Jan Gehl, Urban Design architect introduced 650 ‘normal’ Aucklanders to a world of possibilities. The tide is turning. I hope Mayor Banks stayed for the presentation. I hope Mayoral contender, Len Brown was there, too. If not, why not?
The message was pretty simple: “If you want a city that is lively, vibrant, livable, safe, sustainable and healthy, be sweet to your pedestrians”. Humans are social creatures. They want to engage with each other and their surroundings. Funnily enough, this can’t be done from a car. The tide is turning. Cycling is a major feature in this type of city.
Jan, with his band of volunteers (pictured), have been undertaking a series of ‘health checks’ on Auckland City. The doctor’s impressions so far:
- The car is king
- It has large traffic volumes
- It has heavy through traffic
- It has the most car parking space per capita in the world
Auckland currently lacks a heart but according to Jan, it has plenty of potential.
- It has a beautiful north facing harbour
- It has a high number of residents
- It has a high number of students
And the tide is turning. The secret to the success of cities with lots of walking and cycling is the built infrastructure. Open spaces, traffic calming, street furniture, places to congregate. This takes time and effort. It won’t happen by itself. Who is the politician that will lead the charge? And retailers need not panic. The shops on Copenhagen’s main street experienced a 75% increase in business after it was pedestrianised. Cafe seats increased. It’s all ours to have. The tide is turning but who will grasp this opportunity? And if it can be done in New York…?
Is it time for Auckland to have its first Ciclovia event? Take a look and be inspired. And here is the presentation he gave to the Auckland audience.
cycling/freedom
Cycle Action Auckland — a voice for cyclists
Someone on Auckland Transport blog said he had seen JB leave immediately after giving his speech. If true, that would be sooo…. well, it would make me pretty peeved. He if anyone, needed to hear this, not us – to us, Gehl was preaching to the converted, and "all" he did was just give us some added enthusiasm.
On the pro side, several of my bosses where there, as well as a few consultants and other types who would norrmally not be seen close to such events.
The Gehl presentation was awesome and I have the same feeling that it was bit preaching to the converted. That said, the most important thing that Gehl can do is speak directly to the elected officials and business elite. (Lets face it just about anyone with a little sense would provide the same recommendations).
Lets hope that Auckland joins the modern cities of the world – seattle, melbourne, portland, london, nyc etc and elects someone who is committed to this. Is it JB? Fercrissakes how many years has he already had?
And +1 for a cyclovia event Mark- but i'm sure it would take a resource consent, handwringing, and every other ridiculous thing that stops anything from happening around here.
I had a maths tutor once who kept reminding us to 'not leave our commonsense at the door when we entered'. It feels like that is happening quite a bit in terms of the approach to transport.
I am quietly confident that we can get a cyclovia event happening. If you thought the Cycle Style evening was good…you aint seen nothing yet! How's that for confidence….
One day we will look back and wonder why it all seemed so hard. Bring it on, Auckland!
There's elections in 3 months. Here's some starter ideas from CAN for all you campaigners and citizens.
Council elections in September and October present a once-in-3-years opportunity to achieve more bike-friendly cities and towns.
How you can help
1. Check your enrolment at elections.org.nz before 20 August
2. Vote for candidates who support the transport policies you want
3. If you attend candidates' meetings, send letters to editors, facebook or post online, then raise transport and cycling as issues.
Possible questions
1. What are your transport policies?
2. What have you done, and will you do, to make <my town> more bike-friendly?
3. Do you support safer speed limits in shopping and residential streets?
4. Do you support removing road-side parking to make space for cycle lanes?
http://can.org.nz/article/vote-bike-at-local-council-elections-in-september-october-2010
Thanks, Patrick! Lambton Ward Councillors can expect to hear from me.
Thanks Patrick. I would also advise; make yourself known to every decision maker/budget holder in your community and build a positive relationship with them. You may be pleasantly surprised.
I liked the insight from Gehl – We need to stop having cyclists protecting parked cars from moving traffic and move to a model where parked cars protect cyclists from moving traffic.
I saw this being videoed. Does anyone know if it has been posted to the internet yet? I'd like to send the link to some mates who I know will be interested.
Thanks,
Warwick.
@Warwick. Yes I liked that idea too. Parked cars do have a value after all. There is a video. Not sure as to its availability. Will follow up.