Report analyses impact of street changes
wellington.govt.nz
A new Wellington City Council report uses Eftpos spending figures to measure the effects of pedestrian and bike-friendly street changes on local retailers.

Original title: Report analyses impact of street changes Linked report

Initial findings show that overall, retail spending has not been negatively affected by changes to street layouts.

Encouraging to see that this hasn’t significantly affected consumer spend in these areas. Hopefully this would lead to less resistance to other such schemes in the future.

  • DaveMA
    4·
    11 months ago

    Interesting, would have hoped for an overall increase but no change is at least something.

    • deadbeef79000
      5·
      11 months ago

      It dispelles the narrative that it would negatively affect businesses.

      No change means that non-car road users get a better experience and offset any detrimental effects on car road users.

      Given our climate targets, this is a gain.

      • DaveMA
        3·
        11 months ago

        Yeah, I was just thinking I much prefer shopping in pedestrian friendly areas. I was hoping it would lead to an increase in activity, but maybe it will. They talk about drops and recoveries, maybe with more time it will lead to even higher activity.

        • absGeekNZEnglish
          3·
          11 months ago

          It depends on what you are shopping for…

          If going to a cafe or bookshop, yea having the traffic and noise elsewhere is awesome. But if I am going to buy gardening equipment or a power tool…having the vehicle close is a big advantage.

          In the monitored area I’m guessing it is mostly light retail / cafe type businesses. I haven’t been in that part of Wellington in a long time.

          • DaveMA
            4·
            11 months ago

            Oh I just presume that power tool shops and garden centers generally do not live near book shops. They are normally huge stores that are placed out of the way, away from the CBD areas, and have their own private car parks.

            With that said, I think you could make Mitre 10s more pedestrian friendly. They have trolleys so walking distance isn’t that big of an issue. After all you managed to get the thing from the back of the store to the counter, often this is a pretty significant distance.

          • DaveMA
            1·
            11 months ago

            What stands between us and proper biking infrastructure?

            Is it simply a case of money, or do people need to reconsider their lifestyle (e.g. no carparks outside shops in commercial areas) in order to make it work?