Are we there yet? A city stuck in traffic

Wednesday, 26 June 2024

Are We There Yet?_ is a new series from The Press examining the transport challenges facing Christchurch - New Zealand’s second largest city. In part one LIZ MCDONALD looks at the city’s ever-worsening traffic congestion. Join the discussion in the comment section below._

Christchurch is New Zealand’s fastest-growing main centre but has the lowest spend on public transport, an incomplete cycling network, and the worst peak-time traffic congestion.

For the second year running, data from global navigation company Tomtom shows it takes longer to travel 10km in Christchurch during rush hour than New Zealand’s other main centres, and it is getting worse.

Tomtom’s data also shows that during rush hour, Christchurch can have 50 traffic jams across the city, with over 30km of clogged roads.

Driving that 10km takes an average of 19 minutes and 10 seconds, up from 18 mins 30 secs last year. Last week’s slowest day was Wednesday at 5pm, with 24 mins.

While Aucklanders’ longer journeys and extra motorways mean slightly more time overall in rush hour traffic, they cover 10km quicker at an average of 16mins and 30secs. Wellingtonians takes 18mins 20secs.

What road users say

Ilam resident Monique Cupples, a business owner and parent, avoids the growing traffic by working from home, despite having a central city office.

Cupples says she feels sorry for central city businesses struggling for patronage.

She thinks some of the decisions made about Christchurch roads seem aimed at deterring motorists.

“If you are a working person who has to go to appointment, or if you have children, or you have objects to carry, you need to be able to drive and park,” she says.

“I think there needs to be a rethink about the flow of traffic. People need to be able to navigate safely.”

Cupples has increasingly noticed drivers diverting through neighbourhoods to circumvent the clogged main arterials.

South Christchurch resident Stephen Judd drives his car at off-peak times, but gets around rush-hour snarl-ups by jumping on his “acoustic bike” (meaning a bike without a motor).

“It’s great to just vroom past lines of cars”, he says.

When Judd moved south from the North Island in 2012, he found the city had done more than others to dial back the dominance of motor vehicles on the roads.

“Christchurch has gone a long way to unwind some of that. Christchurch has powered ahead.”

Despite that, he said the heavy traffic and roading layout made parts of the city feel unsafe for cyclists, such as the route from his home to Pak ‘N Save in Riccarton, Colombo St around Sydenham, and parts of the northwest such as Papanui and Merivale.

Judd thinks better behaviour from motorists would help.

“It’s a very interesting exercise to stick to the speed limit and see how long it is until drivers start to tailgate or rev up behind you. So many people are on auto-pilot.”

As a cyclist, he found it disturbing to look down and see drivers texting while behind the wheel.

“The tradies are the worst”.

Congestion adds to air pollution

According to Tomtom’s data, Christchurch drivers spend an average of 179 hours a year sitting in traffic. An estimated 69 hours of this is due to congestion.

It calculates a petrol-powered vehicle commuting 10km each way will produce an estimated average of 830kg of carbon dioxide emissions annually, of which 129kg or 15% can be blamed on congestion.

Tomtom notes that as well as slowing trips and polluting the air, road congestion makes streets less safe for pedestrians and cyclists, inefficient for freight and delivery vehicles, and disrupts bus timetables.

The Christchurch City Council estimates the city’s cycleway network could save 14,000 vehicle trips a day, when completed.

Several of the city council’s cycle counters regularly record more than 2000 riders daily. Busiest are the shared paths of Hagley Ave and the Antigua bridge. Both count more than 12,000 cycle trips a week during summer.

Why is congestion getting worse?

An extra 50,000 residents in greater Christchurch over five years, new housing especially in the city’s south-west plus housing intensification, and a grid system with multiple intersections all contribute to the city’s growing traffic crunch.

Christchurch transportation planner and NZ Transportation Group chair John Liewsyn said while traffic lights annoyed people, they were the safest and fairest way to allocate demand for space.

“Trade-offs have to be made.”

Liewsyn said housing growth continued to put strain on the city’s transport networks.

“That means the residents in the inner suburbs pay when their roads become congested.

“Have we done enough to cope with the population increase? That depends on your viewpoint. Doing more to the roads would add more capacity, and that would attract more drivers.”

On the topic of Brougham St, the SH76 freight link to Lyttelton Port where the Government has shelved a major upgrade, he said: “It seems to me we are getting short-changed by the Government.

“It should be prioritised.”

Liewsyn said while Aucklanders “peak spread’ - leaving earlier or later because they were fed up with traffic jams - few Christchurch motorists did this.

He said Christchurch drivers were bad at handling heavy traffic - they needed to close up gaps at intersections and remain alert.

This included getting closer while queuing, and filling extra lanes and right-turning bays where available, he said.

This makes more efficient use of road space, and avoids clogging other intersections further back in a traffic queue, he said.

“People in Christchurch haven’t learned, and they are too polite. They don’t want to be seen as crawling up someone else’s butt.”

City being ‘short-changed’

In a recent city council survey, residents said climate change, improving footpaths and roads, and good transport options were amongst the top things that mattered.

The Government’s $20 billion draft transport policy released in March outlining Waka Kotahi spending for the next decade drew a critical response from council.

The council’s April submission, signed by Mayor Phil Mauger, said the city was “once again being short-changed”.

It pointed out that despite contributing 12% of the nation’s population, 12% of the economy, and 16% of the roading network, greater Christchurch received just 5% to 8% of the national land transport funding in the past three years.

The only Christchurch project with Government funding in the latest plan is a 2km-upgrade on Halswell Rd. It will add traffic lights, a bus lane, and a raised median strip.

Potential solutions to traffic congestion - improving public transport and cycling infrastructure - have both been dealt a blow in recent cuts to government subsidies.

The city council has previously calculated that Christchurch’s planned cycleway network would return $8 for every $1 spent, although a recent benefit cost analysis puts the return as high as $13.

The submission blamed “historically very low levels of Government investment into Christchurch’s public transport system compared to Wellington and Auckland” as the reason for its low bus usage. Mass rapid transit, which may mean light rail, was promised but not delivered by the last government. It has now been pushed out by at least 10 years.

For local roads, the Regional Transport Committee’s proposed $10.8b transport plan relies on funding from central government, which may not eventuate.

The committee, comprising Canterbury’s city and district councils, Environment Canterbury and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, has planned a decade’s worth of transport projects including maintenance, safety improvements and emission-reducing work.

The future of this work remains unknown.

Tomorrow in Are We There Yet? reporter Tina Law looks at cycleways.

(Note: Comments are moderated in work hours and may not appear immediately.)