31 October 2011 – 9:56 am
Also posted in media and urban governance
“Sizing up the City: Urban form and transport in New Zealand Edited by Philippa Howden-Chapman, Keriata Stuart and Ralph Chapman, Steele Roberts Publishers, RRP $29.99, ISBN 978-1-877577-27-7, Available now.
Sizing up the City is a collection of essays explaining how the city works: where we live, how we get around and the wider effect those decisions have on our lives. The love affair with the car is broken down, graphed, and a blueprint for a more liveable city is put in its place.”
The review and link to PDF is viewable here.
27 October 2011 – 1:57 pm
Also posted in research and urban governance
This document produced by Landcare Research in May 2011 provides and inventory of 92 post activities initiated earthquakes and a list of 144 people who have made a contribution to the rebuilding research, planning or practice.
Ph Helen Fitt 64 3 321 9999 for more details.
Christchurch Earthquake Activity Inventory
20 October 2011 – 12:08 pm
Also posted in NZ policy issues and housing & building and media and urban design
Commercial Property NZ is an independent subscription newsletter published 24 times annually. If you wish to subscribe email Peter Hamling: peter@sigma.co.nz
If you wish to buy a copy of ‘Growth Misconduct?’ email: info@steelroberts.co.nz
See page four: CPNZ issue 90
18 October 2011 – 9:36 am
Also posted in NZ policy issues and research and transport and urban design
Angus Hulme -Moir – Thesis
Minimum Parking requirements (MPRs) mandate that each new development provides enough parking to ensure ample provision at the time of peak demand. This approach tends to oversupply parking above the optimal level, and by bundling parking into the development costs, ensures that parking is free to the user. As a result, land-use and transport decisions are distorted. A case study of Porirua central business district (CBD) was undertaken to investigate the use of MPRs in the New ZEaland context, and to assess their impacts on transport and land-use patterns. Findings indicate that MPRs tend to oversupply parking relative to weekly mean and peak occupancies. Land use mapping found that 24 percent of CBD land is allocated to car parking and MPRs were shown to contribute to dispersed development patterns. Stand choice data and a cost recovery model for car parking highlight how free and ample car parking provision favours car driving and has distortionary impacts on travel decisions.
Angus Hulme-Moir
13 October 2011 – 12:37 pm
Also posted in urban design
Sustainable City 2012, 7 – 9 May, 2012, Ancona, Italy
Call for Papers
This conference aims to address the many inter-related aspects of the urban environment from transport and mobility to social exclusion and crime prevention. The meeting will build on the contributions made in previous conferences, which successfully managed to provide an international view of the problems facing modern cities and their solutions.
Urban areas produce a series of environmental challenges arising from the consumption of natural resources and the consequent generation of waste and pollution, contributing to the development of social and economic imbalances. All these problems, that continue to grow in our society, require the development of new solutions.
http://www.wessex.ac.uk/12-conferences/sustainable-city-2012.html
10 October 2011 – 10:47 am
Also posted in NZ policy issues and research and transport
Car use is engrained in our culture. Changing behaviour towards using more sustainable travel modes such as public transport is notoriously difficult, despite the increasing awareness of environmental problems caused by car use. Integrated ticketing is a policy measure more recently used in strategies towards achieving integrated and sustainable transport systems. It allows a passenger to travel with one public transport ticket throughout a region. This research uses a mixed method approach to assess how integrated ticketing may affect public transport use in Greater Wellington. The psychological constructs determining decisions to use public transport are tested using an integrated environmental behaviour model proposed by Bamberg and Möser (2007). The results support the integrated modelling approach. Intentions to use public transport are indirectly affected by awareness of environmental problems caused by car use mediated through social norms, guilt, perceived behavioural control and attitude. The intention to use public transport explains 56% of the variance in public transport behaviour. Integrated ticketing presents an opportunity to increase the ease and convenience of travel, shown to be important in the model. The majority of survey respondents perceived that they would use integrated ticketing in Greater Wellington and that it was important both on a regional and national scale. Achieving an effective integrated ticketing system in Greater Wellington will be conditional on firstly improving public transport service reliability and stakeholder communication. Integrating fares across the region and across modes will also be crucial to the system’s success.
C Morley Thesis (2)
Also posted in research and urban governance
It has been argued above that the economic characteristics of cities play an integral role in the quality of life available to residents who live in them. It has also been suggested that Tauranga is facing a rapid population growth and could benefit from local economic development activity. In order to develop a response to this problem, the objective of this research is to understand the interplay between institutional factors and the management of local economic development in the process of sustainable urban development, with reference
to Tauranga’s recent rapid population growth.
Sonya Baird – Thesis (final)
Also posted in housing & building and research and urban design
This thesis addresses the loss of urban open space resulting from increasing demand for residential floor space within a limited supply of urban land. Demand for floor space is being driven by a number of factors – falling household size (meaning a need for more one- and two-person dwellings and a demand for more floor space per person); a growth in multi-generational households (meaning a need for homes with more than three bedrooms); the trend towards bigger homes; and steady population growth in New Zealand’s main urban centres, especially Auckland.
SJP_Executive Summary of Thesis
27 September 2011 – 10:40 am
Also posted in transport
This paper addresses the issue of pedestrian over-run protection for buses and whether something similar to the degress of protection afforded by trams can also be achieved with buses. The benefits to pedestrians in this context also extend to cyclists and motorcyclists, who are also frequently put at risk of being run over by collision with buses.
Microsoft Word – Bus Pedestrian OverRun from Problem to Solution
27 September 2011 – 10:37 am
Also posted in NZ policy issues and transport
Pedestrians and public transport go together, especially in the central city. And yet, in Wellington, one of New Zealand’s most walkabale cities – much more so than Auckland- there has been a spate of pedestrian accidents involving buses, which have the potential to cause serious injury and death even at low speeds.
Microsoft Word – Bus Frontal Conspicuity from Problem to Solution
9 September 2011 – 10:56 am
Also posted in NZ policy issues and Uncategorized and research
Cr Andy Foster from Wellington City Council spoke on the benefits of having a national research agenda for a city council. He reinforced the priorities for research of Metropolitan Urban Limits, How to incentivise and work with developers. He noted the real need at a local government level for tools and scenario planning.
Melanie Thornton spoke from a regional government perspective:
WGN_DOCS-#963459-v1-Presentation_to_Centre_for_Sust_Cities_2
Sarah McDermott spoke from the Ministry for Science and Innovation:
Sarah_s ppt
9 September 2011 – 10:44 am
Also posted in NZ policy issues and Uncategorized and research
Also posted in behaviour change and media
Walk the Talk
It’s time to have your steps towards sustainability recognised.
Enter the Sustainable 60 Awards by 5 August.
The Sustainable 60 Awards recognise that sustainability is a journey. The five award categories allow you to showcase in what area your business is sustainable.
You can enter one, many, or all five categories.
* Strategy and Governance – value drivers for innovative leadership
* Workplace – from ethics to ongoing learning
* Marketplace – the value-chain interface
* Environment – from resource use to closed-loop systems
* Community – confirming the licence to operate.
Large and medium sized businesses and public organisations that enter all five categories are eligible for the Overall Exemplar awards.
Also posted in NZ policy issues and health and housing & building and transport and urban design and urban governance
The New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities and Landcare Research is pleased to post this, Wn ChCh Regeneration Book 11
This evidence-based report draws on the collective expertise of over 100 urban researchers, scientists and policy advisors who attended a sustainability workshop in Christchurch in April.
A limited number of printed copies will be available on request
Also posted in NZ policy issues and Uncategorized and research and urban design
Growth Misconduct? Avoiding sprawl and improving urban intensification in New Zealand
Edited by Karen Witten, Wokje Abrahamse & Keriata Stuart
New Zealand’s population is expected to grow by one million people in the next 20 years. The arrival of ‘peak oil’ and accumulating evidence of climate change force us to reconsider the way we grow our cities. This book provides insights into the multifaceted practice of urban intensification. It highlights both the promise and the limitations of planning models such as smart growth and new urbanism in New Zealand cities. Growth Misconduct? is intended to further our knowledge, spark debate and help us think critically about ways to create livable, beautiful, environmentally sustainable and prosperous cities. The book highlights where intensification has gone wrong to enable planners and designers to overcome these barriers and work towards models of urban intensification that will bring environmental, social and economic gains.
rrp $34.99
Steele Roberts Aotearoa Box 9321, Wellington, New Zealand
+64 4 499 0044 info@steeleroberts.co.nz www.steeleroberts.co.nz
