Love your cars less and your communities more

CLIMATE change asks us to alter our lives in ways that offer difficulties.

It is easy to acknowledge the impact of our cars’ emissions, but harder to adjust our emotional priorities.

We love our cars, personalise them and live in them as extensions of our homes. They offer individual power, control and escape.

Where public transport is common, communities are less isolated. In some countries privacy is the norm while in others, the experience is seen as collective, with recognition, companionship and laughter.

In either case, public transport is understood as a collective experience. Shared understandings contribute to community resilience.

Reduction of individual car use is one of the most obvious, yet hardest, changes. Perhaps we could think of loving our cars less and loving community more?

Bridie Lonie Kew

Beaches not for vehicles

A LITTLE blue penguin was run over on Purakaunui Beach at the north end, near the Pa site penguin colony, on September 11. This is the result of recreational drivers at play.

The Dunedin City Council updated the beaches bylaw to protect the environment and the wildlife species that inhabit these zones.

The reserves and beaches bylaw 2017 says a person convicted of breaching the bylaw can be fined up to $20,000 under the Local Government Act 2002, up to $5000 under the Reserves Act 1977, and up to $500 under the Land Transport Act 1988.

If you continue to drive on the beach, we will continue to report your plate numbers to Department of Conservation and the police.

Have some respect for beaches — they are the homes of nature, not your playground.

J. Davidson Dunedin