Well the news in New Zealand was interesting a few days ago. There was first a story about how Kids should walk to school, then a story about how Auckland is cutting funding to foot paths. These issues are tied, the affects of one will directly affect the other one, and cutting funding will cause both of them to fail.
It was interesting to read that not only in North America do we have issues of people driving their kids to school. In the last 15 years the number of people driving to school has increased by 66%. It has become such a problem in some areas that there are rush hour like issues of people traveling to the schools. According to the news article 40% of rush-hour traffic is educated related, but who know what educated related means. To get more kids to walk to work they are having famous sport stars and politicians walking with kids to school. That would be so much fun, who would not want to walk with your favorite politician to school.
Most of these ideas are interesting but the issue of the built form of the neighbourhoods would be a better way to address this issue. If a child can not safely walk to their school, why would they walk rather than drive.
At the same time as there are efforts to encourage people to walk more, Auckland is cutting back their footpath redevelopment plan. Auckland has most of the population and wealth of New Zealand, if you are wondering. The city government is also not looking at reducing funding to road improvements in the area. The government should fund both automobile and non-automobile projects at the same rates and force cuts on both of them. I do not know the jurisdictional issues around roads for Auckland so that may be the reason why they are not cutting back on roads.
It was interesting to read that not only in North America do we have issues of people driving their kids to school. In the last 15 years the number of people driving to school has increased by 66%. It has become such a problem in some areas that there are rush hour like issues of people traveling to the schools. According to the news article 40% of rush-hour traffic is educated related, but who know what educated related means. To get more kids to walk to work they are having famous sport stars and politicians walking with kids to school. That would be so much fun, who would not want to walk with your favorite politician to school.
Most of these ideas are interesting but the issue of the built form of the neighbourhoods would be a better way to address this issue. If a child can not safely walk to their school, why would they walk rather than drive.
At the same time as there are efforts to encourage people to walk more, Auckland is cutting back their footpath redevelopment plan. Auckland has most of the population and wealth of New Zealand, if you are wondering. The city government is also not looking at reducing funding to road improvements in the area. The government should fund both automobile and non-automobile projects at the same rates and force cuts on both of them. I do not know the jurisdictional issues around roads for Auckland so that may be the reason why they are not cutting back on roads.
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