christchurch
If you don't know me in real life and only read all my blogs espousing the benefits of walking, cycling and public transport, you may be surprised to learn that I do in fact own a car and drive it sometimes. I'm in my mid-thirties and over my lifespan, jointly with my wife I have … Continue reading Electric Car Update
Christchurch City Council is currently consulting on a draft Urban Forest Plan. It's an interesting read. There are some great facts about trees in general - the one about intercepting rainfall is especially relevant at the moment. And then trees specifically in Christchurch. This one is such a nice infographic I almost want to print … Continue reading Urban Forest Plan Consultation
This is a guest post from Tim Frank. Anyone trying to catch a bus in Christchurch in the last year or so would have been frustrated by the frequent cancellations of trips, which can strike apparently randomly, but is certainly felt quite often on the Orbiter service. This comes in addition to a reduced timetable, … Continue reading Missed, cancelled and removed bus trips in Christchurch
How do we make public transport in Christchurch better? We have several good bus routes in Christchurch that have OK frequencies, some level of bus priority and not terrible infrastructure. I think we need to focus on these routes to get them from just good, to really great. But I’ve been hearing more and more … Continue reading Make Good Bus Routes Great
There's a lot lined up for 2023: national elections (and associated lolly scramble), a census, and a new mayor and council wanting to stamp their mark on the city. There are also a lot of transport projects lined up ready to go. These are a few I'm looking forward to seeing (in no particular order). … Continue reading Things to look out for in 2023
The Christchurch City Centre is in a unique position. Although the Earthquakes were 12 years ago, there are still some 300 sites sitting vacant, comprising 47 Hectares (roughly 10% of the central city). It is reducing but it's a very slow process. In 2015 there were 65 hectares of vacant land. So in the last … Continue reading Rates on Vacant Sites
Just a quick update on public transport patronage in Greater Christchurch. Monthly patronage for the last 8 years looks like this. It dropped off massively through covid. It has been clawing it's way back most of this year and is currently sitting about 85% of pre-covid levels, and it's now probably the driver shortages holding … Continue reading Public Transport Patronage
Geographic scale matters in decision-making about cities. You might have heard of NIMBY’s (Not In My Back Yard) and YIMBY’s (Yes In My Back Yard). These terms are often used derogatively, but I reckon it’s often completely understandable behaviour - just people trying to protect their interests. There are lots of urban issues where people … Continue reading NIMBY’s and YIMBY’s: to Elevate or Delevate?
Waka Kotahi Transport Agency are pumping out heaps of good research at the moment. Here's a quick rundown of four of the recently released ones I've seen. Safety Interventions and their Contribution to Mode Shift (https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/research/reports/701/) This one looked at a number of case studies for streets that were made safer for people walking, cycling … Continue reading New Research
Whenever anything gets built that makes life easier for people on foot, bike or bus, I inevitably hear people say things along the lines of transport engineers and planners not making sensible decisions and instead being driven by an irrational anti-car ideology. For example this comment about reducing speed limits from 50 to 30km/h. Needless … Continue reading Vehemently anti-car? Or broken transport market?
TALKING TRANSPORT 