Live close to your work or catch the yellow, 66-seater Mercedes.

Now there's a new term to me - urban form. I agree. All the people in West Auckland seem to thunder past twice a day to and from work in South Auckland where their factories have moved for some reason (those that have not moved to China), and so on, everyone going somewhere else, yet they probably tried to live somewhere reasonably close to work in the first place.

Next we are building more motorways to try to make all this movement easier. After that people move even further away, commuting to work in Auckland from small communities near Whangarei or the Bay of Plenty for instance, the locals then faced with rising rates and ... It goes on.

I think the reason NZ, Oz and US have the highest per capita carbon footprints in the world, is that everything has been built round cars and trucks for as long as it has been possible. I wonder if the reason for the lower per capita emissions of Europe is that much of Europe was built on the presumption of walk or horse. I was interested to read about the way Barcelona took the opportunity of the Olympic games to redevelop the inner city in favour of walking.

Somehow many places, including NZ, will be, are being, forced to restructure to reduce the burden of transport. That is not easy.

Our cities are divided between industrial areas, residential areas, commercial centres and recreational areas. This pattern is of great advantage to large, even global commercial entities. We go to the supermarkets for instance, or the Warehouse. Their operations depend on our ability to reach them. The separations lie at the basis of all our travel. Who wants to live next to a factory? No one! Why are factories and warehouses so often human hostile entities? How far can or should these areas be mixed up - if that should happen? Should something else be preferable?

Every now and then I think of my first job - delivering groceries from the corner store all over the neighbourhood of Taradale via a model A Ford. The telephone plus delivery saved everyone a heap of travel- little or no impulse shopping. Shopkeepers sent out the monthly accounts and kept most goods out of reach of thieving fingers.

That's all changed but was there some merit in it? What's happened is rampant consumerism - all the forces of commerce deployed to trap us into buying what we don't need, wasting resources and polluting the planet while the 8 hour working day, five day week, one earner family has also all but vanished in the race for more, or just to keep afloat. All these matters are joined and underlie the transport issues and unsustainable energy demand.

We can't go back, which way is forward?

Noel