At its monthly meeting on 26 June, the Council approved an update of the joint CCC/Environment Canterbury Public Passenger Transport Strategy, gave staff the go-ahead to move onto the next stage of work on improving the city northern transport system and adopted the City-wide Parking Strategy. Reports about each of these topics can be found on pp4-5. The three projects came to The three projects came to Council through its Sustainable Transport and Utilities Committee and follow extensive public consultation and discussions with related organisations.

Committee chairman, Cr Denis O'Rourke, says all three squarely face the pressures that Christchurch's transport system is expected to face in the next few decades and also show the Council's determination to plan for workable and useful alternatives to the private motorcar.

"The Public Passenger Transport Strategy really raises the bar in terms of committing the Council to planning and star ting at least three major public transport routes with high-quality bus priority measures by 2006," Cr O'Rourke says. "In effect, it means we'll need to star our planning and consultation processes right now."

There were interest groups in the city whose members have already said they will fight the idea of peak-time bus-lanes, and Cr O'Rourke hopes they will look at what is proposed with open minds and a willingness to work with the Council towards a sustainable transport system which will support businesses as well as enhance the city as a great place to live.

"The Council doesn't want to generate a confrontation with groups that think they might be hurt by these changes," he says. "There are solutions that they need not be afraid of. Christchurch is a leader in getting people onto buses and we have done that well,but now all the easy improvements have been achieved,and to move on we need to look at these things."

Other cities in this country are now ahead of us and the work they're doing is showing that everyone can win with this - retailers, commuters who use the buses, people who live along the routes and those who continue to commute by car. What we do with roading and transport lasts for hundreds of years and in a growing city we have to be forward-thinking and get it right."