Four empty seats: Driven by a plethora of car parking in Christchurch

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

Christchurch is such a car-centric city, dominated by single occupancy vehicles. So what drives us to drive?

Four Empty Seats is a new transport project from The Press looking at why Christchurch is such a car-centric city, dominated by single occupancy vehicles.

Whether it be on the street free of charge, in your workplace’s garage basement, or on priced up gravel lots dotted around the city charging $6 an hour — there is always a spot to park your vehicle in Christchurch.

People in Canterbury love to drive their own vehicle to work, more so than the national average, and an abundance of parking is steering many to get behind the wheel.

There are an estimated 33,000 car parks in the central city, of which 20,000 are privately owned and off-street for customers and employees, while 13,000 are publicly available as a mix of on-street or privately owned metered or free parking spaces.

An abundance of car parking options helps motivate people to drive in Christchurch.

“If we keep making parking easy then why would people be motivated not to drive?” said transport planner Glen Koorey. “There are certainly a lot of car parks.”

Koorey, who is director of transport planning and engineering group ViaStrada, said while a good cycling network and a reasonable bus service were available to commuters, there was “not enough disincentive with car parking” in the city to make drivers switch modes.

Central Christchurch has a lot of parking options, especially post quake with empty lots being used as temporary car parks, says transport engineer and planner Glen Koorey.

Data from the Christchurch City Council revealed there is about one parking space for every 3.6 workers in the city, significantly more than Auckland which has one space per 7.4 workers.

Wellington, despite having nearly triple the Christchurch CBD workforce, maintains fewer total central city car parks at 28,000, compared to Christchurch’s 33,000.

When The Press spoke to commuters one theme came through: driving is simply the most convenient.

What commuters say

Christchurch was “really user-friendly” for drivers with “lots of car parks easy to access”, said Daina Tuffin, who was visiting from Alexandra. She compared it favourably to Dunedin, where central parking spots are “not easy to find”.

For those who can afford it, paid parking presents little obstacle. Shirleen Oakley from Kennedy's Bush, who visits town once or twice weekly, paid $24 for four hours of parking during a recent visit.

“I usually park at Ballantynes or The Crossing and to be honest, I don't care what it costs, because I always get a park,” Oakley said, though she acknowledged, “we can afford a car park, but not everyone can”.

Commuter Margaret Keats says she always takes her car “because I enjoy driving” when she visits town for special occasions and will happily pay to get a park close to a theatre.

Margaret Keats (left) and Beverley Guy drive into Christchurch city rarely and pay for parking when they do, but wished the pay meter was more flexible instead of set hours.

Easy parking extends beyond commercial paid parking options. Koorey said: “It’s amazing to think even a couple of blocks away from Cathedral Square you can park without paying on the street.”

Monique Van Der Heijden is one of many people parking on the outskirts of the city and walking to the CBD daily.

Her 30 minute walk from the same “secret” parking spot to the Ara campus was worth avoiding expensive parking and the bus.

Jo Robertson from Sumner, left, and Shirleen Oakley from Kennedy's Bush, drive into town and both happily pay for parking for convenience.

“I hate buses, I just don’t understand them. Always feel like a second-hand citizen if you go on the bus and it stops everywhere.”

City Mission worker Harriet English occasionally takes the bus, but said: “For the sake of [my] own timetable it’s easier to drive.” She parks on the city fringe and walks 30 minutes to avoid paying.

Sumner resident Jo Robertson said she often cycles to the city and her husband regularly takes the bus.

Main means of travel to work for employed people aged 15 years and over, in Canterbury in 2023.

“Where I live, we've got a very good bus service. [It] goes every 15 minutes and now you can put your bikes on. I know people that bike to work and then get the bus home. I think that’s very good. I’d like to see more buses as opposed to providing more parking,” she said.

When she does go into town for weekly shopping or social occasions, she drives and has no trouble finding a park, which she will pay for - for convenience.

“As humans, we’re quite habitual. We like to go to places where it’s close to our destination point, and that dictates where we park.”

High proportion driving to work

Canterbury has the sixth highest percentage of workers driving a private vehicle to work out of New Zealand's 16 regions, according to 2023 Census data.

Nationally, 55.7% of the employed population drive to work. In Canterbury, 57.8% do, behind Hawke's Bay (61.2), Manawatū-Whanganui (59.7%), Bay of Plenty (59.1), Taranaki (58.7%) and Gisborne (57.9%).

Auckland was close to the national average at 55.2% and Wellington had the lowest at 41%.

Koorey said Wellington had a well-oiled public transport system and not many central car parks.

Christchurch’s high proportion of workers driving was “certainly not doing any favours in terms of traffic congestion”, he said.

He suggested more areas could have parking charges introduced or increased to encourage people to look at alternatives, including carpooling which would allow users to split parking costs.

“Unless you start widening that area of where people should be paying … you're just incentivising people to find the easy car park and walk a couple of blocks,” he said.

* The original version of this story incorrectly stated Canterbury has the third highest percentage of workers driving to work in New Zealand. In fact, it’s the sixth.