Less parking in plan for Merivale

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 8

Less parking in plan for Merivale

A 2m wide median strip in Papanui Road may be built through the heart of the Merivale shopping centre in a bid to reduce accidents. The median is one of several traffic measures outlined in a discussion paper presented yesterday to the Christchurch City Council’s works and traffic committee. Coupled with the median, that would close off access to some side streets, are loading-only zones along the sides of the road. Other parking would be abolished in the section between Innes Road and St Albans Street. It is this proposed loss of parking in an already congested area that has businessmen in the Merivale centre worried. “The use of a median should Improve traffic' flows but that’s not the problem,” said Mr Pat Quinn, of Quinn’s Fashions. “What we need is more parking." “We need to have that extra parking before they

take away the on-street parking on Papanui Road,” said Mr Tony Wallace, of Dodds Pharmacy. Fourteen parking spaces in Papanui Road have been removed to allow for the installation in the next two weeks of traffic signals at Aikmans Road. Another set of signals is due for St Albans Street in the early New Year, doing away with another 12 parking spaces. The proposed median strip would mean the loss of another 29 spaces. It is the area’s accident record that has prompted the council to draw plans for improving traffic flows and reducing the vehicle-pedestrian conflicts. Since 1970 about 100 accidents, one fatal, have been reported for the shopping centre block. About a fifth of these involved pedestrians. Council staff say that the traffic measures proposed would halve the number of accidents. The proposed median

strip is in four patches — opposite Murray Place, prohibiting right turns from Papanui Road into Murray Place; opposite McDougall Avenue, also banning right turns; from Mansfield Avenue to the pedestrian traffic signals outside the mall and from there to St Albans Street. Right-turn lanes from Papanui Road would be installed at Leinster Road and Aikmans Road. Right turns into Office Road would be prohibited by the median running across that junction. The chairman of theworks and traffic commit-* tee, Cr Ron Wright, emphasised the proposals were simply a base for discussion with residents and businesses in the area. The livelihood of the businesses and their dependence on passing traffic had to be recognised, he said. “The car is their business and we must make sure the shops remain accessible to people.”