Aimee Ward (Otago), Arthur Orsini (Urban Thinkers) and Charlotte Flaherty (DCC)

Arthur Orsini, Active Transportation Planner Stantec Consulting Ltd. in partnership with Urbanthinkers

Earlier this month, the Greater Wellington Regional Council held a series of workshops by noted school travel planning expert and youth engagement authority Arthur Orsini, the developer of Urbanthinkers, based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Charlotte Flaherty (Safe and Sustainable Travel Co-ordinator for Dunedin City Council … and an AMC Advisory Board Member) and I were lucky enough to be invited along for the proverbial ride.

On 14 July we attended an all-day seminar by Orsini, “Adult Facilitator Workshop in Youth Engagement”, and were inspired.

Arthur is a pioneer in his field, and has been developing innovative and effective youth and community engagement projects since 1991. His work helps local authorities support students and community-leaders become local champions for travel behaviour change. His secondary school program, Off Ramp, received an OECD award for Sustainable Transport: Education and Youth in 2000. Arthur has worked and presented across Canada, and in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. He places particular importance on empowering youth to become peer-mentors. He has never owned a car.

During the facilitator workshop, we performed planning/evaluation exercises – hallmarks of the Orsini Model for Child and Youth Engagement – as if we were the adolescents themselves, and found ourselves enthralled. Ultimately, the AMC aims to affect the driving and licensing habits of secondary-school aged adolescents through the promotion of active transport and transportation demand management (TDM).  Thus, we have a keen interest in Arthur’s ability to capture attention and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders, especially youth themselves.

Both Arthur and the AMC have similar long-term goals: increased child and adolescent health, TDM that supports lower emissions, a reduction in crash-related injury, and an overall travel environment that supports active transport alternatives. After meeting and working a bit with Arthur, these goals seem within closer reach.