Subscribe to RSSWellington’s Parking Space Dilemma
Wellington City Council confirms it’s reviewing motorcycle parking spaces in the city “to more effectively manage public space in the CBD.”
Motorcyclists have long enjoyed free all-day parking in the CBD, while drivers of cars have to pay. An estimated 1100 motorbikes come into the central city each day – a 178% increase over the last 10 years – and there is currently free space for 500 to park on the streets.
Mayor Celia Wade-Brown says every car park in the CBD earns about $6000 in revenue a year. Removing car parks to put in more free motorcycle spaces would adversely affect Council revenue.
There is more demand from motorcyclists for short-term parking. The majority of motorcyclists are parking all day, leaving no opportunity for other motorcyclists to park short-term.
“This rapid increase in demand has thrown up a significant challenge for us – how to balance the available space in an equitable way,” says the Mayor.
“Because the Council controls only 10% of available parking space in the city we are talking to the operators of privately-owned parking buildings about offering more off-street parking for motorcyclists.”
“But we certainly do not intend removing on-street parking for motorcycles and scooters. That would make no sense especially in light of the huge increase in motorcycles now being ridden into, and around, the city”.
6 Comments
I think motorcycles should pay the fair cost of there parking. 1/6 of the price of a carpark seems appropriate, so about 75c or $1 per hour. Its a pity the current pay and display systems are incompatible with motorbikes, and vehicles without a secure interior.
An interesting approach in Melbourne is that they let all motorcyclists park for free on any city sidewalk, as long as they aren’t blocking anything (a bit like we have with bikes).
It sounds a bit crazy but it seems to work fine, especially as bikies don’t leave their bikes anywhere they might get knocked or damaged .
I think motorcyclists need to be incentivised like PT users. In Wellington there are 1100 motorcyclist who are not driving cars, freeing slots on the busy motorway network and keeping the city green. In doing so they take some risk, and some inconvenience eg when it rains. Every motorbike on the road is someone who is not in a car.
I think that there has been a shift in policy such that motorcyclists are being targeted. They have been pinged with huge increases in ACC levi’s, and this proposal to charge for parking is just going to force more motorcyclist back into cars.
I frequently see motorbikes parked in places cars cannot park. Motorbike and scooter usage needs to be encouraged just like PT usage as a way of freeing up roads and reducing our carbon foot print.
(disclosure – while I am very interested in PT, my family and I ride a fleet of motorbikes and scooters)
Motorcycles are anti-pedestrian, and anti-cyclist.
Motorcycles are way too noisy, and in their smaller form, with 2 stoke engines, incredibly polluting. I do not want them riding past me when I am a pedestrian or when I am on my bike. I definitely don’t want them ridden on footpaths and I do not want them parked on footpaths. Also riding around paddocks by motorcycles (I have a particularly nasty neighbour who rides his metres from my house just to annoy me) should be classed as noise pollution and properly curbed. Pretending motorcycles are somehow “green” is just plain stupid. Make motorcyclists pay for parking. Only quiet, non-polluting forms of transport should get any form of free parking.
Matt, they are green insofar that a normal motorcycle does use less fuel for the same trip. Travelling light, if you will. So if you commute on one, you are indeed commutting greener, quite possibly significantly so, than your coworker next door, who drags around at least several hundred kilos of extra metal and plastic, back and forth, back and forth, all year.
That said, I agree with some of your other comments – and on another line of thought, I am slightly worried how the fact that many Councils in NZ get a lot of money from parking buildings and parking meters skews (has long skewed) their transport priorities.
While I love riding motorbikes for fun, the fact is they are a huge public health risk. The crash rate is very high and the severity of injury sustained in crashes is very high too. If you have a crash and come away with anything less than a large bone fracture or head/spinal injuries you are one of the lucky ones.
A change in attitudes on the road and some attention to the infrastructure may address some of the risk, but at the end of the day motorbikes are the only form of powered transport when the occupant isn’t enclosed inside the protective shell of the vehicle. There is no passive safety on a motorbike, which makes any impact at road speeds potentially fatal.
Promoting motorbike transport to reduce emissions and congestion would be a bit like promoting smoking to reduce the obesity crisis. It would probably be quite effective, but at great social health costs.