Bicycle boom perplexing City Council

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 7

Bicycle boom perplexing City Council

Bicycle and motor-cycle parks around Christchurch are filling as fast as the City Council can provide them.

. Counts at • intersections last year had shown a “substantial increase” in -the number of bicycles travelling to and from the city each day, said the Christchurch City Cduncil’s traffic engineer, Mr K. L. Gadd. Because of this the council had in-

creased the number of onstreet parks. “But as fast as we put ■them in they get filled with all-day parkers, especially around Cathedral Square,” said Mr' Gadd. Counts were expected to begin again next month: the work- would be done by temporary employment scheme workers and council staff. The council had looked for areas to install offstreet parking for bicycles, but none could be found. Two commercial off-street parks were available to cyclists in the city, but these were not heavily used, said Mr . Gadd. Any new areas for on-street cycle stands were at the expense of metered carparking spaces, he said.

The council was also replacing existing cycle stands with a new stand that ensured less -.footpath area was taken up. In a bid to plan ahead for the ever-increasing numbers of cycles, the council had introduced a by-law that required all new buildings in the city to provide off-street staff parking for all cycles, said Mr Gadd.

It was also proposed to improve the quality of city cycleways, and the council had allocated a “considerable amount” of money for this purpose in next year’s draft estimates, he said.

The proposals included the resurfacing and widening of cycleway routes in Hagley Park, and improving the Papanui and Linwood cycleways. The increased use of these routes had made this a priority.

Marking and identification of suburban routes to get bicycles off the main roads was also a high priority, Mr Gadd said.