Category: public meeting

Save the Basin Campaign Inc. 2018 AGM, Thursday 22 November: “Essentials of a 21st Century Transport Strategy” and Panel Discussion

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The Save the Basin Campaign Inc. 2018 AGM will be held as follows:

When: Thursday 22 November, 5.45pm

Where: Mezzanine Room, Central Library, 65 Victoria Street

Programme: AGM at 5.45pm followed at approx 6.15pm by guest speaker Councillor Roger Blakeley, and a panel discussion featuring Cllr Blakeley and Save the Basin Campaign Inc. co-convenors Jo Newman and Tim Jones.

All are welcome to attend the AGM, listen to the speaker, and participate in the panel discussion. However, only people who are formal members of the Save the Basin Campaign Inc. will be able to participate in the business of the AGM.

About our speaker

Following the conclusion of the formal AGM, Dr Roger Blakeley will be our guest speaker. Dr Blakeley is a Councillor in the Greater Wellington Regional Council and Member, Capital and Coast District Health Board. He is a former Chief Executive of the Ministry for the Environment (1986 to 1995), and has held many other significant roles in central and local government. He has a deep knowledge of and interest in transport issues.

Cllr Blakeley’s topic will be “Essentials of a 21st Century Transport Strategy”, and following his presentation, there’ll be a panel consisting of Cllr Blakeley and Save the Basin Campaign Inc. co-convenors Jo Newman and Tim Jones. We expect to finish the formal business of the AGM by 6.15pm, and then have approximately 20 minutes each for Roger’s presentation and the panel that follows – so we’ll finish around 7pm.

About the panel discussion

The panel discussion following Cllr Blakeley’s presentation will feature Cllr Blakeley together with current Save the Basin Campaign Inc. co-convenors Jo Newman and Tim Jones.

There are some questions Cllr Blakeley may not be able to respond to due to his elected roles. However, individually or collectively, the panel should be able to address a wide range of Wellington transport topics, ranging from broad issues of transport strategy, to current and forthcoming Wellington transport developments, to current and planned future developments at the Basin Reserve.

Tim Jones
Co-Convenor
Save the Basin Campaign Inc.

Transportation 2040: Vancouver’s Blueprint for Sustainable Transport, with lessons for Wellington: Wednesday 4 July, 6:30-7:30pm

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Date, Time and Venue

Wednesday 4 July, 6:30-7:30pm
Sustainability Trust, 2 Forresters Lane, Te Aro (off Tory St)
Who: Hosted by Congestion-Free Wellington

What’s This About?

Wellington is facing major transport and land-use choices as we decide on the Let’s Get Wellington Moving process. Will we choose a compact, low-carbon city supported by world-class public transport, walking and cycling? Or will we choose tunnels, flyovers and sprawl?

How have other cities made progress? Learn more in this public presentation from Dale Bracewell, Vancouver’s transport manager. 

Transportation 2040 is Vancouver’s high-level vision for all modes of transport, with specific mobility and safety goals. Vancouver achieved its interim target of 50 percent of all daily trips by sustainable modes, and is on track to achieve two-thirds of all daily trips by walking, cycling and public transport in 2040.

The presentation will include learnings from Dale’s experiences applied to Wellington.

Facebook Event and Further Information

Facebook event – please share:
https://www.facebook.com/events/453349428446867/

Links
http://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/transportation-2040.aspx
https://nacto.org/person/dale-bracewell/

Image: https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2017-Dale-Headshotprint-res-e1506697321280-200×185.jpg

Now With Speaker Details: Public Meeting: For A More Liveable Wellington, Monday 28 August

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Our speakers are:

Roger Blakeley: Introduction – Let’s Get Welly Moving’s principles and objectives
 
Paula Warren: The sustainable transport hierarchy and why LGWM’s outcomes should reflect it
 
Barry Mein (LGWM): LGWM’s progress towards meeting its objectives
 
Russell Tregonning: Transport, climate change and public health: transport choices are health choices

 

When: Monday 28 August, doors open 5.30pm, 6pm sharp start, 7.30pm close

Where: Wellington Central Library, Mezzanine Floor Meeting Room

All welcome to hear how sustainable transport design for Wellington benefits everyone—walkers, cyclists, public transport users, and drivers—reducing traffic volumes, lowering carbon emissions, and making a healthier city.

Doors open 5.30 for 6pm sharp start. We’ll hear from our speakers, then have a panel discussion, with time for one-on-one discussions afterwards.

Facebook event.

Public Meeting: For A More Liveable City, Monday 28 August

Posted on by stb_nyltr0

 

When: Monday 28 August, doors open 5.30pm, 6pm sharp start, 7.30pm close

Where: Wellington Central Library, Mezzanine Floor Meeting Room

All welcome to hear how sustainable transport design for Wellington benefits everyone—walkers, cyclists, public transport users, and drivers—reducing traffic volumes, lowering carbon emissions, and making a healthier city.

Doors open 5.30 for 6pm sharp start. Speakers will be confirmed shortly.

Facebook event.

Taking A Stand: Transport, Motorways, the Basin Reserve, and the Future of the Museum Stand

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Interior of the Museum Stand, Basin Reserve. Photo by David Batchelor.

Last Thursday’s inaugural Congestion Free Wellington Public Meeting was a great success. Between 70 and 80 people attended, there was very strong support for the concept of the Congestion Free Wellington Declaration (albeit with some tweaks still needed to the wording), and there was a lot of enthusiasm and commitment for the community to seize this rare opportunity to wrench Wellington’s transport destiny into our hands, rather than have it left in the hands of the motorway-builders.

Save the Basin is one of the groups that’s set up Congestion Free Wellington, and we’ll keep you up to date on that. But it’s not the only issue we’re focused on. The future of the Basin Reserve’s historic Museum Stand is due to be decided this year. Even though the Council has not yet released any options – or costings – the Mayor has gone on record as saying he supports the demolition of the stand.

But does he realise what he would be demolishing? David Batchelor of Historic Places Wellington does realise, because he has been inside the stand and photographed some of its forgotten treasures. Head on over to Wellington Scoop to see just what treasures would be lost if the Mayor gets his way.

Save the Basin thinks that the Museum Stand deserves to be preserved and enhanced. At the very least, we want the best possible option for its retention developed and considered fairly and in detail against alternative proposals – without the Mayor, or anyone else, trying to predetermine the outcome.

Public Meeting for a Congestion Free Wellington: Thursday 25 May, 6pm, Wellington Central Library

Posted on by stb_nyltr0
  • What: Public Meeting for a Congestion Free Wellington
  • When: Thursday 25 May, 6-7.30pm
  • Where: Mezzanine Meeting Room, Wellington Central Library

The “Let’s Get Welly Moving” official process was supposed to deliver modern, sustainable transport options for Wellington. But it increasingly looks like a smokescreen for “four lanes to the planes”.

This public meeting will help us fight back against motorway madness and in favour of a liveable capital city that puts people first. It’s been called by a coalition of local groups concerned about the future of Wellington’s transport system, including Save the Basin.

Come along, invite your friends, and let’s make sure the outcome of this process is a liveable capital city with great public transport, streets, walking and cycling.

NZTA Refuses To Publicly Rule Out A Future Basin Reserve Flyover

Posted on by stb_nyltr0

At the post-Basin flyover engagement process launch last night, I asked Jim Bentley of Let’s Get Welly Moving (the new brand of the Ngauranga to Airport Governance Group, the joint NZTA/Greater Wellington/WCC body) whether a Basin Reserve flyover was absolutely off the table as an option.

And, although he came up with a carefully-worded answer that they wouldn’t be reintroducing a previously rejected proposal (i.e. the flyover proposal rejected in 2014), he would not say that a flyover as such was off the table. When I asked him to clarify his initial answer, he simply repeated it.

That’s disturbing. And if you’re as disturbed by that news as I am, you’ve got a chance to tell NZTA directly, because they will be participating in the Mt Victoria Transport Forum next Tuesday, 12 April. It would be great if Save the Basin supporters could get along. Details are:

MT VICTORIA TRANSPORT FORUM: The Basin Reserve in the wider city

When: 7.30pm Tuesday 12 April 2016

Where: St Joseph’s Church Hall, Brougham St (see map)

Convened by the Mt Victoria Newsletter

Full details can be downloaded in this flyer.

The forum is to discuss all aspects of the post-Basin engagement process, which looks at wider transport issues across the Wellington region. I think that’s an important conversation to participate in, and it gives us the chance to describe the Wellington we want to live in. You can give your opinion at their new website.

But there are also things we don’t want. Let’s keep making that point loud and clear.

No Bridge at the Basin – What Now? Invitation to a Pizza & Panel Evening, Thursday 12 March

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Basin Reserve rainbow. Photo: Patrick Morgan.
Basin Reserve rainbow. Photo: Patrick Morgan.

What: A Panel Discussion on the future of the Basin Reserve – plus tasty pizza!

When: Thursday 12 March, 6-8pm

Where: New Crossways, 6 Roxburgh St, Mt Victoria (off Majoribanks St) (see map)

How much: $20/$10 concessions, payable at the door

Who: You, your friends, neighbours, colleagues and networks! In fact, anyone interested in the future of the Basin Reserve and of Wellington’s transport system.

Why: Because our local authorities, given the opportunity by the Board of Inquiry decision to take a fresh look at the Basin, have chosen to hide behind NZTA’s appeal process instead. So it’s time we, the people of Wellington, took the lead.

The Pizzas: We’ll be taking orders at the start of the event and having pizzas delivered during the event. BYO beverages.

The Panel: We have an excellent panel lined up, including three speakers (Julie Anne Genter, Michael Kelly and Sarah Poff) who appeared as expert witnesses at the Board of Inquiry:

  • Mary Varnham (moderator): Managing Director Awa Press, former Wellington City Councillor.
  • Julie Anne Genter: Transportation Planner, MP, Green Party spokesperson on Transport
  • Russell Tregonning: Orthopedic Surgeon, Senior Clinical Lecturer at University of Otago, Wellington. Executive Member Ora Taiao: The NZ Climate and Health Council. Committee member, Fair Intelligent Transport Wellington (FIT Wellington).
  • Sarah Poff: Landscape Architect, SPK Landscape Architecture.
  • Michael Kelly: Heritage Consultant, writer – “The Lung of the Capital: The Basin Reserve,” in Heartlands, Penguin Books (2006).

(Note: Some panel members are listed subject to final confirmation of availability.)

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/767473170010976/

Please share this widely and invite your friends and networks. It’s going to be a good night.

Transport Realities Are Changing Fast. Is The Government Starting To Take Notice?

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“Peak car” acknowledged by the Ministry of Transport

Following each General Election, Government departments prepare a Briefing for the Incoming Minister (BIM). Patrick Morgan of Cycle Aware Wellington has drawn my attention to the following passage from the Ministry of Transport’s BIM – emphasis is mine:

“The average distance travelled per-person in light passenger vehicles has fallen by around 8 percent, from a peak of about 7,600km in 2004, to around 7,000km in 2013. The total distance travelled over the same period has increased marginally (from 39.3 billion kilometres in 2004 to 40.4 billion kilometres in 2013) as a result of population growth. This trend is not unique to New Zealand – it has been observed in a number of developed countries.

There is some debate as to whether this trend is the result of economic factors or a more structural shift in attitudes towards personal transportation. The fact that this trend emerged before the onset of the global financial crisis gives cause to believe that social, behavioural and lifestyle factors (such as the proliferation of smart phones, social media, online shopping and video conferencing) may also be having an influence. A related trend is a reduction in the number of driver licences being issued. In particular, fewer young people are choosing to drive. This suggests that in some groups, the perceived merit of car ownership and use may be declining.”

(from http://www.transport.govt.nz/about/publications/briefingtoincomingminister/)

Save the Basin has already drawn attention in the media to New Zealand research showing that young people in urban centres are turning away from driving private cars. It’s great to see that the Ministry of Transport has picked up on this. The question now is: are the Government and NZTA willing and able to realise that the assumptions on which their transport thinking is based no longer apply?

Photo by Patrick Morgan
Photo by Patrick Morgan

Presentation draws together the many health benefits of reorienting transport planning

OraTaiao, the New Zealand Climate & Health Council, is playing an increasing role in drawing attention to the negative health implications of the Government’s obsession with funding motorways while depriving sustainable transport and active modes of financial support. Last week, Russell Tregonning of OraTaiao delivered an excellent presentation entitled Transport, Climate and Health: Wellington at the cross-roads that draws together:

  • the urgent need to reorient transport planning and spending to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport
  • the other public health and economic benefits that would flow from doing so – such as reductions in crashes, air pollution, and obesity and related ailments
  • the changing patterns of transport behaviour that are helping to change transport planners’ and Government’s transport thinking worldwide

We encourage you to download, read and share Russell’s presentation.

Discover The Human Scale This Saturday, 4-6pm, New Crossways, 6 Roxburgh St

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the_human_scale

“The Human Scale” is a Danish documentary which has been a huge success at film festivals, including a sold-out festival screening in Wellington. It includes a section on the Christchurch rebuild.

Here’s the synopsis from the film’s website at http://thehumanscale.dk/the-film/:

50 % of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 80%. Life in a mega city is both enchanting and problematic. Today we face peak oil, climate change, loneliness and severe health issues due to our way of life. But why? The Danish architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through 40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account

Save the Basin are hosting a fundraising screening of “The Human Scale” on Saturday.

When: Saturday 22 February, 4-6pm

Where: New Crossways, Level 1, 6 Roxburgh St, Mt Victoria

How much: Recommended $10 koha at the door (no advance sales).

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/201696636694730/

We hope you’ll come along – and please let your friends, and anyone interested in retaining Wellington as a city for people, not a city for cars, know about this movie.