National's Tauranga by-election candidate Sam Uffindell promises to prioritise investment in roads. Wouldn't it be great if politicians could all focus on sustainable solutions? Research shows that building more roads only blocks up more roads.

Simply building more roads is a band aid and the wound will burst out of it soon enough. We need to shift our thinking, shift our behaviour. We need to get out of our cars, particularly ‘one person in a car' journeys.

Of course, as infrastructure exists currently in Tauranga that's not easy. Sustainable solutions for our traffic congestion are: smaller, more frequent and more varied bus routes; a cycle-friendly city, suburbs and rural roads; more boardwalks and walkways connecting suburb to suburb.

We live on estuary so more boardwalks are a no-brainer. Cheap bus fares and free buses to community card-holders and students. Densified CBD with multi-storey buildings and a heart in Tauranga. Car-pooling, subsidies for e-bikes. Wouldn't Tauranga be an even better place for our grandchildren if they could cycle safely around the city, walk and jog on connecting footpaths everywhere and hop on and off shuttle busses easily and cheaply around the city and suburbs? That's my vision for our city.

Kat Macmillan, Welcome Bay.