Delivering a Step Change in Active Travel in Aotearoa

NZ (Aotearoa) has increased its investment in active transport by 700% during the past decade but current approaches won’t be enough to achieve the country’s emission goals.

NZ Transport Agency (Waka Kotahi) Urban Mobility Manager Kathryn King will explain ‘tactical urbanism’ as a new solution and how it can deliver the increased connectivity needed to boost active transport.

Transport is central to NZ’s ambitious emission reduction goals and to deliver streets and neighbourhoods that work better for their communities. However, much of its investment so far has been on single corridors of off-road paths or comprehensive streetscape upgrades that are increasingly costly and time consuming to deliver.

The agency’s Streets for People Program is the world’s first national program of tactical urbanism, supported by policy and legal changes to facilitate more effective delivery of infrastructure. It aims to shift the public conversation, along with a focus on evidence-based approaches and incremental improvements based on stakeholder feedback.

The program comes with an increase in funding for rapidly-delivered interventions, to incentivise new ways of working.

Less than 20% of the network is complete in urban centres across NZ, but the agency plans to deliver connected networks within the next decade.  Where networks are increasingly connected, NZ is experiencing record levels of cycling