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8 Thursday March 16 2017<br />
Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi<br />
The Star<br />
News<br />
Bid to change the way we travel<br />
A major planning<br />
document has laid<br />
bare the “significant”<br />
challenges faced in<br />
moving Christchurch<br />
from a car culture to a<br />
more public transportorientated<br />
city. Tom<br />
Doudney reports<br />
UNLESS PUBLIC transport patronage<br />
can be improved, there<br />
will be an extra 80,000 cars on<br />
the city’s roads in 2041 and 40<br />
per cent more congestion.<br />
But getting people to change<br />
their ways is not going to easy, a<br />
report suggests.<br />
The draft future public<br />
transport strategic business case<br />
was presented to the greater<br />
Christchurch public transport<br />
joint committee yesterday.<br />
It identifies a number of challenges<br />
facing authorities in developing<br />
and increasing patronage<br />
of public transport over the<br />
coming decades.<br />
These included poor travel<br />
time and reliability of public<br />
transport compared to private<br />
vehicles. Peak time congestion<br />
due to more people driving<br />
JAM PACKED: Congestion on Christchurch roads is expected to worsen unless steps to increase<br />
patronage of public transport can be increased.<br />
themselves ensured public to three per cent by 2020 and five<br />
transport remained slower than per cent by 2030. The transport<br />
alternatives and further discouraged<br />
people from using it. Central Recovery Plan also aims<br />
chapter of the Christchurch<br />
Currently only 2.3 per cent of to triple public transport use for<br />
trips made in greater Christchurch<br />
over a year are on public However, the strategic business<br />
central city trips by 2041.<br />
transport, while 83 per cent are case concluded that the challenges<br />
facing public transport<br />
in private vehicles, with the rest<br />
walking or cycling.<br />
in greater Christchurch were<br />
The Regional Public Transport significant.<br />
Plan (2014) aims to increase that “If the problems are not ad-<br />
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN<br />
dressed it is unlikely that public<br />
transport targets will be realised,”<br />
it stated.<br />
“Current trends are for<br />
stagnant or declining ridership<br />
and that the status quo will not<br />
be enough to attract people to<br />
choose public transport.”<br />
Significant enhancements to<br />
public transport would require<br />
a large capital commitment<br />
and land use would have to be<br />
managed to support this. For<br />
example, by allowing higher<br />
density development along public<br />
transport corridors.<br />
Environment Canterbury<br />
deputy chairman Steve<br />
Lowndes, a member of the joint<br />
committee, said getting people<br />
in the car-dominated culture to<br />
shift to public transport was a<br />
challenge.<br />
“Cars are cheap, petrol is<br />
relatively cheap and while those<br />
things exist in the market, it<br />
is not going to be easy,” Mr<br />
Lowndes said.<br />
“We have to make public<br />
transport an attractive option.”<br />
Canterbury University transport<br />
expert Simon Kingham said<br />
Christchurch was unusual compared<br />
to other cities around the<br />
world in that it was not investing<br />
in rail. Doing so, he said, could<br />
help increase public transport<br />
usage.<br />
“I would hope that ECan and<br />
others would be looking at rail,”<br />
he said.<br />
The next phase of planning for<br />
the join committee will involve<br />
creating a programme business<br />
case focusing on how these challenges<br />
should be addressed and<br />
how costs would be shared.
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