Prolonged transport projects heading for important decisions

Tuesday, 22 October 2024

Christchurch man Allan Taunt videos himself cycling down Harewood Rd, where the Wheels to Wings cycleway is planned.

Mike Yardley is a Christchurch-based writer on current affairs and travel and a regular opinion contributor

OPINION: Two of Christchurch’s most rancorous and prolonged transport project sagas are about to face some forks in the road.

However, given the city council’s penchant for dragging the chain on decision-making, full and final resolution could be some way off.

First up, the substantial cost blow-out on the Wheels to Wings Cycleway, in addition to the Government’s well-telegraphed retreat from co-funding such projects, has severely hobbled the viability of its delivery.

Few cycleways have aroused such unbridled hostility and derision as this Harewood Rd big boy. But with the project cost now ballooning to more than $28 million, councillors will soon debate its next steps.

Is it not objectionable that more than $6m has already been lavished on this project, largely for external transport consultants to formulate high-spec separated cycleway designs? And when some of those consultants also double as cycle infrastructure lobbyists, it fuels perceptions of a rather self-serving money-go-round.

Protesters hold up banners up as they called on the council not to delay work on the Wheels to Wings cycleway in February 2023. twenty months later, councillors are set to vote on a range of possible options regarding the cycleway.

As councillors prepare to vote from a range of options on the best direction of travel over the next week, I believe Option 7 is the most sensible choice. This would allow the council to cut its losses and finally action the installation of traffic lights at the Harewood/Breens/Gardiners Rd intersection.

Local schools have been crying out for the lights for years – and they should never have been bundled into the Wheels to Wings project. Costing just $5m, the remaining $13m in funding on budget should be redeployed to pay down council debt.

Meanwhile, farcical transport sagas don’t get any more elongated than the Cranford St bus lane trial. What was meant to be a three-month long trial has turned into a 44-month “trial” – and counting. But the future of the peak-hour bus lanes on the Berwick St to Innes Rd section of Cranford St is about to come to a head.

Ahead of those deliberations, the council has released to me the findings from the public submissions on the future use of Cranford St’s outer lanes. More than 630 submissions were received and transforming the bus lanes into peak-hour clearways was the top-ranked preference.

Unlike the bus lanes which only garnered 42% support, liberating those bus lanes for general road traffic, whether be it clearways or T2 lanes (lanes reserved for vehicles carrying a driver and at least one passenger), commanded 58% support.

Unsurprisingly, residents living outside Christchurch heavily supported the clearways option.

Interestingly, Waimakariri District Council also submitted in favour of dumping the bus lanes, given “the congestion experienced by Waimakariri commuters”. Cranford St residents were evenly split between clearways and bus lanes, but of note, a clear majority of residents in the wider St Albans area support optimising peak-hour traffic flow with clearways.

Council consultation produced the same public sentiment four years ago, but it was ignored. Environment Canterbury is still urging the city council to stick with its bus lanes, while the NZTA is insisting T2 lanes should replace the bus lanes, given it connects with the Christchurch Northern Corridor (CNC.)

A concept diagram of the Wheels to Wings cycleway released by Christchurch City Council in early 2021.

The absurdity of the NZTA position is that despite having responsibility for the T2 lanes on the CNC for nearly four years – it still hasn’t bothered enforcing them. Violators have never been detected or fined, although NZTA claims it is now “planning an enforcement technology trial”.

However, unlike the CNC, I question the practicality of slapping T2 lanes on Cranford St, given the potential for confusion and difficulty when needing to change lanes to turn into adjoining side streets.

So how do local representatives feel about the submission findings? Papanui-Innes-Central Community Board chair Emma Norrish declined to comment, while fellow board member Ali Jones is welcoming the findings, remarking that “the advice from the traffic engineers states that a clearway will reduce congestion” - unlike bus lanes.

Innes Ward Councillor Pauline Cotter, who championed the bus lane trial, is “looking forward to a robust discussion. With regard to the submissions, remember it is not a voting system. We determine the substance of all submissions and why they have the view they do,” she says.

Meanwhile Papanui Ward Councillor Victoria Henstock says “the clearways seem like the most sensible option but I will reserve my final decision”. The full council will make that final decision in November. It will be quite the showdown.