A quick and easy sub due in on Monday 10 February.
Speed Limit Reductions for Riccarton Road
https://www.ccc.govt.nz/the-council/consultations-and-submissions/haveyoursay/show/285
This feeble attempt to implement safer roads in Christchurch, while appreciated, confirms the problem of timidity at Council which fails to deliver.
Riccarton Road is busy, congested and unsafe at 50km/h. Serving many local shops and the mall makes safe access by all transport modes a matter of equity. Lowering the speed is the easy low cost first step to safety and fairness. By itself, and in this piecemeal fashion it is barely a “baby step”.
How can people on bicycles access the businesses on this road? The UniCycle MCR provides a very indirect alternative route. The cycle lanes on busy Blenheim road provide an alternative unattractive to all but experienced cyclists. Neither serve the commercial centre of Riccarton.
The infrastructure on Riccarton Road is compromised by on street parking, narrow lanes, bus stops and congestion. Road fairness is not achieved and Council’s own climate goals undermined by providing car centric solutions.
The speed limit reduction being limited to the area bordering the mall is nonsensical. The area is already slow go due to traffic. Expanding the reduction to the entirety of Riccarton Road from Deans Ave to Hansons Lane will at least give people on bicycles a safer route between the closest cycle infrastructure to connect to the UniCycle, South Express and Little River MCR’s, in support of Council policy found in the 2018 LTP Service Plan for Active Travel.
Speed reduction is appreciated for the residential streets. Please expand to include both Matipo and Clarence and the congested on street parking street of Maxwell/Dillworth which connects them. The proposal only provides limited access to/from the UniCycle route. People on bicycles come from all directions and routes.
“Ghettoizing” people on bikes to a few options which may or may not, be feasible needs to be replaced by the understanding that people on bikes need access equivalent to that provided to cars. Spokes remains open to sitting down with staff to sort out Quiet Streets routes to give people on bicycles safer routes for accessing the mall and local shops.
Spokes supports the lowering of speed limits, we do not support this half-hearted effort.
