The rebuild of the Central City continues at a busy pace. This week, CERA’s Central City Development Unit announced the start of the “Terraces” section of the Avon River Corridor, on Oxford Terrace between Cashel and Hereford Streets. This link will provide a great connection to both the river (with seating, steps and ramps to the water’s edge) and to new commercial developments (with restaurants, cafes, retail stores and office spaces planned here).
A key part of this section will be the new Promenade along the river. CERA says “this will be a new type of urban street for Christchurch that will be constructed of high quality pavers and include trees, street furniture and rain gardens. It will be a shared space for bicycles, pedestrians, emergency service vehicles, the tram and cars, which will have a reduced speed limit of 10 km/h, giving pedestrians and cyclists right of way.” Shared spaces are still relatively new for Christchurch, but Auckland has been rolling out a number of these streets over the past few years.
Construction and landscaping of the first phase of The Terraces is due to be completed by May 2015. If the artist’s impression is anything to go by, this looks like being a nice place to ride, with minimal disturbance from motor traffic. If you want a bit more separation from the chaos, you’ll be pleased to know that a segregated cycleway will run on the other side of the river alongside Cambridge Tce.
What do you think of the proposed Promenade along The Terraces?
I’m pleased to read of the separate route on other side of river because as a commuting cyclist I doubt I’d use example above. 10kph is really slow for commuting. Unless the average Chch persons tolerance and acceptance of others improves hugely & rapidly I anticipate riding there is bound to be user conflicts. Also between pedestrians & skaters. The pedestrians will (rightly?) assume they have absolute right of way & they won’t even think about slow wheeled transport around them. Anticipate many near misses with young & elderly. Going to take months or years until Chch is like other more accepting countries already with multimode routes. It looks great for pedestrians though. Much improved over the ‘old CBD’