Road Diet.

Streetfilms is a wonderful website full of videos on transport design. Their aim is to have better and liveable streets that everyone can enjoy. They have videos for bikes, cars, public space, pedestrians and a lot more. I ask you to check it out as you'll see a lot of interesting short films.

One that has caught my attention is Road Dieting. It is the process of making roads work better by removing lanes. It is better for pedestrians and cyclists and it also controls traffic more efficiently.

Watch the video and see for yourself:

Moving Beyond the Automobile: Road Diets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Do you think road dieting can be applied in Auckland?
I reckon it would be beneficial to cyclists and pedestrians but implementing this in Auckland (with the hard-headed car-dependent people) might be harder.

Another one from Streetfilms is the Complete Streets. Complete streets incorporates bike lanes, pedestrians and public transport into the streets of the city instead of just cars. People feel safer cycling and crossing the roads due to the transformation. Here is the video:

Complete Streets: It's About More Than Just Bike Lanes from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Most of my overseas examples are from New York. I think they are really trying hard to transform New York City's urban environment. Slowly, they are putting pedestrians first and encouraging more people to use their bikes and ride public transport. Initiatives from NY are great examples and I think Auckland should learn from these. If they can turn their urban environments around from car-centric to a more pedestrian-friendly area, maybe we can too.