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Experts slam Christchurch transport proposals

Experts slam Christchurch transport proposals

September 3, 2013

Transport experts are slamming proposals to improve a high capacity Christchurch arterial road, Curletts Road, saying the move is old-school 1980s-style transport planning and is not consistent with modern cities.

The three proposals for Curletts Road include increasing road space at the expense of other road users, in an area of two schools.

Curletts Road, between Main South Road and Blenheim Road, is an important link adjacent to Riccarton High School and close to Villa Maria College; an essential location to improve walking and cycling infrastructure.

University of Canterbury (UC) transport professor Simon Kingham says before the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, the road was one lane each way with cycle lanes. Following the earthquake cycle lanes were temporarily removed and an extra traffic lane added.

``Traffic volumes have risen from 20,000 vehicles per day to 25,000 vehicles per day and this is the argument for increasing road space. However, evidence from all round the world demonstrates that the extra traffic appears when additional road space is provided.

``The counter has also been shown to be true: remove road space and traffic disappears with people choosing alternative modes, different routes and different times. A small amount of congestion persuades people to change their behaviour.

``It’s not just Christchurch. Gridlock is predicted to increase across the Wellington region after Transmission Gully and the Kapiti Expressway are built. People from Porirua and the Kapiti Coast could ditch public transport in favour of a faster, cheaper journey into the capital on the new four-lane highways.

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``These Christchurch proposals are flawed and assume we need to create more road space to accommodate the extra traffic when, in fact, it is the already created extra lane of road that has produced the traffic. None of the proposals is acceptable.

``Modern cities no longer implement this sort of pro-car policy. This is 1980s transport planning and is a great example of the narrow pro-car thinking.

``This is a move back to the dark ages and is counter to the views the Christchurch public articulated in the Share an Idea campaign, where the public indicated they wanted a less car based city.

Professor Peter Newman, a world expert visiting UC from Perth, says this is another example where New Zealand is going against the trend of modern western cities which are moving away from pro-car policies.

``The basic concept is that creating road space encourages car use. It is a flawed set of proposals as the road appears to be one that should be a single lane plus cycleway; making Curletts Rd into a traffic sewer will be much more dangerous for locals and the schools. Encouraging cycling is a much more important policy than encouraging cars.’’

Professors Kingham and Newman have called on the New Zealand Transport Agency to go back to the drawing board and come up with option 4, a single lane traffic each way with good cycle and pedestrian infrastructure, that will encourage people to use alternative transport modes.

More information about the proposal can be found at: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/consultation/curletts-road/. Submissions close September 6.

ENDS

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