The Star: June 06, 2019
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>June</strong> 6 <strong>2019</strong><br />
OUR PEOPLE 21<br />
Bid to make a difference at ECan<br />
•From page 18<br />
Just beyond the intersection<br />
you would go over a railway line<br />
and it was a bit bumpy so people<br />
would slow down a little bit.<br />
Immediately after the railway<br />
line, there was a side street to the<br />
left. At the time the rule was you<br />
turn left and you give way to the<br />
oncoming opposing right-tuners.<br />
So there were people waiting to<br />
turn right, people come along,<br />
slow down for the railway line,<br />
have their indicators going left<br />
and they would carry on straight<br />
through. Bang, they would be hit<br />
by the right-turner – one a day.<br />
We thought what did we do, how<br />
do we fix this. We fixed it with<br />
paint. We had a brainstorming<br />
session and put some paint on the<br />
ground after a week or so. We put<br />
the people going straight right<br />
hard against the flush median<br />
so it was absolutely crystal clear,<br />
they were going straight through.<br />
That fixed it. That’s my biggest<br />
professional stuff up we fixed<br />
with $300 of paint. We were<br />
sweating about it.<br />
What intersection was it?<br />
I’m too scared to say it.<br />
Have you done much<br />
travelling?<br />
I have, we had a good time<br />
in Vietnam. My mum used to<br />
come over reasonably regularly.<br />
She’s getting older, why don’t<br />
the four of us meet half way<br />
FAMILY FUN: Axel Wilke has travelled extensively around Vietnam with his mother.<br />
and spend some time together.<br />
That ended up being Vietnam.<br />
We were spending two weeks<br />
or so basically all our stuff in a<br />
backpack and travelling by bus<br />
and train from city to city to park<br />
up somewhere and organise a<br />
place to stay for a few days. It’s<br />
really, really lovely when the<br />
Vietnamese figure out that you’re<br />
travelling with parents.<br />
Any interesting hobbies?<br />
I love mountain biking, to<br />
be honest. <strong>The</strong> Port Hills is just<br />
marvellous. We are blessed. One<br />
thing that I really love about the<br />
Adventure Park is you can go in<br />
there and they don’t charge you<br />
as long as you get yourself up the<br />
hill with your own steam. I think<br />
that’s a really, really nice gesture.<br />
I don’t have a problem paying for<br />
lift passes, but I’ve been biking<br />
up Worsleys since 1998. <strong>The</strong>n<br />
the Adventure Park opens so<br />
many years later, why would I<br />
stop going up Worsleys? It’s what<br />
keeps me slim and fit.<br />
Any plans for your next career<br />
move?<br />
One little big life event coming<br />
up on October 12 – the local<br />
body elections – I’m going<br />
to stand for Environment<br />
Canterbury as an independent. I<br />
haven’t really been secret about<br />
it, I’m telling everyone who<br />
wants to hear, but I just haven’t<br />
made a public announcement.<br />
ECan sort public transport,<br />
that’s their role in the transport<br />
space and I am so frustrated<br />
watching what’s happening or<br />
what’s not happening. I know<br />
how to sort this out and it really<br />
needs a fundamental re-think<br />
about how the regional council<br />
goes about providing public<br />
transport services. I have made<br />
submissions and they certainly<br />
all know me and know of my<br />
opinions, but they don’t have the<br />
in-house capability and capacity<br />
to turn things around. For the<br />
last five years, our passenger<br />
numbers are going down. Since<br />
2014, the central city is filling up<br />
again – 35,000 new jobs and our<br />
patronage numbers are going<br />
down. It’s absolutely tragic.<br />
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