General Election 2020

If you are the Policy person for the Labour, National, ACT or NZ First please answer the attached questions as no one has answered our emails apart from the Green Party

We want safer and more attractive walking in New Zealand.

Everyone walks, it's the first thing we learnt to do and the last thing we want to give up.

The General Election is on Saturday 17 October.

We need help to make safe walking an election issue, so candidates realise that there are a lot of walkers out there, most of whom vote.

How you can help to get a Pedestrian Friendly Government?

Vote
Check your enrolment at elections.org.nz
 Vote for the party and candidate who best reflects your views on walking.


The PDF below has questions for the parties  about improving life for pedestrians.  We will soon have their answers.

Go to a meeting of candidates or organise your own meeting and ask candidates the questions below

'What have you done, and what will you do, to make my town safer for pedestrians?';

'Do you support safer speed limits, such as 30km/h, near schools and in shopping and residential streets?';

Do you support our 'Turning vehicles Give Way to pedestrians walking straight through intersections?'

Do you support creating 3 separated spaces for traffic - one for pedestrians, one for cyclists and micromobility users, and one for motor vehicle traffic - on most streets and are you willing to require these be implemented ahead of providing street-side car parking?
 

Share your knowledge

Talk to your friends, family and colleagues about these matters. Write to local papers, post on social media.

Vote for the party and candidate who best reflects your views on walking.

Organise

Team up with other advocates. Join Living Streets. There's power in numbers. Find us on Facebook.

All of what we achieve is done by volunteers but we need your support. Donate here

We have asked all the parties but only the Green Party has replied so far.

On behalf of the Green Party, our responses are below. I am sorry our responses to 1 and 2 are nuanced and require a little bit of explanation.   On points 3-7 we are strongly in support and have indicated so below:

1.      Ensure footpaths are safe for pedestrians of all ages and abilities by providing separate lanes for e-scooters and bicycles and keeping these vehicles off footpaths.-  

We strongly support the provision of separate lanes for e-scooters and bicycles to make footpath safe for pedestrians of all ages and abilities. We support councils being able to ban e-scooters from being used on the footpath, for example in heavily pedestrianised areas. In areas where there are not yet safe, separated bike lanes, we do not think it safe or fair to force people riding an e-scooters, or children riding a bike, to ride on a potentially dangerous road. 

2. Provide a meaningful deterrent to parking motor vehicles on footpaths by increasing the fine from the current $40. – We support a review of parking fines, but consider that council enforcement is probably a bigger factor in deterring this specific behaviour.

3. Require NZTA and MoT to employ pedestrian specialists, as they have for cycling, to give people on foot and in wheelchairs the priority they deserve. – COMMIT VERY STRONGLY

4. Support Living Streets proposal to have at least 50% of children and adolescents walking to school by 2025. (see our multi-point plan of action to achieve thishttps://www.livingstreets.org.nz/node/5047) – COMMIT VERY STRONGLY

5. Build infrastructure such as Skypath, the Great Harbour Way and others that benefit pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. – COMMIT VERY STRONGLY

6. Implement policies that encourage walking by increasing perceived safety and amenity for pedestrians, such as slower vehicle speed limits. – COMMIT VERY STRONGLY

7. Require councils to adopt policies to prevent car-dependent urban sprawl. – COMMIT VERY STRONGLY

Ralph Hall, Senior Research and Policy Advisor 
Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand