Officials “thrilled” by traffic flow

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33442, 25 January 1974, Page 20

Officials “thrilled” by traffic flow

"We’re thrilled at the way things went." Christchurch city's chief traffic officer (Mr I. W. McLauchlan) said last evening about traffic conditions before and after the opening of the Commonwealth Game? at Queen Elizabeth II Park.

Traffic flowed well both before and after the ceremony. and motorists behaved well, Mr McLauchlan said. He had heard of only one minor accident on the Games routes.

Appeals to motorists to leave early for the Games were taken to heart, and spectators' cars arrived steadily from before 10 a.m„ reaching a peak between noon and 1 p.m.

But the traffic moved into the park steadily and with only brief delays, and parking did not prove to be the problem that some had expected.

The many traffic officers' on duty—about 90 manned; points on the routes to the| park—were pleased with motorists’ behaviour, although they said it was plain that many drivers had not taken the trouble to find out in advance the route they should take, and many did not use: the windscreen stickers with which they had been issued. • Some drivers, when direct-: ed by officers on point duty,) stopped to ask the officers! where they should ro —thus' holding up long lines of cars behind them. By noon, traffic on the I main route to the park from! the city, Wainoni Road, was! banked up back to Kerrs l Road, but traffic officers kept the line moving at 10 m.p.h., with an occasional halt.

Traffic on New Brighton Road and Mairehau Road was also reduced to a crawl, with frequent halts.

But the delays did not last long, and by soon after 1 p.m. all the routes were relatively clear. By the time the opening started about 2 p.m. there 1 was still parking in the Ascot Avenue and Bower Avenue car-parks, and park-! ing on the roadside was 1 available at many points! within a 10-minute walk of the stadium.

Two Christchurch photographers spent more than three hours in this cage 130 ft above Queen Elizabeth II Park during the Games opening ceremony yesterday. And the breath-taking view they captured is reproduced over the doublepage snread in this morning’s Games lift-out section of “The Press.” The photographers, Mr P. B. Dolan, of Mannering and Associates, and Mr F. Kay, of “The Press.” also recorded the scene on colour film for a poster to be released for sale today and the official colour review being published by “The Press" for release on Februarv 4.

i Many spectators decided to New Brighton Road near Wainoni Road, and walked a block to the park along Barkers Road or Wattle Drive. Some vacant sections near the park itself had been set up as private car-parks, at 20c or 30c a time, but most were doing only middling business. One in Ascot Avenue. only three or four minutes walk from the stadium. had attracted only three or four customers, and had space for 10 or 15 more at least. Many spectators decided to go to the opening by bus, and by about noon, some queues in the Square stretched for about 100 yards. By the time the cere-: mony started, special buses and the normal Brighton services had carried about 4500 people—Bl bus-loads—to the, stadium. There were plenty of buses to bring people back to the city, and they brought many passengers back ahead of motorists who left the park about the same time. Eighty-one bus-loads of spectators left the park in 90 minutes. The general manager of the Christchurch Transport Board (Mr M. G. Taylor) said later he was “pretty happy” with the way things had gone. Taxi companies, however, reported a “very poor” demand for their services, ex-j cept for a brief flurry of orders between noon and 2 p.m. Even ordinary city calls 1 were poor, last evening, a disappointing extra late shopping night. “We’re very, very disappointed in the way it’s been so far—in fact we’re embarrassed, what with the extra licences and extra staff we have put on,” one taxi company spokesman said. "Even Wednesday night was poor, and most visitors must have been here by then." | One taxi-driver said thatj his takings during the last! week were down about $100! on normal, and that all pos-i sible taxi business was being) taken by courtesy cars and I the buses. The car-park at the I stadium were cleared of cars)

about 45 minutes after the ceremony ended, and the Games routes generally were clear of traffic again within about two hours. Traffic officers said there were no undue delays. . Mr McLauchlan said the Ministry of Transport’s traffic-spotting aircraft had proved exceedingly helpful, and he also paid tribute to the residents living on the Games routes and near the park. In the city itself, long lines of empty meter spaces and the very small number of vehicles on the roads were evidence of the attraction of the Games Opening Ceremonv. With some shops j open in the evening, traffic 1 after 6.30 p.m. was considerably heavier than on a normal week-night.