Contents
- Getting rid of roads and traffic
- New York renovations
- Palce-Making and community well being
- Walking conference - deadline for abstracts
- Walk2Work and Summer Steps
Getting rid of roads and traffic jams
It may seem counter intuitive, but getting rid of roads rather than building more of them can relieve traffic jams and ease congestion. Here are some examples from around the world of busy highways being replaced by pleasant, attractive pedestrian areas and public spaces which act as a magnet for city dwellers, visitors and tourists.
New York renovations
Last year our Project officer Janet Lawson went to the Walk21 international walking conference in New York, and reported back on some of the exciting changes being made to the streets there. Footpaths are being widened, parts of roads are being turned into plazas, and some streets closed at weekends. Read more about it Many of these changes were carried out cheaply, on a temporary basis, so that if they didn’t work, they could be changed back without huge infrastructure costs. They’ve now decided to make the changes permanent.
Place-Making and community well being
A new piece of research “Participation in Place-Making: Enhancing the Wellbeing of Marginalised Communities in Aotearoa/New Zealand” carried out at Victoria University’s School of Architecture found that when communities can take part effectively in making decisions about their public places, community well being is improved in a number of ways. The research also looked at different processes which allowed the community to participate effectively. More
Walking conference - deadline for abstracts
There’s still time to get your abstract in for presenting a paper at the walking conference in August – deadline is the end of February. Check out our conference page for the form for submitting abstracts, and information about our keynote speakers.
Walk2Work and Summer Steps
Planning for Walk2Work day is well under way, with around 20 events planned, including businesses and organisations running events for their staff. There’s still time to register and run an event at your workplace pilot challenge is running in Wellington and Christchurch with thirty five teams competing. The team in the lead at the moment has clocked up an awesome 146 trips and are still going strong!