I am in Christchurch for the NZ Planning Institute conference for the next couple of days, but there should continue to be a few posts trickling out over that time thanks to Jeremy.
I have been pretty impressed by Christchurch so far actually (I was last here when I was 12). The pedestrianised streets in the inner city are great, the tram system, while touristy more than anything else, works really well with the local streets. There also seems to be a tonne of cyclists.
Hopefully will meet Paul Mees tomorrow as he is giving a paper.
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Christchurch has the major advantage of being very flat. As someone who has to negotiate a very steep drive to leave their house, with another hill to get to the top of the road leading to a steep main road, cycling has never been particularly appealing (and that isn’t taking into account the fact that it is pretty much suicidal to cycle on the road). I noticed on my travels (many moons ago) that cycling was most popular in cities that were flat and for that reason I doubt it will ever be hugely popular in Auckland.
SJ, many more people used to ride bikes in Auckland and that was when bikes were much heftier machines than they are now. Most of the hills in Auckland are quite small and many can be avoided — there might be incline up to a ridge, but then you can stay on the ridge. Also, many parts of the city are huge flat expanses — west from Western springs to the Waitakeres and south past Mt Eden — with only gentle slopes to contend with. A modern commuter bike that is light and with easy to use internal hub gears will get even inexperienced riders up and down most hills with relatively little fuss. Many European and US cities also allow bikes on PT (just wheel on to the train or place on the front carrier of a bus) so that if you really don’t want to ride up that hill, you don’t have to. I think the observation that people only really cycle in flat places is more an observation that cycling as a mass form of transport has only managed to survive the mad clamber for cars in those places that are quite flat — that is, it has survived only in near ideal conditions (although being perfect for cycling doesnt guarantee its survival — it has declined significantly in ChCH and palmy, and is rare in hamilton.
Sure, not everyone is going to cycle on every journey in Auckland, but I see no reason to prevent a good third of the population regularly making some trip by bike and 10-15% of all trips being by bike. You could still say it’s a minority thing at that level but bikes would be everywhere and it would be a normal respected part of the transport culture.
You may find this post comparing flat Portland and hilly Seattle’s cycling potential relevant:
http://www.humantransit.org/2010/04/should-we-plan-transit-for-bikeability.html
I love Christchurch’s CBD, no motorways, lots of pedestrianisation, trams and cyclying… Awesome, what Auckland’s CBD would be more like if we had built the WRR instead of the CMJ…
Would be interested to hear your thoughts on Christchurch’s bus network.
My veiwpoint on Christchurch from what I saw when I was down there: From the little I know Christchurch’s network is better than Auckland’s, it central city grid layout is the best in the country for running buses…
The fact the Council owns most of the buses means they can reorganise routes incredibly easily, this should be done before thinking about a light rail system…
Christchurch’s bus layout is like the spokes on a bike wheel – buses run from a point on the edge, through the central bus exchange, and out to a point on the other edge. There are two circular routes – the Orbiter which covers the suburbs (shopping malls, UC, hospitals etc), and the Shuttle which does an inner-city loop.
There’s one exception, the MetroStar, which covers a south-west–north-east diagonal with a high population density.
Buses are owned by various companies, but ticketing and routes are controlled by Metro -so identical ticketing and transfers. 98% of regular users have a Metrocard which has capped fees; one payment gives you 2 hours unlimited travel and transfers within Zone 1 (which is all of Chch city and the airport), after two hours another payment gives you unlimited travel and transfers for the rest of the day.
By far the best bus system in NZ.
As for bikes, there has been a massive bike-lane building spree over the past few years (though some have been built much better than others), and the central city upgrade meant a lot more bike racks around the place, plus most of the key bus routes have bike-racks on board. Still, biking has a long way to go.
Great info Marsoe,
I was under the impression Ecan organised the routes and ticketing and the CCC owned the majority of the buses…
From what you say it seems Christchurch is doing a lot of the things Auckland should be such as through-routing, zonal based fares, free transfers and all CBD routes passing a single CBD transfer location…
The bike system also sounds streaks ahead of us…
I only caught one bus when I was down there (I caught attraction shuttles or walked everywhere else) and it was on a public holiday so not the best frequencies but I was heading to a rural location, the driver was very friendly and helpful…
Not quite, the buses are owned by three companies – Redbus, Leopard, and CBS. However, Redbus is owned by CCH, which is the CCC’s holdings/investment arm. Redbus is also the largest of the bus companies.
Christchurch’s main problem is the dominance of suburban malls, and the city centre had been slowly dying for a long time. This seems to have reversed in the last 5 years or so, and the CBD has come to life, with many good regeneration projects. Also there bus patronage is far from stellar, being similar to Aucklands on a per capita basis.
Services from suburbs at the edge of the urban area are also very poor with no park and rides and few express services.
Christchurch still does have low PT per capita use. That might be because ChCh is relatively small and a proliferation of free or cheap parking.
Another reason for Chch’s low PT use is the impact that computer networks have had on the need to have lots of office buildings full of clerical workers in the centre of every major town and city. In the last 15 years two-thirds of Christchurch CBD 1960s-70s office towers have been converted into hotels or serviced apartments. Most clerical workers now seem to be employed in smaller businesses in the suburbs or business parks. The combination of the dispersal of lower paid clerical jobs and increasing proportions of non-9 to 5 working hours has made the traditional CBD-centric transport models much less capable than in the heydays of the tramways.
Whilst the cancellation of the motorway plan may have been a contributing factor in driving businesses and workers out of the CBD and was definitely not motivated by any awareness of the declining importance of the role of the CBD it has, with the benefit of hindsight, proved to be a wise decision. The fact that the various decisions to lift the motorway designations took 15-30 years probably resulted in as much, if not more, damage to the CBD fringe than actually building an elevated motorway. Especially since the money saved wasn’t returned to the city for other transport improvements but was donated to Wellington’s motorway builders.
Jarbury, as an airport user were you asked which option you prefer for Christchurch’s first grade separated intersection in 4 decades. Memorial Ave under SH1 or SH1 under Memorial Ave?
IMHO this intersection shouldn’t even be a priority improvement. There are at least a dozen roundabouts, etc where grade separation would provide real benefits to residents. This one only provides benefits to those bypassing or fleeing the city.
Dispersed employment can help routes that are planned with it in mind…
Hope you have enjoyed your time in Chch. If you have any spare time, and want to do some travel on the PT system, I would suggest a bus trip to Lyttelton & then a ferry ride over to Diamond Harbour (or perhaps just the bus to Sumner).
Chch does have low PT per capita use, but it has come a long way. Patronage is pushing 20 million per anum, and for a system with few bus lanes, no park and ride, no major PT right of way corridors and suburbs built entirely around the car since the 1950’s, I don’t think its doing too bad a job considering where it was at in the mid-1990’s.
The CBD is still the largest single employer, and with through routing (via bus exchange) & cross suburban services (Orbiter & Metrostar) all secondary centres are within easy reach of most people. What is needed is more funding to roll out some of those much needed and obvious measures to make PT more accessible and credible e.g. bus lanes, park & ride, etc, & some more express services wouldn’t go amiss.
Christchurch is kinda like Auckland in the 1950’s (even similar populations). The crossroads it faces are essentially the same as then, it will be interesting to see what options are taken.
Kevyn, not sure if I have misinterpreted you but I struggle to believe that more motorway building could have been good for the CBD.
JSH, not much time left but have enjoyed the city. Might catch airport bus later today.
Airport Bus is playing Vengaboys music. Awesome 😀
Jarbury. CBDs only benefited from motorways in the days when every meeting had to be face to face and being at the hub of a motorway network reinforced the CBDs status as the place to do business and thereby prevented sattelite wannabe CBDs such as Henderson or Takapuna from depleting Auckland CBDs critical mass needed to compete with Wellington for corporate head offices.
My point in relation to Christchurch is that under the Public Works Act the land was designated as soon as the Planning Act was complied with but land was generally not purchased until commencement of the work was “imminent” or in cases of hardship. Because the MWD could only purchase at GV plus inflation no proper owner was ever going to spend money improving their property so that the 10-20 years when the designation was in place led to the eastern fringe of the CBD becoming blighted. The ‘promise of better access’ was never delivered, instead the CBD suffered the appearance of decay and abandonment which no doubt hastened the commercial drift to the surrounding Borough centres.
Kevyn I certainly agree that the limbo which surrounds designations is certainly a problem. It has certainly been a massive issue around Waterview, with there being little certainty until recently around the route of SH20. I know of people even on the peripheral area of that project who have put off repairs to their houses because of the project.
cool, I like it.
AKT reported that Christchurch opened it’s 2nd and 3rd bus lanes this week…