AITPM NZ Study Tour Winner - Christopher Wong

Earlier this year, I had the chance to attend the 2019 Engineers New Zealand Transport Group Conference. I was lucky enough to attend as a winner of the AITPM NZ Study Tour Award! This year the conference was held in Wellington and was centred around “The Changing Face of Transport in NZ”.

Wellington is a city which faces issues with traffic congestion, pedestrian and cyclist connectivity, public transport accessibility, and road safety, many of the same transport problems that plague urban cities around New Zealand and the world. Wellington is also home to a four-way stop intersection (which I’ve never seen in Sydney) and an electric vehicle charging station both within the city centre.

Four way stop at the intersection of Cuba Street and Abel Smith Street

EV charging station at the corner of Featherston Street and Grey Street

The conference talks were very insightful and were presented by a multitude of professionals from a mix of private companies and public organisations. It was good to see the way change was being driven at all levels of government. While all the talks at the conference were fascinating in their own way, I will share some of the main themes and presentations that kept me thinking.

The keynote session included talks from Mark Ames and Isabel Dedring which focused on how we can manage the communication and public perception around urban growth and transport projects. Inevitably, there will be those who mourn the loss that comes with change, and so we should be smart about who we spend our energy convincing change is needed and accept that not everyone will be on board to begin with. We should empower the positive voices for change within our communities. This starts with the way we as professionals engage with our projects through all stages of their lifecycles.

From the beginning, start all projects with outcome led thinking. We tend to get excited about large scale projects. However, these can often be very different to the most pressing concerns of the communities we design for. By beginning projects with outcomes at the heart of design, we create political support and ensure we are designing for the communities that the projects will serve.

When we talk about our projects, talk about the wider benefits. This means not focusing as much on the technical details of the project, e.g. the physical infrastructure, but rather the change the project will bring. Think and talk about the benefits of a project for multiple interest groups, e.g. reclaimed space for pedestrian and cyclists, extra green space for families and community, increased property prices and business revenues for land and business owners.

I thought these keynote sessions were very important and will become increasingly relevant as larger percentages of the population begin living in urban environments, and as our current cities become increasingly dense. This will require the changing of the status quo as we accommodate different road space allocations and mode share priorities both from a community standpoint and an infrastructure funding perspective. The way we manage public perception of our projects will prove crucial in the way they are brought about.

Another presentation I found interesting was from Jerry Khoo who talked about slime mould and how it could potentially be used to provide high level strategic network planning. Slime mould is an amoeba which is able to find the shortest path between two food sources and build high quality networks. Jerry presented a pilot study of slime mould replicating the transport network in New Zealand’s upper north island with food sources representative of population and employment. The slime mould replicated the network with some success and gave hope for further research. This topic was really interesting to me because it provided a very different perspective to transport planning and made me think that perhaps the solutions may not be what we expect them to be.

Another key area I was very intrigued learning about was the work different government organisations were doing in New Zealand. At the federal level, the Government Policy Statement on land transport 2018/19 – 2027/28 (GPS 2018) became effective on 1 July 2018. At the conference, we heard from the Transport Minister Phil Twyford on the key themes of the GPS and what this means from an implementation perspective. The GPS outlines a focus on providing access and safety. In delivering this, the GPS takes a mode neutral approach to transport planning decisions and integrates land use and transport planning. For me, it was encouraging to see the minister recognise that transport planning can’t just be done to a community from a federal perspective and you have to create change by working with them. This is a sentiment I agree with and it echoes a theme throughout the conference of increased community consultation and co-design opportunities in our transport projects.

Beyond the conference presentations, the conference was a great chance to meet with delegates from all over New Zealand and beyond. It was awesome to chat transport to so many passionate professionals during the lunches, morning teas and social dinner events. On the first night, we took the cable car up to the Carter Observatory for the welcome function. There we were treated to ‘bowl food' and a planetarium experience which was super fun. I would highly recommend going to a planetarium if you've never been before.

Wellington Cable Car

The second evening we had the official conference dinner. At this dinner, the new chair of ENZ transportation group was announced and lifetime memberships conferred. As well as awards for best dressed! The dinner was held at held at Wellington Parliament building, the Beehive, so the theme for the evening was political leaders. It was super fun to see everyone’s costume as we had a fantastic three course meal and then hit the dancefloor!

The Beehive

Political leaders' themed conference dinner

It was awesome to attend the conference, hearing from and speaking to leading professionals. This helped me think about broader issues and was a wonderful step in my career development. Congratulations to the organisers for a hugely successful event and many thanks to AITPM for sponsoring this award. This award is offered annually and promotes the strong bilateral relationship between AITPM and ENZ Transport Group. I highly encourage those interested to apply in the future.

The conference abstracts, papers, posters, and presentations can be found at the conference website. https://www.tgconference.co.nz/