There’s a big push by councils to pedestrianise city centres, with cars not a big part of their future planning.
The aim is to encourage shoppers out of their cars and onto the street - but some say they're just driving shoppers out of the cities.
Seven Sharp went to the Auckland suburb of Pukekohe, where they're trialling a new one-way model to see what people think of it.
The reaction has been mixed.
“There are actually no parks in Pukekohe, so they’ve taken away some of the parks to do it and that’s a big concern for people like myself and business here,” one resident said.
“We had our worst weekend ever last weekend and even now we are about 30 per cent down,” a local business owner explained.
“My husband has been working 14 hours per day and seven days a week and now we are making half of the income so it’s very hard for us,” another woman said.
However, one Pukekohe business owner told Seven Sharp they can see both sides of the issue and the area needs to try something to stay relevant and bring people in.
Pukekohe Priority Location Director Richard Davison is championing the initiative.
“Our goal for Pukekohe is to lift the quality of life for all Aucklanders and we want to test out in Pukekohe how we can make life better for those in the community to live work and play.”
Davison says pedestrianising the area will help promote outdoor eating and drinking establishments as well as buskers, flower sellers and other businesses which can live alongside traffic areas.
“Of course everyone is used to parking outside their favourite shop, but now what we are hoping to do is keep that opportunity, park in the parking building down the road and maybe you will walk to your favourite shop and visit others as well.”
Davison says the trial is a good real world way to test out the idea without having to commit a large amount of funds to irreversible changes.
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