Christchurch Urban Revitalization Strategy Released

The report, created by urban design guru Jan Gehl and commissioned by Christchurch City Council, that strategizes revitalization efforts for the city centre, has just been released for organizational and public debate.

The report identifies the city's strengths (such as flat wide streets and large number of heritage buildings) and weaknesses (such as traffic dominated city and a city centre only heavily active during work hours), and puts forward 110 recommendations that emphasize pedestrian activity and encourage more cycling in the city centre. Recommendations to support these goals include continuous cycle lanes, a traffic reduced city centre, a reduction in the number of buses in Cathedral Square and on Colombo Street, and only allowing bus lanes on the periphery of the city centre.

Councillors are set to decide next week which recommendations will be given further investigation. Click here to read more in The Press's article about the release of the Jan Gehl report.

Free Breakfast for Bicycle Riders Tomorrow, Wed. 17 Feb

Three Christchurch organisations are putting on free breakfast events from 7am to 9am for commuters who bike into work tomorrow (Wednesday, 17th Feb.), as part of a national Go-By-Bike Day celebration. These breakfast events will be held at:

• The Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, Corner Madras and St Asaph Streets,
• New Zealand College of Early Childhood Education, 50 Victoria Street, and
• Canterbury District Health Board, Corner Oxford Terrace and Antigua Street.

Mayor Bob Parker will be trialling several electric bikes at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology breakfast. The Council is also launching the new and improved 2010 Christchurch City Cycle Guide, which will be handed out at all of the breakfast locations. The guide will also be given to organisations that registered for the Bike Wise Challenge (a campaign that encourages groups of employees within a business to take up biking to work), will be available at Council's service centres, or can be downloaded from Council's cycling information webpage.

The national Bike Wise Month campaign is funded by the New Zealand Transport Agency and Ministry of Health.

City Streets Just Got Smarter

Have you noticed the new Council signs about town? A handful of new “interpretation” and “directional” signs were rolled out in various locations through out the city centre a couple of months ago (November).

The white “interpretation” signs, located in City Mall, communicate pieces of interest to the space in which they are placed, such as ornamental features on surrounding heritage buildings, the title and meaning of a nearby public art piece, or the purpose or manner in which the space was regularly used by residents of a by-gone era. Council planning for these signs included consultation with local heritage experts, signage experts, and even a study in which locals and tourists were given clipboards and cameras and asked to identify aspects of the space that interested them.

The red “directional” signs can found in locations such as Cathedral Square, the Canterbury Museum, the Arts Gallery, and the Library. These signs are replacements to the old bollard type directional signs that were put up in the city in the eighties. The new locations and information communicated on these signs were chosen by Council after doing pedestrian surveys and by monitoring pedestrian movement in order to understand the most trafficked routes and therefore the most effective positions for the new signs.

Keep your eyes peeled for more of Council’s new signs to pop up in the coming year, including another interpretation sign on the block of High Street between Lichfield and Cashel Streets and directional signs that will direct pedestrian traffic from the city centre towards AMI Stadium (in anticipation of the Rugby Cup).

Last Week to Have Your Say on Open Spaces Strategy

This is the last week for Christchurch residents to comment on the draft strategy that will dictate how the city’s open spaces are managed over the next 30 years. The Draft Open Space Strategy calls for a redesign of Latimer and Cranmer squares, improving pedestrian access alongside the Avon River, and the creation of "pocket parks" for streets that border the city centre as well as three new neighbourhood parks – one west of Colombo St, one between Latimer Square and Fitzgerald Ave, and one on the High Street axis opposite the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

It’s easy to electronically submit your thoughts to Council on key areas of the proposed strategy by filling out this online questionnaire. But act quick - submissions end this Friday February 5. Click here to find a more detailed summary of the Open Space Draft Strategy, as well as a pdf download of the full report.

Image source: Bryce Edwards on Flickr

Danish Urban Designer Advises Council on Revitalisation

Urban Designer Jan Gehl has prepared a report for Christchurch City Council that lays out 35 year blueprint for injecting new life into the central city. The report, to be released next month, is presumed to promote open inner-city public spaces and shift transportation away from cars to more sustainable forms of transit such as walking, cycling, and trams.

Gehl Architects produced a similar report for the City of Melbourne in 2004, which provided Melbourne City Council figures and strategy for achieving a well-rounded revitalization of Melbourne's CBD. Jan Gehl, is considered to be "the global guru" for creating livable and sustainable cities throughout Europe, the United States, and Australia.

While the initial cost of the report to council may seem high at $314,000, it should be noted that the strategy put forward, and initiatives once brought to fruition, are thought to be a means of attracting and retaining young skilled people and quality institutions to Christchurch, an thereby a sound investment for the future of the city.

Image source: Sydney Morning Herald, September 2007