The weekend just gone in Christchurch has been an awesome feast of activity as the new One NZ Stadium (aka Te Kaha) hosted the Super Rugby round for all ten teams. It certainly brought the crowds in; the central city was pumping all weekend.
One thing that some people have been wondering is how everyone is going to make their way to and from the stadium for the big events. There’s been an assumption by many that most people will drive or Uber (and traffic was certainly crawling along when I was in town around game times). So I was curious to see what it was like for people looking to bike there.
I happened to be in town on Sunday afternoon about half an hour before the 2pm Highlanders / Moana Pasifika game. So I wandered around the periphery of the stadium to check out the bike parking situation.
From what I understand, there are bike stands in place for about 140 cycles around the stadium block; some at the street edge, and some closer to the facility. If you need, there are also plenty of additional parking spaces slightly further away in the surrounding blocks as well.
As mentioned, I was there roughly half an hour before the game was starting, so there may have still been more people arriving by bike later (indeed, some turned up while I was wandering around). Nevertheless, already the bike stands were about roughly half full, which is an encouraging sign (a few e-scooters also parked up around the place…).
I guess the likely take-up can depend on different factors at the time. On Sunday, it was a lovely sunny afternoon – the kind of day when people will often be quite happy to hop on a bike. It may be a different story if it’s a cold or wet evening, when only the more sturdy may opt to ride in.
Biking wasn’t the only sustainable transport option being taken up during the weekend. Plenty of people walked in from surrounding central city residences or maybe nearby businesses. And when I was waiting at the Bus Interchange on Friday night to head home after my trip to Auckland, the place was absolutely packed with people leaving the Crusaders game and heading for some buses.
My partner and I didn’t get to the rugby games over the weekend, but we do have a few other events coming up there. Fortunately we live very close to the stadium, so (good weather willing…) we will probably avoid the queues/delays and ride there ourselves – it’s good to know we have options there…
Would you bike to the new One NZ stadium?