Te Ara Mua Future Streets has been a 12-year programme of research to understand the effects of suburban street changes on neighbourhood perceptions and active travel in Ngā Hau Māngere, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Involving partnerships with mana whenua, community leaders, the Local Board and transport agencies, the street changes were co-designed to address community concerns and aspirations, as well as incorporate mana whenua urban design principles. The intervention was coupled with a randomised controlled before-after study to measure changes in neighbourhood perceptions, traffic safety, road user interactions, air pollution and travel behaviour. COVID and the pandemic response upended people’s lives in Ngā Hau Māngere as well as our research. I will summarise the findings from the programme, and propose some implications for a transport just transition in Aotearoa.

Alex (she/her/ia) is a tangata Tiriti public health physician and Professor of environmental public health in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka. Her work contextualises human health and fairness within healthy ecosystems and city design. She is most interested in supporting policy-makers towards climate policy that centres health equity and climate justice.