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Easy City Cycle
Cycling around the City will become easier if a project in the Christchurch City Council Draft Plan 1998 is confirmed. As part of the $750,000 allocated in the plan to encourage cyclists, a 2.9 km cycleway is scheduled to be built alongside the railway track between St James Park, Papanui and Matai St, Riccarton. Expected to take up to 1,200 cyclists every day particularly pupils of Boys High, Girls High, Waimairi Primary and St Bede's College the cycleway will be accessible from at least six connection points. If passed into the plan, construction on the cycleway will begin in March 1999 for completion by July 2000.
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Christchurch kids safe on their bikes is the aim of a new
Christchurch City Council programme targeting 10 and 11
year-olds in local primary schools. Cycling identities Terry and Michéle Gyde run Cycle Safe as part of the Council's strategy to improve the safety of youngesters on Christchurch roads. The pair organise sessions to provide advice, training and practical experience of safety on a bike to school groups. Sessions are free to all participants and cover cycle maintenance, riding skills, practice simulations and practical on-road riding, culminating in a road test. For more information or to book a session, contact Terry and Michéle Gyde at Cycle Safe on 941 8951. |
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Who names the streets?
Many Christchurch street names in are not quite what they seem, according to City Council street names expert, Bob Pritchard.
Blighs Road, for example, was named after a local restaurateur, not the captain of HMS Bounty all the same, streets off Blighs Road named after aspects of the famous mutiny include Pitcairn Crescent, Christian Street, and Bounty Street.
Similarly, Carbine Place, near Riccarton Racecourse, was named after its developer, not the racehorse. However, nearby Wynand Place is a punning reference to racing it is pronounced 'win and'.
Origins of some street names have been lost over the years. Bob Pritchard has two possible theories on naming Retreat Road in Avonside, for example. One suggests it refers to a skirmish between British troops and local Maori, in which the latter beat a retreat over the site. The other is that a wealthy landowner built a house there for his unmarried daughters a 'maiden's retreat' which gave the street its name.
