Waitai Coastal-Burwood-Linwood Community Board Plan 2026-28
Submission from Spokes Canterbury
Reference: https://letstalk.ccc.govt.nz/waitai-coastal-burwood-linwood-community-board-plan-2026-28
March 2026
Tēnā koutou katoa
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Waitai Coastal-Burwood-Linwood Community Board Plan 2026-28.
Introduction
Spokes Canterbury (http://www.spokes.org.nz/) is a local cycling advocacy group with approximately 1,300 followers. Spokes is affiliated with the national Cycling Action Network (CAN – https://can.org.nz/). Spokes is dedicated to including cycling as an everyday form of transport in the greater Christchurch and Canterbury areas. Spokes has a long history of advocacy in this space including writing submissions, presenting to councils, and working collaboratively with others in the active transport space. We focus on the need for safe cycling for those aged 8 to 80. Spokes also supports all forms of active transport, public transport, and has an interest in environmental matters.
Priorities
Support a new Marshland Community Centre
Spokes supports a new community centre. These can become a hub for cycling like the St Albans Community Centre which has strong ties to Wednesday Wheelies. Please ensure there is plenty of cycle parking at the centre.
Reutilisation of the Smith Street Service Centre
The Centre is hard to find, and there is no safe bike parking when you get there.
Support resilience planning
The Community Board should promote cycling as a form of resilience that is not reliant on fossil fuels or subject to price shocks from international actions that we have no control over. In times when the road network is compromised, cycling provides a more flexible way of getting around damaged neighbourhoods.
Burwood / Mairehau intersection improvements
Spokes supports safety improvements for the Burwood Road / Mairehau Road intersection.
In addition to the improvements to The Burwood/ Mairehau intersection, one of our members, Stephen Wood, has submitted to the board a proposal for a refuge crossing on Burwood Rd close to the main Burwood Hospital car park. Details of this proposal are outlined in SnapSendSolve report ID: 7677498 and a letter outlining the case for it was tabled as correspondence at the March 9 meeting of the board
Pages Road Bridge (non-funded ancillary works) and key transport links
Spokes strongly supports the plans for this area that have been consulted on. This creates an integrated cycling and walking infrastructure that will provide lasting improvements for this area. It will also provide alternative faster options for safely exiting New Brighton during Tsunami warnings if roads become grid locked.
Wainoni Park lighting upgrades
Spokes supports the lighting upgrades.
North Beach carpark issues
Spokes supports making this carpark safer.
New Brighton Mall Masterplan
Spokes supports the New Brighton Mall masterplan. Please see our submission from February 2026 for further details.
Rawhiti School minor safety improvements
Spokes strongly supports safety upgrades to roads around schools, including permanent 40km/h speed reductions, as a priority to encourage more students to use active transport to get to school, including cycling. This has the added safety benefit of reducing cars around school entrances. Limiting car parking around schools (creating car free zones) during pick up and drop off time has been trailed successfully in England.
Spokes Cycling Priorities in Waitai
These priorities have come from Spokes members and from a number of public consultations in 2025 and 2026. These are our top five of 18 requests for Waitai in priority order:
- Provide a direct MCR commuter route from New Brighton to the city down Pages Road, Woodham Road and Worcester St.
- Provide additional safety treatments for cyclists at the Prestons Road / Marshlands Road intersection.
- Improve Rookwood Ave and Keyes Rd for cycling, drivers travelling to fast, close passes and not well lit after dark.
- Add pedestrian / cyclist crossing at the north entrance to Burwood Hospital – with no speed bumps.
- Widen the refuges on Rutherford St, Woolston, near the bridge over the Ōpāwaho Heathcote River
Spokes is happy to provide more details on these priorities on request.
There are also some general things that can significantly improve cycling in the Waitai area.
- Speed reductions make neighbourhoods safer for all road users. Spokes would like to see more roads reduced from 50km/h to 40km/h and 60km/h to 50km/h.
- Pedestrian / cyclist refuge crossings make it easier to get across busy roads.
- Bike parking at popular destinations and events that suit a wide range of bikes such as cargo and cargo trikes with space for loading and unloading children.
- Provision of cut downs into and out of paths in parks and alleyways – suitable for cargo bikes and mobility devices.
- Progressively remove staples and bollards at alleyway entrances that are too narrow for cycles, push chairs and mobility devices to navigate. Put reflective tape on bollards that remain and paint diamonds on pavement where appropriate. Where bollards remain, offset them back from the entrance slightly
- More cycle signage and way-finding. This was the top request at the UCSA Orientation Day from new students. Adding ‘except cycles and pedestrians’ signs to no exit streets with alleyways helps for navigation
- Reinstating cycle infrastructure when road works are completed, e.g. green paint.
- Improved lighting for cycling and walking through parks and alleyways.
- Greater enforcement for vehicles parked / driving in cycleways and cycle lanes, or dangerously parking at school entrances. Automated 24/7 enforcement at hot spots.
- Ensuring that cyclists trigger the lights at intersections without waiting for a car or pressing the pedestrian button. E.g. If there is a cycle lane at the intersection, make sure the cycle lane has underground loops to trigger the signals, and diamonds on the road surface so cyclists know where to ride.
- Spokes would like to see bike parking provided at all playgrounds.
- Flexi-posts should be installed on left-hand bends where drivers cut the corner and drive in the cycle lane or shoulder, where possible. These have been very effective along Kotare Street.
I would like the opportunity to present to the Community Board on this submission and I am happy to discuss or clarify any issues that arise.
Ngā mihi nui
Submissions Co-ordinator
Spokes Canterbury
submissions@spokes.org.nz
