About the Innovating Streets programme

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Innovating Streets for People programme aims to make it faster and easier to transition our streets to safer and more liveable spaces.

Fast tactical changes in our streets have the potential to deliver significant safety benefits in a short timeframe. Temporary footpath extensions and planters aimed at discouraging people from mounting the kerb were used in Auckland’s High Street to make the area more people-centric.

The programme helps the sector plan, design and develop towns and cities by providing a toolkit of support options specifically targeted at retrofitting streets to reduce vehicle speeds and create more space for people. A fund of at least $7 million is available for council projects.

The technique of employing fast tactical changes in our streets is well evidenced and has the potential to deliver significant safety benefits in a short timeframe.

The support package offered by Waka Kotahi will make it easier for councils to deliver:

• temporary, or semi-permanent, physical changes to streets
• improvements that test a permanent fix and prototype a street design
• activations that help communities re-imagine their streets

Such testing enables communities to get a sense of what their streets could be like, and to understand that their input to changes is valued. In this way, all stakeholders can be involved in an iterative process and are able to make more informed decisions.

By testing innovations in streets with communities before committing to major investment, road controlling authorities can have more assurance that they’re getting the direction of change right.

More about Innovating Streets pilot fund