What's your job about?
Waka Kotahi is responsible for creating a land transport system that is affordable, integrated, safe, responsive, and sustainable and one that connects people, products, and places for a thriving Aotearoa. This means planning, investing in and regulating state highway activities, walking, cycling and public transport, freight, and more.
I have been in the Urban Mobility team for 7 months so far. Our team aims to demonstrate, enable, and influence others to transform urban places so that people can travel in ways that are healthy for them and the planet. I have been able to work on many different projects to get a wide range of experience while in the team and have mostly focused on the Streets for People programme. This programme aims to create inclusive, safe, vibrant, and sustainable cities and towns through adaptive urbanism. This means piloting street changes, so people can experience and give feedback on the design. A key part of this process is showing people what changes can be made and street renders are a way to do this. Through the Streets for People team I was able to learn how to make renders to provide support to Wellington, Hutt, and Nelson City Councils for communicating their adaptive urbanism projects. This involved using photoshop to clean street images (parked cars, reconstruct footpaths), putting in new infrastructure (cycle lanes, raised pedestrian crossings, bus stops, etc), and putting in people to show how the space is going to be used.
What's your background?
I grew up in the Steampunk capital of the world, a small town called Ōamaru. I became passionate about acting on climate change which encouraged me to start an environmental club at Waitaki Girls’ High School. From this, I attended the Blake Inspire programme (week-long leadership development and environmental learning programme) which further cemented my passion for the environment and helped me to see where I could go with it. This gave me a strong direction towards studying environmental science, geography, and political science at the University of Canterbury. At the University of Canterbury, I took GEOG222 (transport, urban development, and wellbeing) which sparked my interest in transport and the various impacts it can have on the environment and our health. After this course, my twin sister and I did an internship at the Waitaki District Council in Ōamaru focusing on what would encourage primary, intermediate, and high school students to use active modes. This gave me valuable experience to come into the Urban Mobility team.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
The transport system is multifaceted and influences how we live our lives – it can encourage people to connect with others, move in ways that are healthy for them and the planet, not just get to the places we need to go. Having a perspective that is wider than engineering and transport-focused is important to encompass the range of ways people experience the transport system. So yes, anyone can do this job!
What's the coolest thing about your job?
I love being surrounded by such an enthusiastic team who are motivated to make change in the transport system, and this inspires me every day to keep advocating for change. Working in the Streets for People team, I have been able to work with a variety of councils to make street renders – this means that I get to be creative and use photoshop all day!
The grad programme is a really cool part of the job. Connecting with other grads who started at the same time has been great to share experience and learn together.
What are the limitations of your job?
A limitation in this job is that transport (particularly walking and cycling projects) is a contentious topic as everyone interacts with the transport system every day. It makes for interesting discussions, but it can be tiring having to justify why we need safe cycle infrastructure all the time.
Another limitation is both a pro and a con, Waka Kotahi is a national organisation, so people are located all around the country. Working mostly online has been something that has been tricky to get used to.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
Advice for my younger self -