4 September 2018

Christchurch City Council

SUBMISSION: Review of Speed Limits Southern Central City
As an expert safety hazard study has indicated that up to fifty fatal or serious injury accidents a year can be expected to occur in the Oxford Terrace Crossing, as it is currently designed, the Canterbury West Coast District Council of the NZAA is concerned avoidable traffic safety hazards and congestion problems are knowingly being created.

A suppressed Safety Audit of the Hospital Corner Anchor Project has confirmed thousands of pedestrians and cyclists will be exposed daily to common/frequent risks of likely death or serious injury. Expert assessments project fatal or serious injury collisions involving pedestrians or cyclists will occur frequently though probably less than once a week.

As designed the road changes will channel hundreds of shuttle buses, taxis, cycles, and private cars along the 120 metre section of Oxford Terrace from the Riccarton Ave, Hagley Ave, and Tuam Street intersection while more than a thousand pedestrians cross daily between the existing hospital and the new outpatients building. As well as dodging the pedestrians and other vehicles stopping to unload passengers or pulling back out into the traffic, cyclists and drivers will also be required to negotiate a new roundabout at the Antigua Street intersection.

As making the walkway across Oxford Terrace a legal pedestrian crossing would result in buildups of vehicles in Riccarton Avenue even as far back as the other side of Hagley Park pedestrians will not be protected by the legal right-of-way provisions normally afforded to them on an official pedestrian crossing.

We are not persuaded installing signs to warn pedestrians to give way to cars and cyclists to look out for pedestrians, as recommended by the safety auditors, will be sufficient to alleviate the obvious safety risks. Nor is imposing a 10kph speed limit likely to be a practical or effective method of mitigating the identified hazards.

The new outpatients unit is expected to cater to around four thousand visits per day with many of the visitors mobility impaired and very frail. The CDHB handles 200,000 to 250,000 outpatient appointments annually. Before the earthquakes there was a parking building on a site adjacent to the new outpatients. To safeguard hospital visitors from the well recognised hazards of crossing Oxford Terrace it was linked to the hospital by a subway which was rendered unusable by the quakes.
 
An airbridge to convey both pedestrians and bedridden patients between the two buildings would have been the most cost-effective solution to loss of the subway. However Ministry of Health officials vetoed this proposal on the grounds of cost, yet we understand they have spent around $14 Million repairing the subway just to restore the steam service alone.

For more than a year Spokes Canterbury, the Earthquake Disability Leadership Group, and the Canterbury West Coast District Council of the NZAA have repeatedly raised our concerns about the obvious inadequacies of this project. Yet though they are now confirmed and reinforced by the safety audit our concerns have still not been properly addressed.

We request the opportunity to make further verbal submissions to the council on this issue

Yours faithfully

Roy Hughes
Chairman
Canterbury West Coast District Council
NZ Automobile Association