Christchurch is internationally renowned for its many gardens and parks. Our private gardens and public parks contribute to creating an environment that gives us a quality of life for which we can all feel proud. A quality of life that we may be taking for granted.

That’s because our Garden City of parks could become a city of car parks if the current trends continue

Demand for car parking has been growing steadily over the past few years. Christchurch now has more cars on its roads than ever before, and its increasing; the volume of traffic is predicted to rise by 43% over the next 20 years. All these cars are competing, not just for road space, but also for parking. That’s because every journey we make ends at a park.

Whether you’re travelling to school, to work, to the shops or to the sports field, and whether you’re travelling by car, on a motorbike or a bicycle – at the end of your journey you’ll need to park. So parking is an issue that affects us all.

Even people who aren’t travelling are being affected by the growing demand for parking. Apartment and townhouse developments are leading to trees and gardens being replaced with sealed areas to park cars.

In the past, the solution was to provide more car parks, and build more car parking buildings – but now we’ve reached a crisis point. Demand for car parking isn’t just in the city centre – it’s right across the city from schools and shopping malls, to sports centres, apartment block and work places.

Simply providing more car parks may not even solve the problem. It’s decision time to us: do we want to live in a city of parks or a city or car parks?

We think our Garden City is too precious to risk losing

That’s why the Christchurch City Council is developing a parking strategy for the City. This strategy will enable us to balance the need for car parking with the need to retain our quality of life. Since parking affects everyone, it’s important that everyone has an opportunity to help find the solution to our parking crisis.