“No Full Solution To Parking And Traffic”

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28536, 15 March 1958, Page 14

“No Full Solution To Parking And Traffic”

“No city overseas has completely solved the problem of parking and traffic, and it seems that nobody will ever get completely on top of it,” said Dr. L. L. Pawn all, senior lecturer in geography at the University of Canterbury yesterday, after 13 months’ refresher leave in the United States, Canada, Britain, and the Continent. All his observations were as an urban geographer who made no pretentions to being a town planner, he said, but so far as an “interested observer” could tell, the Regional planning Authority’s schemes for Christchurch were well designed to avoid aS much as possible some of the chaos he had seen overseas.

“We are third in the world in the ratio of motor vehicles to population and that ratio will rise as our standards of living improve,” Dr. Pownall said. “How we handle that problem will affect the pattern of urban development.” Difficulties in driving through Christchurch existed already. Dr. Pownall said many North American cities had tried to overcome this problem with • giant “superways”— elevated roadways with three lanes of traffic each way • for speeds up to 60 miles an hour —which allowed a fast trip across a city; but also had turn-offs which would drop vehicles to the conventional arterial roads close to the centre. “The trouble is that the superways are so popular that they are becoming clogged, while the conventional roads are relatively clear,” Dr. Pownall said. The equivalent arrangement in Christchurch wopld be to build a superway from the northern outlet at Cranford street across the city at about the position of Madras street.

The popular Continental approach was to make through traffic skirt the cities. Dr. Pownall said that might be likened to encouraging more use of Russley road. New Zealand businessmen had protested that such a trend would affect trade, but Continental experience was that the greater freedom for pedestrians in the city shopping areas helped business. Off-street parking overseas had three* forms—the multi-storeyed building in which vehicles drove up spiral ramps until they, came to a floor with vacancies; the multi-storeyed building with a “fork-lift” type of machinery, which lifted vehicles from the entrance into “pigeon-holes”; and underground parking. “But no city in North America or Europe has been able to provide all the parking motorists want and require,” Dr. Pownall said. Suburban Shops All these problems of through traffic and parking were prompting the development of new suburban shopping areas. A combine of big retailers might unite to buy five or six acres and put up a big supermarket with parking, restaurants, and all other facilities, or a “developer” might provide all accommodation and lease it on floor space—plus a percentage of sales. “Large cities overseas are becoming larger and it seems that nothing can stop them,” said Dr. Pownall. “Even the new suburban areas have not stemmed central development because there must always be a main centre

for business. But the new, properly - developed suburban centres provide such complete service that some housewives do not go ‘downtown’ more than once or twice a year. They can do all their shopping near home and there . consult anyone from a dentist to a lawyer.” Dr. Pownall emphasised that he was not thinking of shopping areas like Riccarton, which sprang up beside a main road; but of carefully-planned centres set aside on new ground handy to distinct communities.

“Many cities of North America and Europe find themselves in really serious difficulties over traffic, housing, drainage, gas and water supplies because development has been allowed to sprawl,” said Dr. Pownall. “Attempts at control have come too late and too slowly. Christchurch can learn by these mistakes. “People should not think of town planning in terms of restrictions. If it is not undertaken firmly, everyone will suffer—the housewife, the worker, the ratepayers. Nobody escapes. It is essential that we should give the fullest support to our town planners. If we don’t, our present means of living and getting a living will be restricted in other ways.”