Puketāpapa: he Taunga Pahikara, an initiative to encourage children and families to access existing cycling infrastructure and support other biking services locally, will benefit from additional funding through the new Ngā Tiriti Ngangahau - The Vibrant Streets Programme.
Vibrant Streets is a $3million, three-year programme to be delivered by Auckland Transport as part of the climate action package.
“We’re delighted that through our application we were able to demonstrate the potential to leverage on Puketāpapa’s existing cycling network to create an environment to normalise cycling in the community, particularly with school children,” says Jon Turner, Deputy Chair of the Puketāpapa Local Board who led this work on behalf of the board.
The funding from Vibrant Streets will build on the local board’s ongoing and past work on creating biking routes and promoting cycling locally.
A cross-organisational team from AT, Auckland Council and Eke Panuku noted Puketāpapa: he Taunga Pahikara as a novel non-infrastructure initiative. It stood out for its potential to leverage Puketāpapa’s existing cycling network to create an environment to normalise cycling in the community, particularly with school children and a high level of community involvement.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing this community-led project develop over the next three years. It has the potential to significantly increase the use of active transport as a way to get to school, and part of the focus will be involving Māori in the development of this programme,” says Deputy-Chair Turner.
Further, the local area has ongoing housing development and the local board regularly and actively collaborates with Kainga Ora and other governmental organisations, community groups and Auckland Council to advocate on the behalf of the local community.
“In the context of working collaboratively for great outcome in our local area, I’m pleased that the assessment panel considered this to be an opportunity to build a blueprint for future initiatives of a similar nature and will provide key learnings to make this type of project repeatable and scalable for other communities in the Auckland region,” says Deputy Chair Turner.
