Pedestrian Friendly Street for CBD

Hereford Street is to be made more pedestrian friendly with wider footpaths, more trees, outdoor dining and a slow road between the intersections with Manchester Street and Oxford Tce. Okay, so this is only very slightly related to transport but I still think it's important. I'm not totally into pedestrianising streets too much, I have always felt the 'City Mall' was slightly too big and that Cathedral Square is too open and barren. However, this is different. This is creating an environment where traffic still exists, it just takes second place to pedestrians. I am fully in support of this because for some time now I feel our CBD has lacked that real 'city' feel. Hereford Street is one of the most dense in the city and is home to a significant chunk of the city's commercial firms. Recently I was in Wellington and I loved the way Lambton Quay retains its traffic but was dominated by people. The street looked nice, busy and full of life. At the moment, Hereford Street is drab, cold and boring. It should also flow into the City Mall upgrade quite well.

This project is seen by the City Council as a way to encourage more business in the area and I feel that they are onto something here. In addition to Hereford Street, Armagh Street is also an important commercial area with more projects planned for the future. With the tram running down it, and with New Regent Street running off it, I feel Armagh Street should be in line for a similar upgrade if the Hereford Street project is successful. Another possibility is Glouchester Street, especially with construction to start soon on two commercial buildings and one high density residential building on the soon to be vacated Press site. Keeping road traffic but not letting it dominate is something I believe will help create a more vibrant and attractive CBD. You can find the project here at the Christchurch City Council website.

I'm still working on creating a new better blog, unfortunately I just don't have the time to get online as much as I would like. However, it is slowly coming together, I have decided on simply making this blog a bit nicer and then developing a concept Christchurch 2020 transport plan which can be accessed and commented on. Hopefully, this will create some debate and I can get it 'out there'. Until then...