Kiwis back transport changes

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A climate change survey of young New Zealanders has found a whopping 96 percent are in favour of some changes to the country's transport system, with the majority voting for substantial change.

A delegation of young people will take the results to Copenhagen this week as part of New Zealand's contribution to the international climate change forum.

With New Zealand having one of the highest car ownership rates in the world, the joint Unicef-Enviro-Challenge survey focused on transport and its impact on climate change.

The survey asked New Zealanders up to the age of 28 to select one of three options for the future of transport - business as usual, improving the current model, or changing the model.

Of the 243 respondents, an overwhelming 87 percent backed changing the way New Zealand approached transport. This included improving public transport, designing towns and cities to make walking and cycling more viable, designing vehicles to use more sustainable power sources, and extending and electrifying the rail network.

A further 9 percent felt that the current transport model needed to be improved.

The survey results sent a strong message about what young New Zealanders saw as the future of transportation in this country, said Vicki Soanes, Unicef New Zealand's advocacy manager international.

Another survey has found that New Zealand car owners have mixed feeling about being "green' when it comes to their cars.

The research, carried out for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) found that knowing how fuel efficient our cars are was important to 84 percent of respondents, and 71 percent would like to be able to buy biofuels at the pump.

However, New Zealanders would still prefer to drive a "dream" car than a "green" car, according to the survey findings.

When asked for their choice of car if money was no object, 38 percent opted for a "green" car (of which 15 percent said their dream car was a green car) and 46 percent went for a "dream" car.

Even car-loving Americans were more likely to go for green cars (42 percent), as were Australians (41 percent).

- NZPA