You can experience the best of Palmerston North while at conference. Here's what you can see and do:

Art and culture

Visit regional museum, science centre and art gallery, Te Manawa free of charge.
Learn about the All Blacks and the country's strong rugby culture at New Zealand Rugby Museum.
See how a former department store has been transformed into a modern and beautiful space filled with public art at Palmerston North Central Library.

Travelling with family?

Take the young children to KidsTM indoor playground where they can explore a house interior, tree house and build a wall free of charge.

Test your rugby kicking, scrumming, running and reaction times in the testing area at New Zealand Rugby Museum.

Go on a miniature train ride through beautiful parkland with Esplanade Scenic Railway at Victoria Esplanade (open weekends and school holidays).

Beyond the city limits

See the Manawatu River carving its way between two mountain ranges at Manawatu Gorge. Drive, walk alongside native bush, or fly over in a helicopter.

See a wind turbine up close and be amazed by expansive views of the Manawatu and Tararua regions at Te Apiti Wind Farm Lookout.

Overview

Nelson is a community on the move and is considered by many as the walking and cycling capital of New Zealand. The 2WALKandCYCLE 2014 Conference was held at the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson, October 29-31, 2014.

Theme

Communities on the move

“Communities on the move” will showcase how walking and cycling contributes to a strong, healthy and fun place to live. It is very much about creating community, through residents being in the public realm walking and cycling and really being part of the fabric of their community. Nelson itself is a living New Zealand example of this.

We would like to explore the transition to walking and cycling friendly communities and how it can:

• improve economic development, public health, and the environment
• promote community well-being
• enhance quality of life at the personal level.

Our aim is to show how you can achieve this in your community, share great national and international examples and present strong data on successful New Zealand outcomes. We want delegates to leave the 2014 conference with a firm idea to get their communities on the move.

Photos

Click here to view photos of the Welcome Function.

Click here to view photos of the Conference Venue.

Click here to view photos of the Golden Foot and Cycle Friendly Awards.

Click here to view photos of the Conference Dinner.

Survey

Click here to view an overview of the survey results.

Presentations and programme

In 2018, the biennial 2WALKandCYCLE conference will be held in Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Like many other regional cities in New Zealand, Palmerston North has been working to make better use of their roading network, in a way that balances the needs of all users. Under the umbrella of a Sustainable City Strategy, it has been working to increase public transport use, encourage more walking and cycling for commuting and school trips, and shift to a more environmentally sustainable transport system that caters for the needs of an ageing population. Alongside investment in city centre infrastructure, Palmerston North has important connections with the surrounding region. A new active transport bridge over the Manawatu river will be constructed during 2018, linking the city with Massey University. The Manawatu Riverside Walkway has captured the imagination of locals and is also part of Te Araroa, the long-distance walking trail.

Andy Smith Convenor 2WALKandCYCLE 2018

The theme for 2WALKandCYCLE 2018 is 'Moving Towards Healthy Communities'. International and national researchers and practitioners will speak about the methods, policies and programmes they have used to promote walking and cycling, with a focus on ways that active, human-powered transport can help achieve the goal of healthier, smarter and more liveable cities.

2WALKandCYCLE 2018 will showcase ways to enable us to achieve this goal, and will inform our journey towards transport systems for the future. It will re-examine the balance between competing demands for space and resources, and ways to rebalance our transport system to better provide for walking, cycling and public transport. 

The conference will be attended by engineers, town planners, architects, academics, politicians, advocates and others from a broad range of organisations such as local and central government, consultancies, health, universities and advocacy groups.

Call for abstracts now open

About the Conference Committee

We are a bunch of people from various walks of life, united by a passion for better everyday walking and cycling.

Our backgrounds include transport, health and recreation. Many of us work in these sectors, as professionals, academics or public servants. Some of us are true advocates, earning a living in other sectors or being retired.

Whatever our daily pursuits may be, as conference committee volunteers we roll up our sleeves to bring you a great 2WALKandCYCLE 2018 Conference.

Here's who we are:

Andy Smith Convener; Living Streets Aotearoa	Christine Cheyne School of People,  Environment and  Planning Massey University	Elizabeth Claridge NZ Transport Agency
Jane Dawson Cycling Action Network	Martin Dutton Ministry of Health	Jillian Frater University of Canterbury
Jack Jiang Urban Designer AECOM	Caroline Shaw Department of Public  Health, University of  Otago, Wellington	Axel Wilke Senior Traffic Engineer  & Transport Planner,  ViaStrada