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New Zealand’s road toll is too high. On a per capita basis it is double that of the UK, and among the highest in the world - alongside Cambodia, Malaysia, Lithuania and Slovenia.

We have recently released the report Benchmarking Cycling and Walking in Six New Zealand Cities. This report compares Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin for important inputs (e.g. funding, policies, infrastructure)  and outputs (e.g. extent of walking and cycling, population health and safety) with regards to active transport.  The report and supplementary material are available here:  http://sustainablecities.org.nz/resilient-urban-futures/benchmarking/

Meanwhile, this just in from the "New Zealand history and natural heritage" Facebook page.

Line down the centre of the footpath.
From 1923 until the 1970s there was a bylaw requiring pedestrians to keep left on the major throughfares of the inner city.
The footpaths were painted with lines to facilitate this until the bylaw wasabolished in the early 1970s.
The elimination of the bylaw was due to the dramatic drop in the number of pedestrians in the inner city becuase so many daytime shoppers were favouring suburban malls.

There have been a few such reports circulating around the Tweet sphere which starts to make it seem like a real problem.

Streetsblog have done a good job on some arguments against it - one 'survey' was done that used spurious data.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2016/03/31/inside-the-latest-distracted-pedestrians-con/#.Vv88AfVoMHk.twitter

Living Streets Wellington is a group that really walks its talk, with a group out on the Grafton to Maidavale Road steps last Sunday giving them a good clean up. These steps are one of the many walkways that are iconic Wellington thoroughfares, and the group was highlighting the need for more maintenance on these routes to keep them safe for walkers to enjoy the great views. Many houses only have access from these steps so its important they are easy to use.

Andy Smith and Ellen Blake from the LSA exec have committed themselves to a week of meetings. Monday started with an LSA strategy meeting with Mike Mellor at the railway station.

Then it was off to the NZ Police and Superintendent Steve Greally who is the Manager Road Policing. We talked about our yellow feet, proposed law change and Vision Zero for road deaths.

 A 2009 report for the Wellington Regional council shows that walking trips increased for short journeys up to 2 kilometres - 54% of total short trips were done by walking, that is more than any other mode by a long stretch, including in cars - and that  

The attached study on a sample of Wellington walkways was published today in the NZ Medical Journal. It shows that while lighting of street-connecting walkways at night is generally good – there was a quarter of walkways where it was inadequate (ie, it was too dark to see your feet or to see the steps).

In the “Discussion” section of the attached – various options for improving things are outlined, in case the Council wishes to consider these.

Hope this is of interest.

Nick Wilson

I recently sent this letter to Minister Nick Smith following some comments from him about urban design and footpaths. High quality urban design that encourages walkable neighbourhoods around public transport nodes is essential for the future or our cities. Good urban design makes economic sense both for individuals and communities as a whole.

Here is the letter I sent. I will post the response when it arrives.

Andy Smith - Living Streets Aotearoa President