News: Variety at this year’s Golden Foot awards

Samoan family walking clubs, a radical solution to a dangerous intersection and a hunt for the Gruffalo are among the winners of this year’s Golden Foot Awards.

The biennial awards ceremony is held by Living Streets Aotearoa to celebrate projects that help to promote walking - in cities, in the country and every day.

The six winners were presented with their award by Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter in a celebration at Parliament in Wellington recently.

They were:

The Gruffalo Explorer - a walking tour for children in Christchurch’s Bottle Lake Forest, where they hunt for the popular book character. Henry Hill School Travel “unplan” - a community-based effort to tackle unsafe roads outside its local school.

Hemo Gorge project near Rotorua - once the fourth most perilous intersection in New Zealand, now a roundabout with art, cycleways and walking paths. Fernridge Walking School Bus - a rural community creates a safe walk to school.

Walking Samoans - clubs make walking a “must do” social event for Samoan families.

Auckland Business Case for Walking - putting a dollar value on time spent walking so this can be assessed in major transport projects.

“These projects have one thing in common - they’re finding new and clever ways to get Kiwis out every day being active,” Living Streets Tumuaki Tuarua Ellen Blake says.

“Some of them show communities getting together to solve problems and finding innovative, low cost solutions.

“Others are led by council or government agencies who ‘get’ the value of walking in building safe, sustainable communities.

“We’re thrilled to present such a strong group of winners, and hope their work inspires other groups around Aotearoa New Zealand to get out of their cars and into their walking shoes.”