Cars will be banned from Auckland's Queen St, and it could spread

Tuesday, 27 November 2018

An artist's impression of how Queen St could look in future.

Cars will be banned from Auckland's Queen St, and the council will accelerate trials of vehicle bans on other streets around the city.

The ideas were approved unanimously as councillors on Tuesday signed off an updated version of the six-year City Centre Master Plan.

The Queen St move will happen after the building of light rail lines and could be seven years or more away.

The increasing closure of other streets to vehicles for special events could happen as early as next year, to focus more on pedestrians than cars, with downtown High Street top of the list.

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Councillor and Planning Committee chair, Chris Darby, wants a trial of street closures in Auckland.

Mayor Phil Goff said further pedestrianisation of Queen St would change Auckland's main street from a traffic route to a place people could enjoy, and open streets trials would close off limited areas of the city and suburbs from vehicles to enable streets to be used for people and events.

'We want Queen St to be a great place to walk, gather, relax and enjoy. We want it to change from an area with one of the worst levels of vehicle pollution to a place that is pleasant and healthy to be in.'

Planning Committee chair Chris Darby said Auckland was rapidly changing. 'We must accelerate the change in focus from our city centre, turning it from a 'drive-through' to a 'go-to' – and sooner, not later,' Darby said.

At the council meeting, councillor Penny Hulse captured a mood for fast trials of banning vehicles from some CBD streets, saying: 'Let's take those waterfilled barriers down there and close High St.'

The narrow once-boutique street parallel to Queen St has become the focus of those wanting to give people and not vehicles higher priority.

'It's an ugly environment,' Darby told the meeting.

'Let's take those waterfilled barriers down there and close High Street', said Auckland councillor Penny Hulse.

'For 10 hours a day on the footpath you've got 900 millimetres between a gas meter attached to a building, and the edge of the kerb,' said Darby.

Businesses in High St had in past years resisted banning cars, fearing a fall-off in trade.

The council's urban design champion Ludo Campbell-Reid said he'd move quickly to discuss the idea again with the changed mix of business owners, now that there was a mandate.

The question of whether politicians or staff should be driving an 'open streets' programme across Auckland was a feature of debate.

Goff asked Campbell-Reid what was planned in the next 12 months for more 'open streets' or temporary closures.

Campbell-Reid called it a big and complicated issue, but pointed out that where politicians had sought action on specific ideas involving council agencies, things had worked.

'If it comes from the top, things happen,' he told the meeting.

'It's all up to you,' Campbell-Reid said, pointing out that the budget for a major revamp of High St had been pushed out beyond the next three years.

Darby urged street closures to be trialled as early as next March, in various parts of Auckland, without further involvement of politicians.

'I don't want to see a full-blown report, I just want to see it done,' he said.

'You're sensing a council and community, that's giving you a 'licence-to-do' not just ponder an idea,' he said.

Campbell-Reid suggested even Queen St could be closed more often, but that needed the co-operation of the council agency Auckland Transport, and involved fees to close roads.