Sign In / Register
The controversial proposal by Auckland Transport (AT) to introduce paid parking at park and rides across Auckland has been dropped.
The review of Auckland’s Parking Strategy began in 2021 and included public consultation last year. The parking strategy will be signed off by the AT Board this month but the final summary of changes appeared in a report to Auckland Council’s Transport & Infrastructure Committee last week.
Committee chair, local Councillor John Watson, says AT have listened to Aucklanders and deserve credit for that change of approach.
In the feedback, the proposal to charge at park and rides was strongly opposed by the public. The Hibiscus Coast Bus Station is one of the two largest park and rides in NZ – the other is at Albany.
Cr Watson says keeping park and rides free was “a real battle for a small group of councillors”.
“In my opinion, consideration of charges at park and rides was made from a standpoint far removed from the reality of public transport commuting in the outer suburbs. I am sure, if implemented, it would have actually discouraged public transport use. Auckland’s fares are, in normal circumstances, already high by international standards – the last thing you’d want to do is to add yet another charge to commuters wanting to catch a bus.”
There will, however, be changes at park and rides. Hop cards will be required for entry into and out of the park and ride through a barrier system that can determine from the Hop card data whether the parker has used a bus that day or not. If they haven’t, they will be charged.
Cr Watson says that is entirely fair and reasonable.
“One of the complaints at Silverdale is that there are people parking in the park and ride who do not catch a bus. That’s not what it’s there for – the charging regime will put an end to that practice and with it, parking that denies genuine bus commuters a space.”
Another change being advanced after the public consultation is a trial for a small number of paid pre-booked spaces (5-10 percent) at park and rides that will be adjusted according to demand. This is to enable people with appointments to get access to a limited number of parking spaces during the day – spaces that would otherwise have long gone through the commuter morning peak demand.
Cr Watson says park and rides have been an outstanding success in getting people out of cars and onto the bus and that recent improvements to the Northern Busway are making commuting from the Coast easier.
“We actually need more park and rides. This could be achieved through utilising existing council-owned parking that is not used during the day, such as at sports grounds, thereby providing an accessible local transport hub especially on Whangaparāoa Peninsula. The other possibility is the construction of higher rise parking buildings at park and rides – but that would have to be a paying proposition.”
He says in future, with better bus feeder connections to locations such as the proposed new bus interchange in Stanmore Bay (via Penlink), people will be encouraged to use these more local and accessible connections to start and end their travel.
Aside from the park and ride proposal, key changes in AT’s parking strategy include a focus on more dynamic space (changing through the day), undertaking a business impact analysis on parking changes and taking a lead from the needs of local communities when it comes to parking allocation.
AT will now develop local parking management plans with communities.
Cr Watson says this process has been altered to ensure that local boards are included from the start, local needs are included, and the plan won’t proceed without local board endorsement.
