UNDER PRESSURE: Canterbury roads are getting more clogged by traffic.

Experts say alternative transport is essential to relieve congestion, SHELLEY ROBINSON reports.

Canterbury traffic congestion has increased 40 per cent since the September 2010 earthquake, with more than a million more vehicle trips expected every week until 2021.

The draft Regional Land Transport Plan (RLTP) 2015 - 2025, led by Environment Canterbury (ECan), has forecasted the infrastructure required to keep Canterbury moving.

Five objectives, including preparing the region for the onslaught of increased traffic volumes related to the rebuild, have been developed.

Transport experts say post-quake urban sprawl must be reversed to make alternative modes of transportation like cycling and buses more attractive.

The region is under pressure, with 20 per cent of the nation's fatal crashes last year, a fifth of the top 100 riskiest intersections and 40 per cent increased congestion since the earthquakes, said the report.

Traffic congestion has plagued the west and north parts of the city, slowing rush hour traffic to a crawl in parts. Congestion was affecting the economic wellbeing of the city through the transportation of goods, the report said.

Reduced "travel time reliability" into Lyttelton from Brougham St was a "challenge". By 2021, an extra 1.4 million vehicle trips a week were predicted, the report said.

Canterbury University transportation engineering senior lecturer Glen Koorey said people had been pushed further out to the suburbs and neighbouring districts by the earthquakes, making cycling and buses less attractive.

"'People who used to be 5 or 10 kilometres away are now 20 or more away. Suddenly there is a lot more traffic. The number of people who have had to change their plans, where they work and shop and have ended up somewhere further away or unfamiliar and the option is I'll hop in the car.

"Unless we can get more people back into town we are just going to have the transport problem associated with urban sprawl."

The draft report said 20,000 jobs were removed from the central city after the earthquakes. The Selwyn district population increased by nearly a third and the Waimakariri by 17 per cent, it said.

Koorey said authorities were planning for growth, with highway upgrades and cycleways.

" It means we will have short-term congestion while infrastructure is being built, but the longterm hope is people will switch over to alternative transport," he said.

The report said reducing Canterbury's dismal safety record was a priority. On average, 39 people die on Canterbury road yearly, with 321 seriously injured.

Koorey said the crash statistics were expected as Canterbury covered a large area and Christchurch had a high number of intersections, compared with other major centres, due to road layout.

Focus nationally was on reducing road speeds from 50kmh and 100kmh, particularly in rural areas with unsealed surfaces, he said.

Canterbury Regional Transport Committee member Cr Phil Clearwater said public transport would help cut road crashes. "Getting people on buses reduces congestion and prangs."

The city council was implementing bus priority lanes on the Main North Rd before the Waimakariri Bridge and Riccarton Rd, to reduce congestion.

Canterbury Regional Transport Committee chairman and ECan commissioner Rex Williams said the draft plan would be released for consultation in the next few months. "It is important we have good infrastructure where the economy and safety is concerned, and that taxpayers have an input into the thinking of how infrastructure is developed."

TRANSPORT :

20 per cent of the country's fatal crashes are in Canterbury as compared to only 13 per cent of total vehicle kilometres travelled.

23 of the worst 100 safety rated intersections are in Canterbury.

40 per cent increase in traffic congestion between 2009-2013.

Between 2009 and 2013, 195 deaths, 1609 serious injuries.

Cantabrians make 800 million trips annually and travel 5.8 billion kilometres.

75 per cent travel by car, 18 per cent on foot and 3 per cent cycle, 2 per cent bus.

Figures from the draft Regional Land Transport Plan 2015-2025