Far North Urban Active Modes Plan wins award!

We were delighted to be recognised along with our project partners as one of seven category winners out of 20 finalists at the  Living Streets Aotearoa 2024 Golden Foot Awards. 

ViaStrada's Far North District Council Urban Active Modes Plan won the Best Programme award at the Golden Foot Awards. Thank you to Rebecca Teal-Ireland and the Abley team for the collaborative effort. 

These awards are presented every two years celebrating innovative new infrastructure and highlighting best practices and achievements for walking and walkers.

Whilst the Far North District is largely rural, there are a dozen key urban areas where people could use active transport for many daily needs. These towns are generally compact, so the distance between destinations is suitable for walking. The urban active modes district-wide plan focuses on improving footpaths and crossings in the district.

We produced a chart showing how the Far North towns fare in terms of footpath coverage compared to three benchmark towns. They have a long way to go to get up to the Pedestrian Network Guidance standard, but this Plan included an assessment of the level of funding required to achieve that over different time horizons. We also studied the pedestrian crossing provision (existing and ideal). As far as we are aware it's the first broad analysis using GIS conducted across a region. 

More information about this project can be found here. https://viastrada.nz/project/2023/far-north-district-council-urban-active-modes-plan