A reader has been struck by the differences between road management in Japan and New Zealand. Photo / Alex Cairns
Letter of the week
Having just visited Japan, I was struck by the differences between road management there and here. In 17 days, in cities and the countryside, I didn’t see a single raised pedestrian crossing.
In that time I saw hardly any road cones. When there was a road problem, like a slip for example, the only people on site were those working on the problem. No stop-go sign holders, just simple lights if needed. No people sitting around on cell phones, or road cone carrier trucks.
So, the question is what has gone so very wrong in New Zealand?
In the past few years of idealistic concepts, like the road to zero policy, which is patently not working, we have lost our direction. We need to get back to our normal Kiwi common sense and practicality and to stop wasting massive amounts of money.
Trish Jenner, Bayswater
Climate and opinion
Diverse commentary over the past seven days has illustrated the wide spectrum of climate opinion.
We began with senior scientific questioning of the validity of off-setting fossil fuel consumption through the ETS with tree planting as the saving grace. It is highlighted that no matter how vast the areas of plantings, it is simply folly to assert that mitigation is possible to achieve under the current levels of fossil fuel consumption. Threats of wildfire, storm damage and the sacrifice of productive arable land insignificant it seems.
On the same day, we had suggestions that the answer was widespread lifestyle change led by Government and business, suggesting “the people will follow”.
Next, there was an alarming article claiming that large tracts of dairy farming land were under threat from sea level rise accompanied by a farcical image of beef cattle (not dairy) surrounded by flood water. The proximity to sea level not indicated. The fact that sea level changes over the past century have been barely discernable seems to have escaped the author. Some will recall early “modelling” that had us foundering under 3 metres of sea level rise by 2010.
A report then followed pointing out that global emissions continue to increase despite commitments to curtail pollution. Easy enough to make promises, harder to follow through.
And so to the ultimate irony, with COP28 being hosted by the UAE with their oil-soaked wealth and political hand wringers flying in from all over, blissfully unaware of their hypocrisy.
George Williams, Whangamatā.
Waitākere closure
Former ranger John Walsh’s article (NZ Herald, November 23) was at long last a rational article in response to the five-year-old effective closure of most of the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park.
This magnificent ratepayer-funded wilderness potential asset is on the city doorstep, and therefore probably unmatched anywhere else in the world. Its more rugged and remote tracks and tracts were a haven for trampers, activity groups, Scouts and other youth groups. Nearly all is now forbidden territory, except for a few, metalled, stepped, unchallenging, utterly boring formed paths like those provided for strollers in central city parks. All tracks are adorned with garish entry stations. Tramping clubs and other groups, previously very active, have more or less collapsed for want of challenging local territory.
Meanwhile, pigs, whose favourite pastime is wallowing in mud and so are unrivalled transporters of contaminated soil, roam off and on tracks 24/7.
Bob Culver, Avondale.
Reopen the ranges
Hurrah to John Walsh (NZ Herald, November 23) on the pointless ongoing closure of most of the Waitākere Ranges. As one who has walked or run over every one of the 240km of trails many times, their closure is a colossal loss to our city and a failure to understand the major role nature plays in our physical and mental health. There’s a huge body of academic literature on what is described as “nature-deficit disorder”, much of it summarised in an illuminating book titled Last Child in the Wilderness by Richard Louv.
Nature and wilderness provide a portal into a larger world of knowledge and self-discovery, and today’s generations of urban and tech-obsessed children are especially impoverished by being shut out of our forests. The great worth of outdoors nature programmes for kids can also be measured in self-esteem, leadership skills, independent thinking and wonderment at the interconnected miracle of life in natural forests. Children will also develop a lifelong commitment to protecting nature, and guardianship simply through their immersion in it.
Many Waitākere trails have little or no kauri on them at all, and even park rangers have privately expressed their bemusement and reservations. I believe local volunteer groups and conservationists should take charge of specific tracks, respecting our great remaining kauri and podocarps while preventing many of our closed trails from being lost forever. This approach would also overcome issues of costs. Aucklanders need to raise their voices and reclaim stewardship of our diminishing wild places, and before 240km of beautiful trails shrink to 60km of manicured tracks that deprive us of wilderness experience and challenge.
Jogyata Dallas, Onehunga.
Luxon lauded
Commentators Mathew Hooton and Bryce Edwards will have suffered a loss of credibility for their extreme criticism of Christopher Luxon’s handling of the coalition government negotiations. It’s a safe bet that neither writer has ever conducted a complex negotiation themselves. Managing a high-level, multi-issue negotiation with two parties to an agreed outcome is difficult enough but add in a third party and the challenge becomes exponentially greater. The negotiation process itself is a potential minefield before even getting to matters of substantive policy. And when the two smaller parties have advocates as seasoned and steely as David Seymour and Winston Peters the only way forward is a very cautious step-by-step approach exactly as followed by Luxon.
The comprehensive and detailed outcome including dispute resolution mechanisms will speak for itself, and augurs well for the strong and stable government the new Prime Minister has sought. Those political pundits who stick their necks out into areas in which they have no experiential knowledge can have no objection when the guillotine of public rejection falls.
Rick Mirkin, Muriwai Beach.
A QUICK WORD
Are the motorists who complain about cycle lanes the same motorists who refuse to let the bus go first? You will pass the bus at the next bus stop. It appears to me that motorists don’t want anyone else using “their” roads.
Brenda Barnes, St Heliers.
After a member of the public “detains” a shoplifter only to be told by the police to let him go, we are now told on television news “not to get involved”. I’ll remember that if I see a woman being beaten on the street, or a girl being set upon at a bus stop by several others. Should I walk on by and avoid the possibility of being charged with assault by the offender if I intervene as intimated by the police? What are we really coming to in our society when human decency could be criminal.
Ian Doube, Rotorua.
A number of electronic signs have cropped up around the city reminding the good citizens to put their food scraps bins out. I assume this means this project has not been a roaring success. Electronic signs are not cheap either.
Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.
Now there is a change of government, NZ Herald cartoonist Rod Emmerson will be forced to change his lens too.
Mohammed Yakub, Māngere East.
Thanks again, Rod Emmerson, for your Winnie the Glue illustration. It’s nice to have a chuckle when so much is sad and gloomy. As A. A. Milne said through Eeyore, “We can’t all, and some of us don’t. That’s all there is to it.”
J Garton, Henderson
The correspondent who expressed her dissatisfaction of body cameras being trialled in a supermarket chain (NZ Herald, November 23) seems to have missed the point. The cameras are for workers’ safety, given the huge increase of abuse the staff are having to contend with. “A friendly, welcoming smile” is not going to achieve anything when confronted with a rude, entitled, belligerent person hell-bent on getting their own way.
Lorraine Kidd, Warkworth.
While all the other football confederation nations are playing competitive qualifying matches, New Zealand’s All Whites are playing a friendly international. Something is not right here.
Tiong Ang, Mt Roskill.
Regarding the SailGP situation, Auckland, with its unparalleled and iconic harbour, deserves better. Auckland Council and all those invested in development of the old oil storage waterfront property, supporting major international yachting contests, have failed us all. Planning, coordinating and delivery of the essential sailing event infrastructure to meet the SailGP specifications is core business for the parties involved. Their joint inability to efficiently progress and settle a deal reflects very poorly.
Larry. N. Mitchell, Rothesay Bay.
So some people in Wānaka want Maccas banned from their “special” environment — but it’s okay everywhere else that’s not “special”. The solution for them is obvious: boycott the place.
Garry Wycherley, Awakino.
Armed police stood guard as the patched members were led out in handcuffs.