Driving to work, driving to supermarkets, driving to big-box stores and parking there for free – a lot of Kiwis have trouble imagining life any other way. But in a historic sense, life in New Zealand hasn’t been like this for all that long. 

Professor Alistair Woodward and Senior Lecturer Timothy Welch come from different backgrounds but their interests converge when it comes to dealing with the biggest problem facing the planet: the climate crisis.

Woodward started out as a doctor. The desire to prevent his patients’ health problems before they started got him into population health and environmental health. For more than 20 years, he has been working with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the effects of climate change on health.

Welch trained as a lawyer before getting into urban planning, then climate policy. Both researchers want to shape the urban environment to get people using active transportation more and cars and planes less.

In the 1950s and early ‘60s, New Zealand had one of the lower car-to-population ratios in the developed world, says Woodward.

“Cities and individuals did function without cars. I grew up in Christchurch in a family without a car and we got by just fine because there were extensive public transportation systems.”

Starting in the mid-20th century, though, policies were enacted that prioritised cars. Electric tramlines were ripped up and more roads built, which encouraged families to move to the suburbs, where they could buy bigger, more affordable houses. This in turn created further demand for big motorways and reduced density in the city centre, lowering demand for public transport.

Car ownership shot up and today, New Zealand has about 900 vehicles per 1,000 people, one of the highest rates in the world. Transportation is the second largest and fastest growing source of emissions in New Zealand – and the experts say simply working to replace existing cars with electric vehicles wouldn’t solve all our problems.

One clear lesson from Copenhagen is that making it affordable and attractive for more people to live in the city centre is a good way to make cycling and public transportation more efficient, says Welch.

Investment to make cycling safe and public transportation convenient is also necessary, the researchers say. This means familiar solutions such as more dedicated and separated bike lanes and more funding for public transportation. It also means implementing creative solutions.

Electric bikes, for example, can be a real game changer, reducing barriers such as hills and distance while still enabling people to get enough exercise to improve their health.

“We’re currently dedicating millions and millions of dollars to slightly reducing the cost of petrol for cars and we’re giving people massive rebates when they buy an electric vehicle,” says Welch. “We could easily carve out just a small fraction of that money and subsidise people to buy e-bikes.”

Measures to discourage driving, such as congestion pricing, which charges people more to drive at peak hours or in central areas, could also help fund climate-friendly infrastructure.

“We really under-price the cost of driving, especially if you factor in the cost of adapting to climate change,” says Welch. “The more we spend now on mitigation, the less we’ll have to spend on adaptation.”

As cities become less car-centric and encourage people to live more locally, there could be big payoffs for people’s health, say the experts.

In addition to cars encouraging sedentary lifestyles, air pollution from vehicles can negatively affect children’s development and learning as well as their lungs. Car crashes also cause significant injury and death – some 350 deaths a year in New Zealand. Plus, there’s a mental health toll.

“Sitting in a car for an hour, surrounded by fumes, stressed and agitated – that’s not conducive to anyone’s health,” says Woodward.

Living more locally improves quality of life, says Welch.

“The more people are out of their cars, the more they understand their city on a local scale. They realise there’s a great local restaurant, they stop at the local market and buy their groceries from people they get to know. It’s not just a more sustainable model – it makes neighbourhoods more attractive and liveable for people.”

“It creates opportunities for flourishing,” says Woodward. “Biking to work or school gives you an adventure to start your day. Walking gives you opportunities for casual social interactions with all manner of people along the way. We know these are important elements of well-being. It’s up to us to build cities and transport systems to bring play, adventure and engagement back into people’s lives."