“With Aotearoa’s target for net zero emissions by 2050, it’s vital we start transitioning young people and their whānau from their reliance on cars, towards more sustainable transport like bikes, scooters, skating or walking around their neighbourhoods,” the mayor said.
With $8 million of funding over the next 12 months, Hazlehurst believes that working by one school at a time, Heretaunga Arakura will make the city more liveable and community-focused.
Heretaunga Arakura will see students heavily involved throughout the programme, from mapping to planning, designing, implementing and activating events.
Many schools have already surveyed their schools and completed GIS (Geographical Information Systems) mapping, capturing travel behaviours throughout their school community, walking common school routes, and documenting any barriers stopping students and the broader community from moving to healthier, active transport modes.
Collected data gives the council a deeper understanding of popular school routes, current transport modes and how they can design the best solutions for the entire community and create more accessible streets.
With close to 5000 GIS entries and 400 community surveys submitted to date, with more being submitted daily, Hastings District Council has extensive data and understanding of residents’ needs to help them design the city for the future.
Along with the road changes, Hastings District Council is working alongside Sports Hawke’s Bay to run road safety and cycle skills workshops so whānau feel more confident about letting tamariki use active transport to and from school.
The programme team are also looking to provide wider whānau with road and cycle skills, encouraging the whole family to move to more sustainable modes of travel and improve the health and wellbeing of the wider community.
Schools will have the opportunity the bring their own whakapapa into design elements into kerb buildouts, raised crossings and planter boxes outside their school. This will include native plantings, pavement designs and school values woven into traffic-calming solutions, creating a sense of place and connection to their kura.
Heretaunga Arakura is funded through two Waka Kotahi funds and Streets for People Programme supports councils to use quick, low-cost, scalable improvements that inform future changes.
The Transport Choices package is part of the Waka Kotahi Climate Emergency Response Fund (CERF) programme, which aims to demonstrate what’s possible for communities nationwide by quickly providing people with healthier, more affordable and safer transport choices that are good for us, and for the environment.
Waka Kotahi manager urban mobility, Kathryn King, said Heretaunga Arakura is a shining example of how the transport agency, council and schools can work together to have a lasting impact on the community, supporting tamariki and their whānau to shift towards sustainable travel modes.
“Our streets need to change. Our communities want safer, more resilient and adaptable streets with less traffic, so children can confidently walk or bike to school, and Heretaunga Arakura will help achieve this in Hastings.”
The first phase of Heretaunga Arakura aims to roll the project out to 20-plus schools and communities within a 6km radius of Hastings CBD, with plans to have all works complete before the end of June 2024.
An HDC spokesperson said the council hopes future funding will become available to allow the programme to be rolled out to even more schools across the district.
