planning and Safer Routes to School initiatives, as well as being authority project lead for two separate nationwide cycling services benchmarking and auditing initiatives.
Martin Wedderburn is a Principal Transport Planner at Colin Buchanan in London, UK specialising in walking. He has worked for a variety of clients on transport assessments, demand forecasting, economic appraisal and travel behaviour research. With a keen understanding of policy and delivery issues, he has also assisted clients such as Transport for London and London 2012 with the development of guidance and strategy. Drawing on a sound understanding of transport appraisal, he has been instrumental in the development of methods to appraise public realm investment. With substantial experience in the measurement of pedestrian activity and local movement analysis, he is able to work with urban designers and traffic engineers to promote holistic and context-sensitive public realm design.
