Letters: Car parks becoming less necessary

Jim Adams' letter (Letters, December 5) regarding cycleways in Rotorua and elsewhere in the country is a common refrain from those trapped in outdated thinking of the past, and so he and others of like mind need to better understand modern thinking regarding urban transportation.

After decades of following failed car-centric models, forward-thinking councils throughout the world have recognised that it is not cars that need to move, it is people.

Therefore the evolution of urban planning has led to improvements to infrastructure to allow easier and safer movements of all people, be they on bike, on foot, on mobility scooters or public transport.

What detractors have failed to realise is that we are simply in a transition period, which means the sometimes painful loss of one option as a new one is adopted (the same pain occurred as people moved from horses to cars; we are simply in the midst of another change).

Car parks only cater to an ever-decreasing portion of the population, and will become less necessary as more people (as is already happening in Rotorua) adopt non-car transport, which out-performs cars on almost all measures of personal, social, environmental and economic gain.

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30

ELDAD COLLINS
On behalf of Rotorua Cycle Action

Rating valuations

While I have the utmost respect for Grant Utteridge as a valuer I think his letter (November 30) misses the point.

RVs are done in a office not in real life. To test his theory I suggest he values my property in Lynmore and if he comes within 15 per cent of the RV either way I will pay his fee up to $500.

ALF HOYLE
Rotorua