The best way to predict the future,
is to create it.
Alan Key (IT Entrepreneur)
In May 2018 a few passionate Northlanders embarked on an ambitious journey – to make Whangarei a destination, an attractive & cool place to work & live.
To do this we came up with the Vision Zero Whangarei – no emissions, no crashes, no hassle by 2025.
We can’t do this alone.
Whangarei in Te Reo means meeting place of the whales. We like to see Whangarei as the meeting place of the artistic and innovative talent. A place where people like to come and develop leading edge ideas, products, services and at the same time live a balanced, safe life.
Come and join us on this exciting journey.
Mobility as a Service – Vision Zero for Whangarei
The Challenge
Whangarei is going through its biggest transformation in the last decade/s. The city is growing: a new billion dollar hospital will be build, over 15,000 new houses will be build in the next 10-15 years, traffic is increasing, car parks are getting scarce and expensive.
This is a reflection of a global urbanisation challenge.
Some Facts & Figures
- By 2030 over 70% of the global population will live in urban environment.
- On average every day one person dies in a road crash in NZ, over 1.3 million people die on roads globally every year.
- Over 3 million people die of respiratory diseases which are transport related.
The Solution Options
With new mobility concepts Whangarei could become a leader for provincial towns in New Zealand and internationally. Vision Zero – is presenting a realistic concept to transition Whangarei to a new mobility future.
There is not one solution to all our mobility needs. Here is a list of some multi-modal Options
Notes: capex (capital expense to buy), opex (operating expense, includes fuel, insurance, tax, parking)
Mode | Summary | Pros | Cons | Cost/km | Comments |
Individual Transport | |||||
Walk | Healthiest and cheapest way to get from A to B | Healthy
Cheap Environmentally the best |
Can be hard for unfit or disabled people | Zero | Should always be your option one, ask yourself why you can not walk first |
Bike
|
Push bike, very popular in European cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Munich | Healthy
affordable |
If there are no bike tracks, can be dangerous | Zero, once Capex of buying a bike is absorbed | Best on dedicated bike tracks |
e-bike
|
Like push bike but easier | Good for daily commute if you don’t want to sweat | Still expensive
Need to charge up every couple of days |
||
Scooter
|
Great for short trips Our Mayor is using the Scooter to get to work most days. |
Easy to get around
Can be folded away |
Small Capex | ||
e-scooter
|
Very popular in Paris and other big European Cities | Very easy to get around town | Capex of a few hundred NZD
Needs recharging every few days |
||
One-wheel scooter
|
Popular in China and European cities | Easy to get around
Easy to store away in a bag |
Can take a little while to get balance, not for everyone
Capex of a few hundred NZD Needs recharging every few days |
||
Car
|
Most popular mode of individual transport in NZ | Gives you lots of flexibility including pulling your toys to the beach etc | Huge environmental impact
Expensive to run Sits idle over 20 hrs most days Is typically your second biggest purchase over your lifetime |
In 2017 the most sold new vehicle in NZ is a ute like Ford Ranger | |
Electric Vehicle (EV)
|
In NZ one of the best forms of individual transport if you need to transport heavy gear or travel long distances | Like normal car but less environmental impact | High capex
Range anxiety for early EV models (now most new EV’s can do 200-350 km per charge, fast charge takes 20 min, can charge over night on cheap electricity at home) |
With over 80% of NZ electricity from renewable resources, this makes more sense than importing $8billion of fossil fuel from overseas every year for our cars | |
Hydrogen Vehicle (HV)
|
One of the cleanest form of transport fuel | Huge range of 800 km+ | Higher capex due to low numbers of HV
Virtually no hydrogen refuelling stations in NZ |
Hydrogen has the most dense energy storage capacity, but can be dangerous if not handled carefully | |
Public Transport | |||||
Bus
|
Most buses in Northland are old and not very clean | If you have high patronage, buses are a great mode of public transport | If underutilised, buses are expensive to run, need to be subsidized and are environmentally not very clean | ||
e-Bus
|
A cleaner form of public transport | See EV arguments | China is shifting to e-buses (over 350,000 in 2017 alone) | ||
Hydrogen Bus
|
One of the cleanest form of public transport | See HV arguments | Expensive capex
No refuelling network, yet |
||
e-Train
|
Not very applicable to Whangarei or Northland, as we lack the number of people likely to use trains | Business case of rail in Northland is hard to make: needs over $1-2 billion investment for very few commercial and only few public customers | |||
Taxi
|
Good for short trips | Digital taxi services like Uber are another, often cheaper alternative to traditional taxi services | |||
e-Taxi
|
Like normal car but less environmental impact | High capex
Range anxiety for early EV models (now most new EV’s can do 200-350km per charge, fast charge takes 20min, can charge over night on cheap electricity at home) |
|||
e-Vaporetto
|
Whangarei Harbour lends itself to this awesome form of transport | Coolest way to commute to work | Would take guts by WDC to develop a vision and then negotiate a PPI with e-ferry provider | Check out Venice vaporettos. Could be used from the Heads to town with stops along the way | |
AV Pod
|
Whangarei could design & build our own EV-AV pods | Lead NZ in rural city public transport solutions | Takes guts from local/ central government and local community to dare to dream to become mobility as a service leader | ||
… |
EECA has a great tool to compare total cost of ownership for your individual vehicle.