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Did you know?

NZ has the second highest car ownership per capita in the world, after the USA

People who cycle regularly enjoy a level of fitness equal to that of a person 10 years younger

On short trips (2-5kms), when your engine is cold, you use 20% more fuel

One third of vehicle journeys in NZ are under 5kms – an easy 20 minute cycle or 40 minute walk

Help yourself

 

Some sustainable transport links and ideas you can try…

www.metlink.co.nz for bus, train and ferry timetables. Or just text 287 24hrs a day from your mobile phone for bus times for any route at any stop

www.livingstreets.org.nz for Wellington walks and information on the benefits of walking

www.nzgreenbikes.co.nz for a scheme that provides free bikes in Wellington

www.hitch.net.nz for ridesharing

www.fuelsaver.govt.nz to assess the fuel efficiency of your car and your driving habits

Getting Around Wellington

Project Updates

Final Report - July 08

June 2008

April 2008

January 2008

Project Update - June 2008

“Getting Around Wellington” has completed its first one-year phase as funded by the Minister for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund and Wellington City Council.

The face-to-face travel conversations wrapped up in early June with some ideal opportunities for public engagement at World Environment Day events. Our team also assisted Wellington City Council at the free Eco Party by surveying audience member’s modes of transport to the Town Hall event; overwhelmingly they walked!

Since then we’ve been following up with our participants by phone and carrying out some other evaluations to measure how well the project worked. We talked with a total of 734 participants about choosing alternative transport modes, and of those surveyed 55% carried out one or more action to reduce their car-use.

The project officially ended on 30th June, and a full report of the last one-year phase will be available on our website on 14th July. With continued support from Wellington City Council, we hope to continue running the programme for the rest of the year, and roll it out to a city-wide audience.

So watch this space - see www.gettingaround.co.nz or for more information email:

Some of our greatest achievers were celebrated last week with rewards for their outstanding effort to replace or reduce their car trips. Here are their stories;

Overall “Getting Around” Star:  Sylvia Bauer, Vogeltown, with husband Matthew and daughter Echo

• Sold both household cars and has been car-free since April
• The family shops on-line and buses to the vegie market
• Sylvia took a job close to home, with a salary increase instead of a company car park
• She takes the bus to work everyday and jogs home
• Matthew cycles to work

“By jogging home my fitness has improved immensely and the exercise improves my mood greatly” Sylvia says. “In the past I wouldn’t have thought we could do without a car, but by planning ahead a little, we can get it all done”

Getting Around” Walking Star: Jaysell Gopal, Brooklyn

• Has reduced her weekly car trips from 15 to 3
• She walks to work every day rather than driving
• She now combines car trips and does one big weekly shop
• She enjoys the benefits of saving money on petrol; saving herself time spent driving around in her car

She says she was shocked to add up all the times she uses the car in a week –“I just didn’t realise.” Ms Gopall, who works on Lambton Quay says,“The walk in from Brooklyn is a breeze – it only takes about 20 minutes. Going home can be harder but its good exercise.”

Getting Around” Cycling Star: Awaroa Rapana, Maupuia

• The car used to be her only mode of transport but 17 trips a week is now down to 4
• Bought a bike and now cycles to work in Seatoun
• She also buses and walks locally
• Cycling has improved her fitness and has reduced her smoking significantly

“I really feel like something is missing if I haven’t been on my bike!” Says Ms Rapana. She plans to share her prize-winning experience with her pupils at Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o nga Mokopuna in Seatoun.

Project Update - April 2008

“Getting Around Wellington” – the city’s first voluntary travel behaviour change programme is shifting into top gear for its fifth month of engagements.

Since our last update in January we’ve been out and about enjoying the city’s glorious summer weather during events and lunch hours, chatting to people and gathering commitments to change their travel habits, with over 475 conversations so far.

Lunch hours in Midland Park are a great forum for chatting to workers in the area – and the great thing is many of them already use public transport to get to work - that’s really good news!

We continue to visit libraries and the Kilbirnie Aquatic centre is a great venue to chat with parents while the kids are messing about in the pool. One woman we met there had a bit of a revelation about taking her kids on the bus after our conversation;

“… the other day I went into town via the bus with a friend.  Fortunately she knows about her bus fares - and we took a day tripper.  I had my 3 year old with me - so for $5 we went into town:

- no hassles with parking

- no panic about getting back to the car to avoid a parking ticket - much more relaxing

- cheaper - forget the petrol - the key is the $4 an hour for parking

- no problems with getting from one end of town to the other with a toddler (i.e., move the car, or drag the child) - just get on a bus at no extra cost

- Lulu loved the adventure and it was fun to watch her interact with the rest of the passengers (don't know how they took it!) 

-It was fun, easy, and cheap!  So why hadn't I done it before - because no-one had given me the info. on the fare rates or marketed the scenario.”

Its great to hear the intention of the project coming true – getting relevant information to people about trips they can positively change from the car to another form of transport.

So far, the outcome of conversations can be summarized as below;

Community group meetings are rolling in now with several recent events – our most recent were this Sunday with a group of 20 or so from the Newtown Presbyterian Church, as well as a session with 15 people organised by Gecko, the VUW students’ environmental group. We also an enjoyed a meeting  last week with 21 members of the University of the 3rd Age and another last Sunday with the lovely folk from the combined Island Bay Church congregations.

The Island Bay event was brilliant – the Getting Around team joined the congregation for a thought-provoking service about the Christian values of stewardship and the environment from the Reverend. We followed on with our own short inspirational slideshow and then joined the congregation for travel conversations over supper (with home-made biscuits – yum!).

Here’s what Rev. Nathan Parry though of the evening:

“On Sunday March 30th 2008 several members of the Sustainability Trust joined us for a combined Island Bay Churches evening service. The overwhelming majority of the Trust people are not church-attenders, but they joined in the service respectfully, and enthusiastically participated in the small group discussions which were part of the sermon.

 Fey (Valiant – our community liaison rep) spoke for a short time during the service, and was very professional - she ad-libbed well for 5 mins while we sorted out a technology malfunction! Also, some from our community were unsure about a secular group being given time within a church service, and this was expressed to her publicly at one point, but she dealt with that very positively.

 As a group the Trust members were very young and exuded a sense of passion and vigour for their cause. In the workshops after the service they were well-equipped to communicate with people of all ages and abilities, and encouraged us all with solid, concrete examples, to drive less in our daily lives.”

Forty two people participated with a range of “next step” commitments to help reduce their household vehicle travel. One gentleman on my table suggested he would set a maximum weekly distance for himself and his wife to travel in their single car, and any trips over that limit would have to be forfeited or made a different way! He also plans to encourage his wife in planning the shopping list better to minimize supermarket trips.

In fact the supermarket trips have proved a popular target for trip reduction – 7% of active participants have identified those trips as the ones to reduce or combine with other trips. The most popular trip to target has been the work commute with 17% of active participants suggesting they could walk, cycle or take public transport to work a few days a week instead of driving.

To find out more, or get involved with “Getting Around Wellington”

see www.gettingaround.co.nz

Project Update - January 2008

Well, I guess we must be half-way…our travel behaviour change project started in July 2007, its January 2008 now and we’re due to finish up in June.

By then, we hope to have spoken with at least 700 people in Wellington’s south and east about reducing their household car-use…We’ve already spoken to about 250 people and their response has been amazing.

I’m talking about “Getting Around Wellington”, a voluntary travel behaviour change programme working particularly on people’s short trips – easy to change journeys of 2 – 5kms.

By talking to people at libraries, at the beach, at city events and at special workshop meetings we can find out a bit about their travel habits and the things they really value in life. Then its easy to suggest ways to use the car less that are actually going to improve life in other ways… like getting more exercise, more headspace after work, saving money on fuel costs… lots of good things can come out of leaving the car at home!

Actually for a lot of people driving is a habit they want to break…like smoking, or eating bad food. People have really amazing goals that they only need a little encouragement to fulfill.

Here are some of the stories we’ve heard so far (not the participants real names):

Alice from Strathmore Park left her previous sales job because of the extremely high car use. She now combines most of her car trips, and is aiming to walk to her weekend activities to improve her health. She is interested in trying a set up working from home to reduce her car journeys further. Good on you Alice!

Jo from Hataitai is pretty dedicated – he runs and walks everywhere! But he also has a van which he is planning to convert to bio-diesel which will reduce his already low emissions – go Jo!

Lara lives in Island Bay and had kids at kindy. She tries to take the bus to town and walk to work when possible but it’s the kindy run that’s tricky. She is going to try carpooling to kindy with other parents in her area because it will save her money in running the car, and the time she spends driving there every morning. Good luck with that Lara.

To find out more, or get involved with “Getting Around Wellington”

see www.gettingaround.co.nz

Lee Barry

Getting Around Wellington

Project Leader

Ph (+64 4) 389 3401