The Press reports that some central Christchurch retailers are claiming that customers will “abandon the city centre for suburban shopping malls” if the city council goes ahead with a plan to increase tree planting and cycle lanes. The reason? The loss (due to the trees) of 105 parking spaces in Madras and Barbados streets, or “nearly half of the current spaces” this sounds like a lot until you read at the bottom of the article that Christchurch has more than 875 parking spaces per 1000 inner-city employees, more than three times the amount of an average European city. Central City Business Association chairman Anthony Gough said the plans were bad for the central city; “Car parking is critical to the success of businesses in those areas. It will hurt them pretty badly,” he said. Gough only speaks for a cabal of retailers and property developers however, and he can’t claim to represent the views of the wider community. One stretch of Madras street that will be altered under the plan runs along side the campus of Christchurch Polytechnic. The central city is a place for study as well as shopping, and no doubt many students who commute on bicycles will benefit from a dedicated cycle lane. That same stretch of Madras street is also on the route of a free bus service.
While its dubious that retailers would be negatively effected at all- As Paul de Spa of the Spokes cycling group pointed out “Cars don’t spend money, people do”, a small loss in profits seems like a small price to pay for the social goods of reduced traffic congestion, improved safety for cyclists and pedestrians, and a reduction in carbon emissions that will result from more possibilities for alternative transport. A likely outcome once the council has collected public submissions will be the same plan minus the tree planting, this will keep the car parks, but reduce some of the other benefits of the plan as cars will need to cross cycle lanes to park (less safety) and there will be less incentive to take public transport into the central city.
