Wellington City Council's Long Term Plan consultation is an opportunity to make our city more liveable, healthy & inclusive
Public and active transport infrastructure is an investment in the common good. As part of building healthy communities and creating a stable climate, public and active transport needs to become the default way of moving people around urban environments.
We all have different lives and different needs – getting children to school, people getting to work on time, elderly people getting around their community. No matter where we live or what our situation, all people – the elderly, disabled people, young people – should be able to move easily around our city in ways that build our health and take care of the planet. Regardless of where they live in a city, kids need to be able to move about freely in fun and healthy ways. To get on a bike, take a bus, walk, or scooter to school, their friends’ place, or sports practice across town. Good public transport, protected cycleways and walking paths can help us all move about our city independently and have fun on the way! A city that is great for everyone to live in and good for kids’ health, is one with lots of public and active transport and is easy to navigate without a car. Wellington City Council is consulting on whether to build more cycleways in its new Long Term Plan. Building more cycleways for people riding bikes, scooters and skateboards is one of the key ways that we can give everybody more options for how they get around. Despite this, WCC has only built 16 km of cycleways in the last decade and Waka Kotahi (NZTA) says significant improvement is needed. WCC clearly need to be given the biggest push possible to build more. Please support Option 4 - Accelerated Full Programme for building more cycleways in the council's Long Term Plan consultation, which is the only option that will deliver something close to a city-wide cycling network in the next decade. The impact on rates of choosing Option 4 over the council's preferred Option 3 is actually tiny (an extra $20 a year, or 40 cents a week, on a $4k rates bill) and the payoff could be huge. Remember, the more people using active transport and public transport the easier it will be for the people who really need to use a car to get around also.
Want to see more of this? Support Option 4!
Politicians need to recognise the opportunity we have right now to build active transport infrastructure that will take us into the future. If you budget for something you still might not get it, but if you don't budget for it you definitely won't get it. We need to aim as high as possible. Submit on the Long Term Plan and then get in contact with your local councillor directly to support Option 4.
Regan. Update 4/5/21 Here's a really good LTP submission guide from Cycle Wellington and a fantastic quick submit form from Generation Zero This blog borrows heavily from The Workshop's How to Talk About Urban Mobility and Transport Shift: A Short Guide and I'd like to acknowledge their awesome mahi.
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