At our September meeting, the guest speaker was Sarah Thomson, Hamilton City Councillor for the West Ward and deputy chair of the Environment Committee. She spoke first about the Hamilton City Council’s plans to limit CO2 emissions to stop further climate change and the need to manage the increased water run-off and flooding in years ahead. Then as she is also deputy chair of the Infrastructure Operations Committee, she spoke on the changes ahead for roads and transport to address climate change. A link to the documents on the HCC website is:
https://hamilton.govt.nz/environment-and-sustainability/climate-change/our-climate-change-response/

The report notes that:

“Transport accounts for almost two thirds of our city’s emissions, [especially from the use of diesel and petrol vehicles]. These come from trips within the city as well as from people coming into Hamilton Kirikiriroa for work, play and business. Reducing these emissions means changing how people move in and out of, and around our city to get to work or school every day; and at a city and regional scale, it means a transformation of our transport network and system”.

Sarah then went on to explain how the HCC is going to develop a low emissions transport network and system as in the report:

“In partnership with others, we will create a transport network and system that supports easily accessible and safe walking, biking, micro-mobility and public transport, including electric buses. We will support electric and zero-emissions vehicles for those trips that require a car, and trains for moving goods in and out of Hamilton as well as connecting us to other cities and towns like Auckland and Cambridge”.

Further information about moving around Hamilton can be found on:
https://hamilton.govt.nz/parking-and-transport/transport/

Sarah answered our questions on climate change policies and implementation, and took note of concerns expressed about buying Bee-cards and walking on shared paths with cyclists.