Figures For Traffic Movement In City

Press, Volume C, Issue 29435, 10 February 1961, Page 15

Figures For Traffic Movement In City

Daring * 12-bour period on any normal week day some 62.180 persons travelled into the central area of Christchurch for one purpose or another, said the invrttlptlnj engineer (traffic and transport) to the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority (Mr G. C. Suggate) yesterday. In the 12 hours from 630 a m. to 6.30 P-rru, Mr Suggate said, 34 per cent of the 62,180 persons drove motor-cars, 26 per cent, travelled >y bus, 24 per cent, rode either motor, power or push cycle, and the remaining 16 per cent, either walked to the city or arrived as passengers in motor-cars or taxis.

This has emerged from figures compiled by the Planning Authority as a result of traffic surveys taken during September and October, 1959. To help forecast future traffic problems likely to develop as Christchurch grows, formulae are being devised by the Authority with the assistance of Dr. B. I. Hayman, of the applied mathematics laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which will explain the number of trips made into the central city area and the mode of travel used.

Mr Suggate said that by “central city area” he meant the area bounded by Barbadoes, Salisbury and St. Asaph streets and Rolleston avenue.

At present, of the 62,180 persons travelling into the inner city, 24,030 travelled to work, 11.050 to shop, 14,900 on private or firm’s business, and 12.200 for social or recreational reasons, to school or returning to work after lunch. Relation to Distance

Mr Suggate said that trips a head of population in all these cases diminished according to the distance people had to travel to the city centre. For example, 70 trips a 1000

were made by those living between one and two miles, against 45 a 1000 for those who had to travel five to six miles to the city centre. One had to bear in mind, said Mr Suggate, that the things which made one suburb different from another were governed by the distance from the city centre, the employment in the locality, and the availability., of a reasonable shopping centre in the area.

In a recent survey of parking trends carried out by the City Traffic Engineer (Mr H. E.Surtees) it was shown that 135,000 motor-vehicles moved in or out of the city’s central area during 24 hours on a normal week day. Of this number 101,000 movements took place between the hours of 6.30 a.m. and 6.30 pan. Mr Suggate said that 30 per cent. of these vehicles travelled through the city without stopping within the central area. The percentage was much lower than in the United States, where much information on the subject came from.