Wellington City Council recently made a commitment to carbon neutrality. But the newly-released plan for revamping east-west transport in Wellington - the Ngauranga to Airport Strategic Transport Study - suggests "solving" Wellington's transport problems by spending massive amounts of money on building new roads and road tunnels.
In an era of increasing climate change and decreasing oil supplies, not to mention a city proclaiming its commitment to carbon neutrality, such a plan is outdated and dangerous. Sustainable Wellington Transport is campaigning for - you guessed it - a sustainable transport future for Wellington. We're proposing:
* Light rail linking the northern suburbs, hospital and airport through the city centre
* Priority at lights and more shelter for walkers
* More bus lanes, integrated ticketing and real-time public transport information
* Safer cycling with good facilities for riding and parking
* Smart planning and good urban design
* Faster, cheaper broadband, teleworking and flexible working arrangements.
If you live in the Wellington region and want to help the campaign, now's the time to get active. We've created a postcard and other ways to help people in making submissions. The campaign needs people to help out on stalls, and there's a public meeting coming up on 13 June. If you want to get involved, please phone 04 381 4640 or email greenmps.wellington@greens.org.nz with "Sustainable Wellington Transport Campaign" in the subject line for more details of what help is needed.
Regards
Tim Jones
Sustainable Wellington Transport Campaign meeting went well
The Sustainable Wellington Region transport campaign meeting "Stop Transit's Tunnels" went well, with 100 or so people attending and plenty choosing to get involved in the campaign. You can read two good reports of the meeting at http://eyeofthefish.org/stop-transits-tunnels-a-summary/ (see the first comment for the second report).
To read the pro-roading report that sparked the campaign, and to make a submission, go to http://www.wellington.govt.nz/haveyoursay/publicinput/ngauranga.html
Submissions close on Thursday 22 February.
Tim Jones
Re: transport campaign
Good to hear Tim. Any advice for people wanting to make submissions?
Key points for submissions
The essential points I'd make are:
* Building more roads to take more cars is completely inappropriate in the era of climate change and peak oil
* It's even more inappropriate when Wellington is claiming to be the "carbon neutral capital"
* Better solutions exist - light rail, more trolleybuses, promotion of active modes (walking and cycling), more teleworking and working from home
* Not only are these better solutions - they are cheaper solutions.
Tim Jones