Viv Beck: Heart of the City CEO on the calls to let cars return to Auckland's Queen Street

Cars could be returning to a section of Auckland's Queen Street, under a new proposal.

Auckland Transport wants to let cars return to the section between Wellesley and Wakefield Street from between 7pm and 7am. 

Private vehicles were banned from the area in 2022. 

Heart of the City CEO Viv Beck says it's a sensible proposal, and she explained that the area has been negatively affected by the change. 

"Last year, the foot traffic was down 36 percent on 2019 in that area - and the spending was down 57 percent."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Organ Transport wants to let cars back into more of
Queen Street in central Auckland. Private vehicles were given the boot,
as you know, of the section of Queen Street between
Wellesley and Wakefield Street back in twenty twenty two, but
AT has now proposed to the White Matar Local Board
that general traffic traffic should be allowed in that section

(00:21):
between seven pm and seven am, basically overnight. The beck
CEO Heart of the city with me now, haveviv.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Hello thoughts our common sense. I mean, we've had a
nighttime entertainment area that you couldn't get a cab or
ride chair, you couldn't drop your elderly parents or grandparents
in there. This will open up. It's a sensible multi
modal access we're looking for.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Do you think it's sensible. Do you think it's had,
like seriously had a legitimate impact on nightlife in Auckland
and safety?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, it has had a negative economic impact. We know
they've collected I think, well it's an excess now of
twenty million dollars in fines. And when they came to
talk to us about it not too long ago, they
said it had been tremendously successful, And I said, what
by what measure? And they said, because we're getting fewer fines,
I more cars out And I said yes. But last

(01:16):
year the foot traffic was down thirty six percent on
twenty nineteen in that area, and the spending was down
fifty seven percent. So the reality is it hasn't been
flooded with people and spending. I mean, in an ideal world,
if you had millions of people, you can understand the
logic potentially, but a lot of these things have been

(01:38):
done before we've had enough people, so it's common sense
people are looking for. Our recent business survey, seventy nine
percent of respondents in that Queen Street Valley area did
not agree with eighty finding people one hundred and fifty
dollars for entering that area. It was really confusing and
it put people off coming here. We know that because

(01:59):
our research tells us constantly people have been frustrated and
have found it too hard to come here at a
time we really need to welcome them back with open arms.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Not fine, So why now? Why have they had this
come to Jesus moment? Do you reckon?

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Oh? Because the buses are coming out, So that we
few about their logic was that we had so many
buses in there that you needed to get the cars out,
and now some of the buses are going back into
Albert Street, so that there's changes and sort of what's
going where. So what they're saying is at night, at
night time, the ability for people to get through there

(02:34):
and access that area I think makes sense, just.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Common sense, common sense, common sense, not very common What
about Greater Auckland they've had out of this saying the
change is bad. They say there's lots of support for
pedestrianizing Queen Street and the already pedestrianized bits are getting
better foot traffic. Is that well one is that true?

Speaker 2 (02:54):
And to your react, well, we know we need the
equivalent of about Coldplay concert a day to get back
overall to the foot traft we used to have. We're
not averse to the vision, but the execution has been lousy,
and it's been planned on cities with millions of people.
So if you think about we know we're not London
or Manhattan, who had about eighty five percent of the

(03:16):
people already there before they started doing this sort of thing. Now,
whether it was because they have got great public transport
or because they lived there, the point is some of
these things have been done before we had enough people.
That's the issue. That's you know, so we're not saying,
of course people like people friendly places, but we're also
saying you need to have different modes cohabitating. You go

(03:40):
to christ Church, they've done a really good job of that.
I had a rental car there recently. I could get
very close to their people friendly spaces without being fined,
without feeling unwelcome. I could part close. You know, other
cities I've been to, they just don't seem to be
so obsessed with making it difficult for years, and we've

(04:02):
got to just be able to cohabitate comfortably with different
modes and by all means, as we get more people
back through public transport, which we support and other modes,
you start looking at things, then you don't do it
while we're really down on people.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Viv appreciate your time, Vive Big Heart of the City CEO.
For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to
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Speaker 2 (04:25):
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