National level

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/

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.

The attached is an article recently published in Planning Quarterly 196 March 2015 (without it's nice photos sorry) on Planning for walking - time to make strides in measuring performance. The article sets out and proposes a new approach to measuring walk performance in local authority plans to enable a more rapid change to walk mode share and improve walkability, by making walking more visible.

Walk2Work Day was celebrated this week by thousands of New Zealanders getting out on their feet (or in their wheelchair) and enjoying their daily trek to work, school or their daily activity. This special day is the national recognition of the important part walking plays in our lives, our urban fabric and our transport system. This year we highlighted the important, indeed essential, links between walking and public transport - they can not work without each other. Walking and use of public transport is the way to extend the range of your journey and carry those awkward packages.