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Interview: What can Auckland learn from France's second largest city?

Author
Michael Sergel,
Publish Date
Wed, 31 Aug 2016, 4:22PM
Marie-Anne Gobert, senior advisor to the Greater Lyon Metropolis, spoke with Michael Sergel.

Interview: What can Auckland learn from France's second largest city?

Author
Michael Sergel,
Publish Date
Wed, 31 Aug 2016, 4:22PM

Showing people their options for getting from A to B could reduce the strain on increasingly congested roads and crowded trains and buses.

Marie-Anne Gobert is a senior advisor to the Greater Lyon Metropolis, the country's second largest city.

She said fast-growing cities like Lyon and Auckland need to become smarter about how they use infrastructure, to make their transport networks as efficient as possible.

LISTEN ABOVE: Marie-Anne Gobert speaks with Newstalk ZB's Michael Sergel

Ms Gobert said Lyon has become the first city to launch an app giving accurate times for all transport options, based on current traffic conditions.

"Your own private car, car sharing, car pooling, bikes, walking, trains, public transport, everything you could have as a means of transport."

Ms Gobert said councils and governments cannot address growth on their own, and need to work with businesses to turn the risks of population growth into profitable opportunities.

She says most major cities are having to accommodate unprecedented population growth, as more of the world's population moves to cities for jobs and opportunities.

Ms Gobert said the public and private sectors need to work together on smart ways to address the resulting housing, transport and energy challenges.

"We were the first city in the world to create a system where you could hire bikes. You could just find ones in the city and let it out."

The city was also encouraging people to make journeys of less than one kilometre by walking, private bike or hired bike, to reduce congestion on central city roads.

Walking, running or cycling a kilometre a day could also have benefits for people's health and wellbeing, Ms Gobert said.

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