Simon Wilson

on a car-free Queen St

Next year, hallelujah, we’re going to have some trials to work out how to remove unnecessary cars from the inner city. What does it mean? We don’t know. There’s still much to be resolved, especially for people with special mobility challenges, tradies and people who don’t want to ride a bicycle or scooter. And if you work late — if you feel vulnerable for any reason — and right now your car provides you with transport security, how will you get home?

Much to decide. Therefore, much need for trials. Here are 25 they might try.

1 Get the whole council on board, especially Auckland Transport

Not, strictly speaking, a trial so much as a fit-for-purpose exercise for the whole council. This Sunday, with the Santa Parade rescheduled from last weekend’s washout, AT is offering free parking in its two big central city parking buildings. But it has not scheduled fare reductions on trains, buses or ferries. A Papakura family of four will pay $28.80 to get the train to town and back on Sunday. That’s a fundamental disconnect between the council and its transport agency. Mayor Phil Goff was nonplussed when asked about it yesterday. He needs to remind council-controlled organisations of their obligations — AT, for example, appears to have forgotten its commitment to prioritising public transport.

2 Experiment with fares and frequencies

AT believes greater frequency of service, rather than reduced fares, is the best way to get more people on board. Are they right? What’s the sweet spot between price and frequency? Trials shouldn’t mean constant unsettling changes to services. But the assumption that fares are not a barrier to greater use should be challenged with some focused trialling.

3 Fix the shared spaces

Let service vehicles in early, but after 11am raise the bollards. Ban cars from driving straight through — do it with wardens or by camera. Use trees in planters to put in chicanes, so drivers can’t see the end of the street. Just close some shared spaces altogether. Darby St, say. Keep the loop of Commerce St, Fort St and Gore St for buses, service vehicles and carpark access, but close Jean Batten Place and the east and west entrances to Fort St.

4 Remove car park spots

Remove private parking bays from Lorne St, High St, Shortland St, Quay St, wherever it might work. Take out some and then take our some more. Use the space created for pedestrians or dedicated bike/scooter lanes. Keep loading zones, and let tradies park right outside to unload, but take their vans to a carpark building for the rest of the day. Keep mobility spaces.

5 Just close High St

If the retailers won’t let it happen before Christmas, do it over the quiet holiday period with temporary barriers. Monitor how it works as the shoppers return. Get some street entertainment going. High St has no carpark buildings except the council one, which doesn’t need to open on to High St. It’s an easy street to close.

6 Put bike/scooter lanes on Queen St

Cheaply, with road cones stuck to the road. Do it on all the other streets that don’t already have them. Pedestrians must feel safe and bikes and scooters should be encouraged.

7 Highlight taxi ranks and ban cruising

No Ubers or cabs drifting aimlessly around the streets.

8

More e-cargo bikes

Work with courier companies to reduce the number of vans.

9

Put all the buses on Wellesley St

This is the plan anyway, so why wait for all the expensive work? Just trial it now.

10 Make that linear park on Victoria St

This is also the plan anyway, so trial it now. Borrow from Times Square: get out the road cones and artificial turf and deck chairs.

11 Use construction disruption

When a street closes for construction, use that as the start of a new plan. Unless there’s a good reason, don’t reopen it. Build on the excitement: put up viewing gantries, have regular market days for affected retailers, put up signage, stage lunchtime events, hold temporary street exhibitions and installations . . . wrap the city, for pedestrians, in a sense of wow, there’s just so much going on.

12 Plant edible gardens

Herbs, especially, but also vegetables. Planter boxes and raised beds, all over the city.

13 Paint a poem on the road

All the way down Queen St. Paint the lyrics of a song on Wellesley St. After a month or two, paint something else.

14 Set up some culture and history stations

On street corners, say. What used to happen here? Ma¯ ori history and more.

15 Set up some art stations

Give art students, architecture students and others a bit of money for materials and a site and a month each, to present us with fabulous work. Do the same thing with music, and philosophy, and with people who collect extraordinary things.

16 Encourage the inside to come out

Relax the bylaws about what can happen on the footpaths, so we get food stalls, bargain bins and other trading activity on the streets. Walking down them becomes more of an adventure, and because the footpaths are wider, it’s all possible.

17 Go carrot and stick on private carparks

Work with companies to help close their carparks. Offer staff enticements: Hop card introductory discounts, Waiheke visits, show tickets, landscaping on the street outside the building. Lobby government to reinstate fringe benefit tax on staff car parking.

18 Promote the Link buses

Break the taxi and Uber habit. Use clever marketing to make the Link services the cool way to get around.

19 Use the festivals

At Chinese New Year, light the route from downtown to the Lantern Festival in the Domain. All routes. The festival people probably have lanterns for that. Use the Arts Festival in March as an excuse for street parties.

20 Have rolling closures

Close the bottom block of Queen St. Then another one. Then another. Roll it around. Don’t worry about traffic chaos — aim, instead, for lots of pop-up activities, for surprises and delights for everyone who’s out and about.

21 Big public display boards

Social media debates will happen, but let’s have some big display boards too, downtown, to create a public forum and a sense of public engagement with the whole process.

22 Create some carpark zones

Will we need places for people to park just on the edge of the city centre? Angle parks all the way down College Hill? That barren land at the bottom of Grafton Gully?

23 Last mile shuttles

And then offer electric shuttles buses, and bikehire and scooter-hire, for the last part of the trip into town.

24 Do more surveys

Keep surveying drivers, public transport users and pedestrians about what’s going right and what’s going wrong. This is critical.

25 Do these things in other places too

Living a better life in the middle of town applies to smaller town centres as well. Take every downtown activation and work out if it can be done in O¯ ta¯ huhu, Albany, Takapuna, Henderson, Manukau, Glen Innes . . . and vice versa, for that matter.