Worldwide, streets are being opened to people on foot, with spectacular benefits to communities in terms of traffic and personal safety, economic well-being, community cohesiveness, and physical health.
ViaStrada has assisted with the development of walking guidance and tools from NZTA (e.g. the Pedestrian Network Guidance) to enable better practice in meeting the needs of people walking. We have also contributed to industry training in this area.
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.
KiwiRail and the New Zealand Transport Agency have led the development of a New Zealand design guide for pedestrian and cycle facilities at rail crossings, both alongside roadways and stand-alone. ViaStrada was commissioned to develop this guidance and worked with Stantec who were developing parallel new guidance on risk assessment of level crossings.
ViaStrada has provided transport planning advice to the Christchurch City Council with respect to the transport-related provisions in the Christchurch City Plan to support the Central City South Master Plan. The master plan was adopted by Council in May 2009 and established the main characteristics (desired outcomes) that Council is seeking to encourage for the precinct.
Walking and cycling strategies are useful tools that aid councils in providing for pedestrians and cyclists. In 2005, earlier research found that 36 strategies were held by 30 different councils throughout New Zealand. A stocktake of all current walking and cycling strategies was undertaken. This revealed that there are now 61 strategies prepared by 55 different councils (out of 85).
Megan Fowler's first project at ViaStrada was to assist Tim Hughes of Land Transport New Zealand (now the New Zealand Transport Agency) in completing the Pedestrian Planning and Design Guide.
