Motorists are being left confused by new Victoria St car parks.

Car parks are causing traffic chaos in one of Wellington's busiest streets, with some motorists queueing behind parked cars for up to 15minutes before realising they are not in a traffic jam.

Business owners have witnessed a number of near-misses along Victoria St, since the completion of a nine month $11.2 million redevelopment project commissioned by Wellington City Council.

The stretch of road, between Vivian St and Wellington Inner City Bypass, has five car parks marked out in the far left lane allowing parking at all times – except between 4pm and 6pm on weekdays, when the lane becomes a clearway.

KEVIN STENT/FAIRFAX NZ Quantity surveyor Bevan Hartley, whose office overlooks Victoria St, says Wellington City Council need to rethink the positioning of the Victoria St car parks.

Quantity surveyor Bevan Hartley, whose office overlooks the street, said the car parks were "poorly placed" and the council needed to rethink the positioning.

"I can see cars parking legally in the car parks, but the cars heading south coming along Victoria St, they don't realise there are car parks. I've seen build ups of between four and five cars.

"The flow on effect from that is that people try to merge back into the traffic. That's when you hear lots of car horns. It can get a bit chaotic."

Hartley was waiting for an accident to happen, after witnessing a number of close calls on a daily basis, he said.

"You can see the disarticulation. The drivers just end up doing the fingers at each other."

Peak hour traffic was bad enough and the addition of the car parks were causing unnecessary congestion during the middle of the day, he said.

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Driscoll Motors worker Anand Charda said the car parks were stupid and confused a lot of motorists.

"I've seen cars sit there thinking they are in line for about 15 minutes. They just think they are in a traffic jam.

"It's ridiculous. It's stupid."

Crafters & Co cafe and bar manager Hannah Morgan said the car parks seemed to be an issue for a lot of motorists.

"People pull in behind the parked cars then realise what's going on and have pulled back out, in front of other cars, and almost caused an accident.

"There are a lot of disgruntled people," she said.

"The problem is there is no real indication that car parks are there ... but maybe it'll get better when people start to get used to it."

Brooklyn resident Mike Schlup, who often drives up Victoria St, said: "I've seen lots of cars get stuck in the far [left] lane and have to pull over in front of other cars. It's an absolute nightmare."

"I just try and avoid it."

Wellington city councillor Andy Foster admitted the near-misses were a "potential issue".

"I think we've agreed there is an element of truth in those statements. But we will just wait and see, monitor, how the Victoria St design is going and make changes accordingly.

"I've been up Victoria St on a regular basis before and since completion so I'm aware of some of the things the man on the street might view as an issue and need tweaking.

"But that doesn't surprise me. That's why when we finished the project, we said we would monitor it."

Foster would discuss the issues with the Memorial Park Alliance group, who helped run the project. Signage advising motorists of the clearway could be an option, he said.