The way Dunedin City Council staff get to and from work is in for a shake-up as part of a push to address the city's carbon footprint and parking pressure.
Councillors yesterday added $40,000 to the budget for the development of a new travel management plan, which will aim to change the way the council's 1200 full and part-time staff come to work.
About half the funding was expected to come from the NZ Transport Agency.
Cr Kate Wilson, who suggested it, said changes that encouraged staff to leave their sole-occupancy cars at home would make a difference to the city's carbon footprint as its population grew.
The city now had the "skeleton'' of a cycleway and an improving public transport system to rely on instead, as well as car pooling options.
She hoped other big employers, like the Southern District Health Board, would look at similar initiatives.
Council chief executive Sue Bidrose said talks with other major employers had started, and the issue was being considered as part of the Dunedin Hospital rebuild project.
It could even become a condition of resource consents when new buildings were approved in future, she said.
Cr Lee Vandervis was the only councillor to vote against it, dismissing it as "another $40,000 for paperwork and bureaucratic bloat''.
