Austroads: Transport Research and Trends

Christchurch has developed over 75km of separated cycle facilities retrofitted across the road network. The Major Cycleway Programme has enabled Christchurch to become the leader for cycle infrastructure in New Zealand. The 2011 earthquakes experienced in Canterbury, New Zealand caused significant devastation and destruction across the city. This disaster was a catalyst for change and provided Christchurch an opportunity to rebuild new and create a new identity.

This webinar, presented by Emily Cambridge from Activate Urban and Jacob Bradbury from Christchurch City Council, takes you on the Christchurch journey towards becoming a cycle friendly city. This includes discussing The Share an Idea campaign which empowered the Christchurch community to share their dreams for the future of the city. The campaign attracted more than 100,000 ideas. The Major Cycleway network emerged as part of the city rebuild blueprint. This programme planned a network with over 100km of separated cycleways along 13 major routes across the city. In 2016, two consultant led consortia were established to complete the route designs. Now with 11 of the 13 routes nearing completion there has been exponential growth of people riding bikes over the past 5 years.

One of the completed routes has seen an average 30% growth in cyclists between 2019 and 2020. Recent surveys with users and residents also show strong support for the facility with 82% of cycle users surveyed stated that the new cycleway has encouraged them to make more trips by bike.

The webinar shares how the design team has progressed through route planning, design team consortia collaboration, construction and will touch on some lessons learnt along the journey.