City pedestrian traffic down: survey

PEDESTRIAN traffic is down 6.4 per cent in the city arcades according to a recent survey by the Real Estate Institute of WA.

The pedestrian traffic survey covered seventy-five locations across the city centre precinct during the busy lunchtime period.

REIWA commercial agents chapter chairman Graham Iddles said the survey showed visitor numbers in the city had not changed significantly in the past ten years and have actually fallen over the past two years.

The 1999 survey found there was a concentration of pedestrian traffic in the core area of the CBD, with Hay Street Mall continuing to be the most popular precinct.

Mr Iddles said the survey results reflected that there had been a

relatively static workforce in the city centre since the late 1980s when the last major office tower was completed.

He said the slowdown in traffic was due to the increasing competition city retailers face from shopping centres in the suburbs.