Planning and design for walking - industry training

There are many reasons why New Zealanders need to walk more. Just a few of them are congestion, pollution, peak oil, the obesity epidemic and climate change. Yet many barriers exist to discourage people from walking - physical, social, cultural and institutional.

Streets around the world are being opened up again to people on foot, with spectacular benefits to communities in terms of traffic and personal safety, economic well-being, community cohesiveness and children's health.

ViaStrada staff, together with colleagues from NZ Transport Agency, have previously delivered several one-day Fundamentals of Planning and Design for Walking courses, between 2011-16. Engineers and planners with an interest or mandate for walking, plus interested members of walking advocacy groups, are invited to register their interest in future courses. You'll learn from leading practitioners about the policies and practices that can make our towns and cities better for walking.

The courses use guidance and tools published by the NZTA (e.g the new Pedestrian Network Guidance) to enable better practice in meeting user needs. The course aims to ensure participants are inspired, understand the key principles behind the guidance, and are equipped with the basic skills needed to apply them. The issues will be illustrated in practice by an audit of existing conditions for walking in nearby streets. Participants will work on project examples, choosing the appropriate pedestrian facilities and grappling with those "devil in the detail" design issues that make all the difference.

Anybody involved in land transport planning or design should consider taking this course, from the new graduate to the engineer with 20+ years experience. We also typically accept a number of advocacy or other volunteer community representatives to attend this course at a reduced rate.

ViaStrada have also helped to deliver some walking/cycling webinars for NZTA in 2019-20, now available for viewing/listening here.

Future Courses

Currently no pedestrian planning/design courses have been scheduled yet for 2024. To express interest in taking part in a course, please contact Glen Koorey.

Course Presenters

Presenters for the last Auckland course were Tim Hughes from NZ Transport Agency and ViaStrada Director Axel Downard-Wilke. Glen Koorey has also presented this course in the past.

Tim Hughes (NZTA) has over 25 years experience as a road safety engineer, managing projects to provide guidance on provision for pedestrians with different needs and auditing new works to assess walkability and ensure that they are walking friendly. He led the development of various NZ guidelines for walking, including the Pedestrian Planning and Design Guide (PPDG; 2008) and RTS 14, guidelines for facilities for blind and vision-impaired pedestrians.