Northland Innovation Centre

On 8. June Tony Collins, CEO from North Chamber, organised an excellent networking breakfast in Whangarei.

From an engaging discussion on the future of Northland, the following two topics emerged:

• Smart City
• Smart Transport

Rather than the rest of the country keep talking about cool & innovative topics, it was suggested that Northland leads the charge and starts acting.

We will organise a transport competition of all political parties, selected local celebrities and interested citizens to show that Northland is moving swiftly to make it an even better place to live. Check out a comparative list of forms of transport.

We will host a multimodal bridge-to-bridge race on Monday 28. August during morning rush hour in Whangarei. Each participant will start at the NW car park in Onerahi at 7:45am sharp, collect a defined item in town under the Canopy near the Dickens Inn and then go to the car park adjacent at the Canopy bridge.

We plan to have participants using all sorts of different means of transport including walking, car, electric vehicle, van, bus, taxi, push bike, e-bike, scooter.

Sheryl Mai, Mayor of Whangarei will join us by scooter. Other confirmed participants are Dr Shane Reti from National, Ash Holswell from the Greens, Shane Jones from NZ First, Tony Savage from Labour and local business leaders.

Students of from Hunuia College will interview a panel of party representatives on the topic of transport & sustainability in Northland. The responses will be video-ed and kept for post election viewing. Media will be present.

This is a fantastic opportunity for all political candidates to show their vision and commitment to make Northland an even better place for all of us – in real action, rather than words.

What happened on 28. August?

Here is the Advocate report on the day. Also see some video footage of the interviews.

Here is a comparison of the four modes of transport for this 6km long trip:

Source: AA, EECA (2017)

At the Canopy Bridge the Head Boy and his Deputy from Huanui College, Toby Lengyel and Connor Forbes, interviewed the participating politicians on issues including transport (Northland and NZ wide), education, housing and climate change policies.

For reference from the South Island, see Star Media Christchurch Challenge.

DISCLAIMER:  The organisers do not support any party. The event is purely to highlight transport options and start a dialogue & action on commuter/ transport alternatives.