ITE Central Coast Section’s Post

I was on RNZ this morning with Paora Stanley and Greg Brownless discussing whether Tauranga City Council commissioners should finish their Long Term Plan, or put it on hold until the newly elected council gets in. My points: 👉 TCC’s LTP needs to be completed before the election (July 2024). They are legally obligated too, albeit the Minister has provided all councils with some limited grace. 👉 It takes a year for a newly elected council to understand their role, their levers, the issues in detail, and to meaningfully engage with stakeholders. 👉 The new ward-based system means an elected councillor may know the issues of their ward, but could be uninformed of issues in other areas across the city that they will be asked to make decisions on. This will take time. 👉 The incoming elected council can amend the LTP whenever it chooses, including reviewing previous decisions. 👉 Meanwhile, the city’s housing unaffordability keeps rising and our transport corridors are facing crazy congestion demands. The developers and civil construction crews need long-term direction and continuity to deliver the necessary infrastructure. The city needs to keep moving... 🚗 🚚 🚛 🏠 🏬  

While no doubt cliché to do an election post. With results finally in and a Cabinet forming, for those of us in the built environment world it's probably one of the most exciting policy agendas for a while with a clear early push on planning and infrastructure reform and transport. It will be interesting to observe those with narrow majorities in some of the areas more sensitive to development as to which way they lean, either towards the national agenda or the hyper local. Although sad to see some very good people on both sides miss out, within the Labour benches there is some exceptional talent which I hope is able to be effectively used given the size of the majority and steer that the cabinet is unlikely to be changed as often as we've seen in recent premierships.

👏Congratulations to Keir Starmer on his election as prime minister. In the Liverpool City Region, we're ready and raring to go to help him and his government deliver on their missions. Working hand in hand, we can help to hit the ground running: 📈 Delivering strong economic growth by tackling poor productivity and tackling the barriers that stop us hitting our full potential 🏘 Kickstarting a housebuilding boom - especially a return to council house building 🌊 Making Britain a green energy superpower, capitalising on our position as the country's Renewable Energy Coast to develop and deliver Mersey Tidal Power 🚍 Better public transport - publicly controlled buses and trains, improved accessibility and the world class Norther Powerhouse Rail we deserve. 🧑💻 Forging ahead with innovation investment - leading the devleopemt and adoption of AI, and building on our strengths in health and life sciences. 🛌 Ensuring people have safe, warm and energy efficient homes. https://lnkd.in/eNqkHd5q

Five would-be Lands Commissioners want to lead the one Washington state agency tasked with raking in big bucks for schools, counties, and Big Timber. The billion-dollar question is whether that green should come from felling the Evergreen State's oldest forests. #washingtonstate #news #politics #campaign #stategovernment #money #business #counties #localgovernment #elections #democracy #schools #tax https://lnkd.in/g3DUYv5p

Would anyone who lives in the Port Waikato electorate, like to nominate me for the byelection, with nominations due at noon today? I'd like to enable horseriders and cyclists to be sensed by vehicles earlier and slowed down around. I'd also like the same vehicles to be able to speed up when the road is in good conditions and there are no other road users around. In other words, pilot trialling a temporary local law having speed tickets waived if 1. the road is straight, 2. the weather is very good, and 3. no other road or footpath users are around. I have a way to do this, with current technology, which my team was a finalist for in the recent University of Auckland Velocity 100k Challenge. I am confident we can get the whole electorate to trial it in 6 months' time, for 6 months. A vote for me would be a vote for trying this radical new approach to road safety without resorting to blanket speed limitations. It doesn't matter if your votes are 'wasted' as you know the general election party vote outcomes already. Single Transferable Vote doesn't matter here. In this election, in this Port Waikato by-election, Port Waikato residents, instead of voting for your usual parties who you know are going to be in Parliament anyway, you can vote instead for specific people and policies. So why not vote for my crazy idea, and the next three years of my life, Port Waikato? --- P.S. the artwork in this photo is copyright me, Andi Liu, and my friend Jingshu Xu, in case anyone was wondering. You wouldn't download a car, would you? But how many of you could potentially hit a cow? Or someone's fur-baby? I hope to make that number near zero, without resorting to fines or cameras.

Today, Nashville Mayor O’Connell’s three transition committees shared their reports and recommendations. It was held at the Downtown Nashville Library. This was a brilliant discussion about how Nashville Moves, Works, and Grows. Naturally, the committee report I anticipated most was Nashville Moves, chaired by Alex Jahangir, because it is a well-researched, intentional look at our transportation future. I believe it could be a reliable roadmap to success. With guiding principles and policy recommendations, it’s the perfect place to go for next steps. One of the recommendations is to go to referendum for transit funding. The report reveals that the mayor should determine when the city will go to the ballot and do that as quickly as possible. Then, it does mention the possibility of a November 2024 ballot. While it was not an announcement for that, an audience member asked Freddie O'Connell if we would see a transit funding referendum in 2024. To his credit, the mayor didn’t dismiss it immediately! It was a great feeling to be there in the audience for that moment. It is encouraging to at least have the conversation. You can see more about the Nashville Moves report: https://lnkd.in/ei2uVCrs #transitiseasential

This week's #SocSciHub covers insights from UofG Centre for Public Policy ahead of today's #GeneralElection, a recap of the student-led scholarship competition, and the latest Spotlight: On the Election episode. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e78BGg_N #SocialScience #Scholarships #Election2024

We're on the eve of the 2024 UK General Election. If you're curious about some of the education policies and approaches on offer, Tes magazine took a closer look at the manifestos to find out more. If you were elected Prime Minister tomorrow, what would your main education policy be? Read the story here: https://bit.ly/3RS8b24

One positive (no pun intended) of staying home with Covid last week was I was able to get through Wes Marshall's extremely thorough and well-researched new book shining a much-needed light on the systemic nature of unsafe streets and the need to reform our design approach. Well done Wes. I fear though that the title of the book may completely undermine his objective. Implying traffic engineers are murderers may do more to alienate engineers then bring them to join your cause. It reminds me of two instances: 1) In the 2016 US presidential election, everything was in Hillary Clinton's favour until the moment she called Donald Trump supporters 'deplorables'. She lost the election. 2) Last year in Australia the prime minister confidently called a referendum to give indigenous Australians a parliamentary voice, however those in the 'no' camp were largely dismissed as bogans and racists. The referendum failed. If we truly want to design better streets, our entire industry, including engineers, will need to work together, and not against each other, towards a shared cause. We need to build bridges, not walls. This is something I'll be talking about at the upcoming AITPM National Conference in Perth next month. Registration is still open for those interested. https://lnkd.in/gqgT-VSh In the meantime I would encourage everyone to read Wes' book and prove my initial fears wrong!