Planning for Public Transport in a City Rebuilding: the Case of Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract

Public transport empowers cities to flourish. Planning for public transport is a difficult task. Public transport must cater for travellers with different needs. It must also provide an attractive service with good, high frequencies for multiple destinations and maintain high patronage rates. Getting residents to use public transport instead of private cars, and addressing travel behaviour is an on-going issue in transportation planning internationally.

The 2010 and 2011 tragic earthquake events that occurred in Christchurch have had a devastating impact on the region and its residents. Following the earthquake events, bus patronage fell 40%.Recovery following a disaster includes physical, economic and social rebuilding.The provision of public transport plays a significant part in this recovery. This study aimed to determine how to plan for a successful public transport system in Christchurch in the post-disaster environment. Specifically, what were the various ways to increase public transport patronage and influence residents’ travel behaviour? Additionally, what public transport opportunities are now presented to Christchurch for the future? The research found that in order to increase public transport patronage for a successful public transport system in Christchurch, there needs to be an integration of three themes.Firstly, public transport service, improving service through implementing bus priority measures such as bus only lanes and traffic signals giving buses right of way. The second theme is the incorporation of land use planning; bringing thought around public transport into the forefront of decisions surrounding developments, to ensure that public transport can service key developments. The third theme, travel behaviour, involves getting residents to use public transport and stray away from using the private car. The three themes can be addressed to increase public transport patronage in Christchurch through implementing bus rapid transit along key corridors proposed. Building on elements of bus rapid transit with the new central city bus interchange has the potential to make Christchurch an accessible and world-class city.