Auckland Transport have had their Draft Parking Discussion Document (2mb file) out for consultation over the last couple of months, but this closes at midnight on Thursday. This covers the full range of parking issues around the city, including on-street, off-street and park and ride. The aim is to have a more standardised approach around Auckland, and simplify the large range of legacy rules in this area. It also should be noted that this is an overarching discussion document, with detailed consultation to be undertaken on individual and local proposals once the strategy has been finalised.
Feedback on the parking strategy can be made on the Auckland Transport website here. Today AT announced that over 2000 submissions have already been made. However I suspect a large amount of these would have been made by vocal local residents groups, so it would be great to have a wide range of submissions, so I encourage our readers to submit.
The feedback form asks people to rank each of the 7 issues identified, then ask for specific comment if people like or dislike any issues. There is also the option on the final page of adding any supporting documents with a full written submissions.
The 7 issues identified are as follows:
Managing demand for parking in the City Centre, metropolitan and town centres
Competing demands for parking in residential streets
Managing off-street parking facilities
Inconsistent on-street parking restrictions across Auckland
The conflict between parking on arterial roads and improving public transport provision
Managing the demand for parking permits amongst competing users
Addressing the shortage of park and ride facilities to support public transport patronage.
Things I will be writing about in my submission include:
- ensuring inner city parking buildings are not undercharging or encouraging people to commute to the city at peak times
- issues with free on-street parking for local residents
- need to remove parking on certain roads to allow for bus lanes and cycle lanes
- supporting charging of park and rides once feeder buses and integrated fares rolled out
- questioning need for major investment in new parking and rides in the urban areas, and ensure new park and rides
The blog has already covered some of the issues in depth is if you are writing a submission may be worth reading over some of these posts.
- AT launches Draft Parking Discussion Document
- How to charge for P&R
- Demand responsive parking pricing is awesome!
- Four reasons why residential parking permits are unwise
- Residential parking permits – Paraphrasing opposing views
- How better parking policies will help Auckland become the world’s most liveable city
Please submit online here to ensure a wide representation of voices are heard, you have until midnight Thursday to do so.
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Thanks for the reminder – did my personal one just now.
Good stuff.
As a rate payer I get really annoyed people assume they can have free parking out the front of where ever they are traveling to by car. I would rather have an arterial road with cycle lanes and full time bus lanes – I don’t want my rates paying for some one to park for free, I would rather my rates were spent on a solution which suits lots of people (cyclists & public transport users)
I suggest making reference in submissions to Donald Shoup’s book The High Cost of Free Parking – well worth a read by all involved with parking, and thought provoking.
Oh yeah, I read it and now I am obsessed with parking. Good book.
Nice idea, Mike. I would also suggest getting involved in your local resident’s association if you aren’t already – I know that my local RA is going to be very active in making submissions to Auckland Transport via the local board about parking issues, and it would be a good time to try to get involved and influence their direction.
As I did mine, I thought of something, particularly with regard Arterial road parking
(I included something along these lines in my submissions and other may find it something to consider if they wish).
My thoughts were when an arterial requires removal of parking at peak times/direction, a clearway is the usual response.
However I think AT should ditch that idea and start from this position – instead of a clearway they should first consider putting a bus lane there instead of a clearway.
And only use a clearway if the PT use or potential use is low.
Why a bus lane you ask, well a bus lane achieves the same thing as a clearway (easily enforced etc, can be towed away), except it *also* prioritises the buses on the road at the same time and gives cyclists a shared space until such time as proper separate cycle lanes are put in place.
I know its not that much better for cyclists, but to be honest, its better to have a few buses racing past than a clearway lane full with cars racing past at 70ks.
And the only time a bus lane would not be proposed is when the arterial has few buses using it and therefore a regular clearway is more suitable.
Note this is a **bus** lane not a T2 or T3 lane – the reason is that a bus lane can be enforced easily – its either bus/not a bus in a lane, a TX lane requires assessment of the number passengers in the vehicle which leads to problems of ticketing wrongly and also encourages flouting of the rules for many car drivers.
This way we could get bus lanes rolled out wherever clearways are now and imagine the impact of that change on bus timetables in peak?
Just a thought. Other may have some ideas too.
The photos reminded me again what a horror show albany is. Disaster needing to be fixed.