September 2017 eBulletin of Living Streets Aotearoa

Welcome to the September 2017 eBulletin of Living Streets Aotearoa.

New Zealand Walking Summit July 2017

The first New Zealand Walking Summit, held in Wellington this July, was well attended by those involved in transport, health, urban design and local government, and walking advocates too, exploring the theme of 'how to make New Zealand a world leading walking place'.

Keynote speaker Ben Wooliscroft from Otago University, spoke on New Zealanders attitudes to mobility, and what we think is normal. This highlighted the difference in approach to:

• Counting and measuring delay for vehicles, but not counting pedestrians or crossing times

• How we fund mobility but ignore many externalities

• The disconnected language we use to describe vehicle crashes.

However, the research Ben conducted showed that many New Zealanders do see roads as more than just car places, and are supportive of measures to improve walking and cycling. Safety improvements and better public transport are two factors that people say would help get them out walking more. Ben said, "The data I presented was interesting in it’s lack of variance – by gender, area, income, etc, except as reported. There’s a really strong groundswell of support for prioritising active transport in NZ.”

At the Summit we heard from political candidates about what they would like to achieve for pedestrians and walking. We read out a statement from Associate Transport Minister Tim Macindoe. Julie-Anne Genter, MP and transport spokesperson for the Greens, talked about the need for better choices, and the need to reprioritise public space, planning and funding to put walking first, with cycling and public transport next.

Kris Faafoi, MP for Mana, stepped in for Michael Wood, Labour's transport spokesperson. Labour want more leadership and funding for active modes, which has since been announced. Mana has been impacted by big road development but has not seen funding going deeper into the community. Porirua could be a much better walking city, with people getting off the train being able to easily walk into the city. Kris said we need to move away from a focus on motorways, roads and four wheels.

Geoff Simmons from the Opportunities Party talked about the best return on investment in transport, with all modes paying full costs. Many policies can affect transport choices. Tomorrows Schools for example led to a shift of where kids go to school with the local school no longer the only choice. This has had a big impact on kids walking to school.

We heard from walking advocates in the UK and Australia on some of the issues and successes they have had, including getting adequate funding and addressing pedestrian safety. It seems there are many common threads and we can learn from each other.

Workshop participants enthusiastically looked at what might be required for walking in a national environmental standard for subdivisions, and we rounded off the day with a wide-ranging panel discussion.

The overall outcome of the NZ Walking Summit is the Living Streets Aotearoa four point plan for walking:

1. Improve safety in urban areas with a 30 km/h speed limit around all schools and shopping centres

2. Properly fund walking and pedestrian infrastructure by assigning 1% of the National Land Transport Fund budget to walking

3. Reverse the decline in kids walking to school with a national ‘safe routes to school’ programme

4. Future proof our roading projects by making the NZ Pedestrian Planning and Design Guide the national standard for all new roading projects.

Implementing these four simple actions to get more New Zealanders, whether they are 8 or 80, out walking more often is the smart move for the next Government.

We are excited to be focussing on the walk journey to school for children so if you are interested in being part of that please get in touch.

More information on the day is available at this link.

Living Streets AGM

On July 29 we had the AGM and the exec committee is now Andy Smith, Ellen Blake, Meg Christie, Gay Richards, Chris Teo-Sherrell and Celia Wade-Brown. Living Streets Aotearoa is in good hands. If you missed it and want to watch the AGM check it out on Facebook live! You can read the AGM reports here.

Walking Summit Sponsor – Urban Design Forum

Urban Design Forum promotes good urban design in New Zealand and was one of our sponsors for the Walking Summit. Thanks UDF, check them out at http://urbandesignforum.org.nz/

Autonomous delivery vehicles - a question from one of our International Federation of Pedestrian members.

Here in Switzerland we are confronted with a new problem. The Swiss Post wants to establish a delivery service with delivery vehicles that will circulate on the footpaths of Zürich. The law forbids motor vehicles to drive on footpaths, but the promotors and the federal Department of Highways now call the vehicles “delivery robots”. We fear that with this wording they want to try to avoid traffic laws. Segway has tried to avoid the term ‘vehicle’ and has called them “personal transporter” to avoid the application of traffic laws.

In Switzerland they are small and relatively cute:
https://www.post.ch/de/ueber-uns/unternehmen/innovation/innovationen-der-post-fuer-sie/lieferroboter-in-der-logistik but in California they are big and ugly:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/21/robots-are-now-deliving-food-in-san-francisco.html

San Francisco is working on legislation to ban them:

https://www.eater.com/2017/5/17/15653132/food-delivery-robots-san-francisco-ban-laws

https://www.wired.com/2017/05/san-francisco-wants-ban-delivery-robots-squash-someones-toes/

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/may/31/delivery-robots-drones-san-francisco-public-safety-job-loss-fears-marble and Walk San Francisco wants to keep footpaths for walking:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sidewalks-people-not-robots/

But there are other states that already have legislation to allow them on the footpath (apparently written with the help of lobbyists):

https://www.recode.net/2017/4/22/15273698/robot-delivery-startup-starship-state-laws-lock-out-competitors. This is a good summary of the situation in the US:

https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/05/san-francisco-to-delivery-robots-get-off-the-damn-sidewalk/527460/

Do any of your organisations have experiences with the problem of autonomous delivery vehicles on footpaths?

We have already seen the NZTA grant exemptions for vehicles on our footpaths; the courier mail motorbikes and NZ Post golf cart-style paxsters that can travel at road speeds. CAN is promoting cycling on our footpaths through a petition to Parliament. Issues around use of mobility devices need to be addressed. So, can we expect to also see pressure for ‘robots’ in New Zealand as well. Living Streets is clear, that footpaths are for pedestrians.

Golden Foot Walking Awards coming up in 2018.

Have you got a walk project in mind? See the details here.

ENDS

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