Eyeing the future of transport in Taranaki
“Transport emissions have been growing strongly, driven by economic growth and a relatively low oil price. Current transport demands, which are 99% reliant on oil, are strongly embedded in the economic and social fabric of the country,” according to Ministry for the Environment, Emissions from Transport.
With only 10 years left to constrain global warming, a dramatic step needs to be made to ensure all infrastructure, projects, products, housing and transport investments enable a low carbon future.
It is up to us as professionals, designing or financing projects, and customers demanding solutions to contribute to a lower emissions future for transport. It’s our duty to encourage regional leadership to adopt a long-term vision process and make the right investments to achieve this now.
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More sophisticated solutions should be considered to ensure better investments. For example, car sharing services, like Zilch, could replace large fleets of electric vehicles, hiring electric cars by the hour, or other out of the box solutions such as modernizing car sharing.
The Link Car Sharing app, created by a forward-thinking couple from Taranaki, enables commuters travelling to the same locations, such as Hāwera or Stratford, to share the journey and its cost. As a rider, you can see what rides are on offer or choose your destination and state how much you are willing to pay to get there. Those flying into the airport regularly have found this to be a great savings.
Additionally, weaving together mātuaranga Maori with transition engineering could accelerate this positive transition. Cultural respect for the land has always existed and the engineers are already proportionally here in this region. Preserving the environment and moving around efficiently and comfortably is entirely feasible.
While encouraging our elected leaders to make policy decisions to promote positive transport behaviours, we can all take individual actions by using existing bus infrastructure, shopping within walking or biking distance, limiting trips, or carpooling. These are realistic actions we can take right now at no cost.
The public was invited to contribute to a kaupapa on Thursday, the 8th of April at 6:30pm at the New Plymouth Club. Participants suggested what to do differently, after hearing about options for cleaner, cheaper and healthier transport in Taranaki.
Article inspired by Jamie Silk and written by Brittany Ryan
