I recently participated in a workshop all about how to communicate complex ideas in ways that are useful to the general public. There was a lot to take in (notes here for anyone interested). One point that stood out to me was that you need to make sure you’re “selling the cake, not the ingredients”. Or in transport terms, selling the overall vision of what we’re are trying to achieve, rather than all the little detailed components of that.
I realised I don’t talk about vision a lot, I tend to be more comfortable getting my hands dirty crunching numbers and talking details. So for this post, I’ve tried to take a step back and articulate my vision for Christchurch.
I’d love to live in a Christchurch where people can access everything they want to sustainably, safely and easily.
I imagine us being able to move around sustainably. That is, in a way that doesn’t harm our kids through altering the climate of the planet. And in a way that doesn’t harm them through financial unsustainability.
I imagine us being able to access everything we need in a way that doesn’t require people to die. Last weekend a guy in my neighbourhood was killed trying to get around on his bike. I was quite shaken by it. I hate that I live in a country where someone is killed on the roads just about every day. My vision is a transport system where this doesn’t happen – where people can get around safely.
I imagine us being able to easily access everything we need or want. For me that’s work, school, pre-school, friends’ places, parks, recreation, sports, church, libraries, pools, gatherings, events… and a hundred other things besides. I’d love to live in a city where everyone can get where they want to quickly and conveniently.
In a nutshell that’s my vision. Everything else I write about is the detail of how we get to this. Hopefully some of that resonates – is your vision similar or different?
TALKING TRANSPORT 