Last week we had Sara Templeton and Mike Davidson. These two have been outstanding advocates for cycling in Christchurch and their talk was really well received by a supportive audience.
Here is Aaron Campbell’s video of the occasion (sorry you weren’t elected onto Ecan yesterday Aaron, and the same for Axel) https://youtu.be/k9uakbW8t5o
Here are some statistics which Sara has sent me:
COSTS:
Breaking down the dollars (using an average across the 15 years and ignoring the extra tens of millions of dollars received from central government and the 30% that benefit more than just people on bikes)
- 49% of $256m = $125.44m (actual cost to the rate payer after NZTA subsidy)
- Spread of 15 years = $8.36m rounded up to say $8.5m per year.
- For capital projects, adding $50 million expenditure creates roughly 1% rates increase.
So, the city’s cycleway programme has an impact on the rates of approximately 0.17% per year.
NUMBER OF CYCLEWAYS
Another quick point…there was a recent comment from an unsuccessful Mayoral candidate about the “proliferation of cycleways” in the city.
The MCR programme is 100km of cycleways…added to our existing 50km will mean that in 2028 Christchurch will have 150km of cycleways. With a transport network that is over 3000km, that is less than 5%. Not really a proliferation, simply catching up after decades of under-investment at a time that our climate needs us. Last census 7% biked to work in Chch – expecting that latest data will be higher.
SCHOOL BIKE SHED COUNTS
Some really interesting info on biking to school in Christchurch. Read to the end for the good news!
Bike Shed counts from 1979
- Burnside High School 75% students biked (19% walked)
- Cashmere High School 60% (24%)
- Chch Boys’ High School 67% (15%)
- Chch Girls’ High School 64% (10%)
- Papanui High School 73% (16%)
With other schools similar. Yet there was a steady decline in numbers with intermediate and high school cycling numbers dropping from 24% in 1998 to 18% in 2003.
Bike Shed counts for 2016
- Burnside High School 9%
- Cashmere High School 13%
- Chch Boys’ High School 19%
- Chch Girls’ High School 5%
- Papanui High School 9%
- Riccarton 4%
- Mairehau 3%
- Avonside Girls’ 2%
However, there’s good news! With the opening of the Unicycle Major Cycle Route in 2016 cycling numbers at the two high school adjacent to it have increased.
Christchurch Boys High now at 25% an increase of 6% And Girls’ High at 15% – a whopping 10% more students biking to school in just two years (counts are for 2018).
ROADING V CYCLEWAYS?
Transport budget total over LTP (10 years) is $1.7b and of that only $200m is cycleways
Resurfacing programme city-wide/Completed Road Footpath
- 2016/2017. 50km 24km
- 2017/2018. 48km 29km
- 2018/2019. 55km 25km
Total 3 years: 153km road resurfacing, 78km footpath resurfacing and 30km new cycleways built
Planned for next 3 years:
2019-21 225km road resurfacing, 95km footpath resurfacing and 25.25km new cycleways.
NUMBERS CYCLING
Qualitative survey showed a higher percentage of women biking on the new cycleways (40%) and 15% said that they would have driven that trip in a car if the cycleway hadn’t been there.
Cycle counters are showing a 20% increase on last year and August hit 300 000 movements for the first time!
Automated cycle counts (both ways) for the last month include:
- Antigua bridge 34,946
- Outside Hagley College 30,761
- Hagley Park by Armagh bridge 29,908
- Fendalton Rd by railway 17,896
- Clyde Rd by the university 16,814
- Main Rd, Mt Pleasant 12,527
- Cashmere/Hackthorne 11,426
- Collins St, Addington 11,251.
One-way counts include:
- Antigua/Moorhouse 11,581
- Colombo St, Beckenham 5956
- Lincoln Rd/Domain Tce 8147
- Colombo/Bealey 5316
- Marshland/Mairehau 3687.
All the consultations on cycleways show support outweighs opposition and in the Long Term Plan it was the 5th most commented on programme of work and the top one for positive comments across the entire LTP..
Leave a Reply