What’s the Future for Transport in Christchurch? Have your say…

Transport invariably seems to be a contentious topic in the public eye, with many views on different ways to address the various impacts associated with it. Beyond the short-term issues that focus people’s attention, long-term transport planning is needed to deal with the inevitable challenges that come with a growing population and associated growing demand for travel.

With this in mind, Christchurch City Council have been working on a new 30-year (2024-54) Future Transport Strategy to replace the existing 2012 strategy. It’s been a slow process, first started back in 2019 but stymied by various distractions including COVID lockdowns and local and central government elections (and associated politicking…). But finally the revised strategy has been launched, with consultation feedback due by next Sun 8th Dec.

The Press chose to focus on the Plan as “cutting car trips and doubling walking”; not sure if that was meant to be an Armageddon headline… Effectively the strategy is taking the long-term view in addressing the very real threats that climate change and natural hazards can pose to our existing systems, on top of planning for continuing population growth and improving safety and health for our residents. And that does require some potentially significant changes.

The strategy is driven by six goals:

• Goal 1: Well-managed transport assets (i.e. more cost-effective whole-of life management and maintenance of our transport networks)

• Goal 2: A more resilient transport network (i.e. building resilience and climate adaptation into transport network assets)

• Goal 3: A safer transport network (particularly focusing on high-risk areas, and implementing and maintaining safe infrastructure)

• Goal 4: An efficient transport network (i.e. enabling economic and other priority activities as part of proactive network management)

• Goal 5: Genuine transport choice for everyone (including significantly improving our public transport system and more attractive networks for active modes, plus enabling the transition to low emission vehicles)

• Goal 6: A vibrant, healthy and liveable city (including finishing central city developments, growth along core public transport corridors, and enhancing streets and neighbourhoods)

Underlying these six goals are a range of initiatives across the spectrum of transport options. These include:

• New Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) corridors to the north (Papanui/Belfast/beyond) and southwest (Riccarton/Hornby/beyond)

• Bridge/culvert and retaining wall replacements/upgrades and drainage measures to address earthquake, flooding and tsunami risks

• Intersection upgrades featuring Safe System measures such as raised platforms and constrained roundabouts

• Priority traffic signals and lanes for public transport and emergency services

• Congestion and time-of-use road pricing, as well as more proactive parking management and charging

• Greater take-up of electric vehicles for public transport and private use

When it comes to creating a cycle-friendly city, there are a number of initiatives aimed at both growing the amount of cycling occurring and also reducing the relative risk of riding:

• Continuing to build and expand on the existing network of Major Cycle Routes and other secondary cycling routes (including more innovative, quick-to-build, and lower-cost infrastructure)

• Introducing additional lower speed neighbourhoods (which have already reduced casualties where they’ve been implemented)

• Continuing with Council travel planning services for workplaces/communities/schools and safe cycle training for children and adults

Needless to say, it’s an ambitious plan of work over the coming decades; even the actions proposed for the first 10 years will be challenging and no doubt stoke some heated debates. Also the question of how some initiatives will be funded will be an interesting one. But in the long-run, the vision being aimed at will be pretty important if we are to avoid the many negative impacts that the status quo is producing.

Remember, you only have until next Sun 8th Dec to provide some feedback on the draft Strategy, so have your say!

What do you think of the draft Future Transport Strategy?