While I was at the Transportation Conference last week, one of the people I met up with was John Simmerman, an American health professional from Hawaii who runs a non-profit organisation called Active Towns. Over the past decade or so, John has travelled the world exploring various places to see how they have made the active transport modes of walking and cycling more inviting and accessible to people; he has then shared those visits and conversations via his YouTube and podcast channels.
John has made a flying visit to New Zealand, starting first in Auckland, then Wellington, and then Christchurch before heading back up to Auckland and home again. Last Friday, he got a tour out east with some NZTA and CCC reps; then on Saturday it was time for him to catch up with me and UC Professor Simon Kingham. We started in the middle of town and then took in a loop to the west, seeing parts of the Little River Link, Nor’West Arc, and Uni-Cycle cycleways before returning to town. Luckily I remembered to grab a quick selfie just at the end…
It was a great day for riding, and we were very impressed with how many others were out riding the routes – especially parents and their kids. John captured the sights and our thoughts along the way via video and audio (we might have had just a few things to say…), so expect to see this episode of his travels (plus some of the rest of his New Zealand journeys) on YouTube in a few months (apparently it takes a wee while to post-process the recordings to create the finished product)…
Do you follow John’s Active Towns channel?