Dr Erin Brady has been wheeled out to take the rap for pay parking increases:
The Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate wishes to advise the community of increases to pay parking from January 2013, Dr Erin Brady, Executive Director of City Planning announced today.
Income generated from parking is used to provide maintenance of parking and fund improvements in the transport system.
“The ACT Government is building a network of park-and-ride facilities to give people who park in these areas the option of mixing car-use with bus-use.
“Significant investments have also been made to existing infrastructure such as bus-lane extensions on the Belconnen-to-City corridor, bus-lane building on Canberra Avenue, real-time information systems for bus-users, and the Civic cycle-loop.
“The ACT Government has a strong commitment to achieving a sustainable transport system for the ACT and this is one aspect of this commitment.
The release neglects to mention just how large the increases will be.
UPDATE 14/12/12 17:05: The CT is reporting it’s a 12% increase.
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“Income generated from parking is used to provide maintenance of parking and fund improvements in the transport system.”
Bwahahahahahahahahahaha
Where are the alternatives?
Why are we paying more money to demolish car parks.
Why do we pay for buses?
Increase rates an average of $30 per person and make PT free.
I heard that the ACT Government deferred this rise until well after the election, surely that’s not true. Either way this rise makes good policy sense. Except if you are a working parent with small kids and need recourse to a car, a worker on variable hours, don’t live near practical bus route, one of the thousands of rural dwellers who come into town, etc etc…..
“Income generated from parking is used to provide maintenance of parking and fund improvements in the transport system.”
Fair enough. I don’t mind if my parking fees are going to maintaining the carparks I use.
That said, I wish they’d hurry up with getting the MyWay-linked parking machines installed so I can stop having to sort all the coinage out each week.
RB78 said :
Who doesn’t have $9 worth of coins every day!
Sadly I think linking myway to the machines will happen after light rail
desertdreaming said :
You mean this one -> http://the-riotact.com/parking-fee-increase-in-woden/81495
RB78 said :
get a pre-paid voucher online
goggles13 said :
Do these work in the carparks the government sold to the privates?
goggles13 said :
If you work full time. If you work part time, get $100 worth of $2 coins from the bank as needed. Don’t ask for parking tokens though, they get confused.
Parking will continue to rise above CPI until it becomes profitable to make a capital investment in parking structures. That used to be around $15 a day but possibly closer to $20 now. They al;so have to pay for the conversion of the machines to a less archaic collection system.
Get used to it because it also supports government policy to encourage people to use public transport.
Are the parking machines there still mainly coin only? If so, it must be fun finding $13.50 in coins every day! I hope the extra $$ are going to fund the replacement of coin machines with newer ones!
Ride, run, catch a bus or carpool. Saves money and builds health.
And please, don’t give me the old ‘doesn’t work for shiftworkers’ shite.
a) Shiftworkers more than often park outside business hours so get it for free; and
b) Been working shiftwork for over 20 years in Canberra and have done all of the above
How about etoll readers for the car park entry/exit?
Has anyone ever seen an MLA on a bus? ever?
banco said :
A more pertinent question would be:
“Outside of the six week period prior to a Territory election has anyone ever seen an MLA in public? ever?”
Don’t the MLAs get free parking?
gooterz said :
As do all senior public servants. Parking problem, what parking problem?
bigfeet said :
Used to see Stanhope fairly regularly at what is now called (somewhat infuriatingly) The Jazz Apple Cafe. I used to meet a friend there for coffee before catching the bus to Dickson College.
rosscoact said :
Yes when at work the MLA’s have a special car park for their taxpayer funded cars just outside the legislative assembly. Senior Executives (ie. SES bands) in ACT Government get the same treatment as part of their package.
Lowly public servants who are less likely to be able to afford parking fees are the ones who have to either pay up or catch a bus. I feel most sorry for the ASO4 or less with multiple kids as that is tough with school drop offs and responding to sick kids (which my young child rearing coworkers seem to have regularly).
Some senior execs in ACT government, lower level staff and MLA’s do catch the bus at times. The challenge for an MLA is their diaries are incredibly full usually and they can’t read many of their papers or make th ephone calls they need to make on a public bus as much of their work is not public domain.
taninaus said :
All good points and I do seem to remember Corbell used the bus on occasions.
However, it’s much easier to be motivated to address a challenge faced by a specific sector of the community when you as a politician or senior bureaucrat personally experience those challenges too.
goggles13 said :
Only really an option if you drive to work every day. I catch the bus a few days a week.
crackerpants said :
Yeah, generally just swap a fifty for a roll of $2 coins at the supermarket or change a note at the carwash if I need to top up my coins, but would be much easier to just use the MyWay card since I can just B-Pay that as necessary (which I already do for the bus)
rosscoact said :
No they don’t. It’s part of their salary package. They pay for it in their package. That’s like saying a salary packaged car is ‘free’. Naive and generally perceived by junior public servants
vg said :
Yes, too true. They get an allowance of $2500 per year for parking which they can use to park – for no charge, in a private designated parking space. However, this is not a privilege extended to the riff raff.
I knew one SES who cashed in that $2500 but only one.
rosscoact said :
yep so the allowance of $2500 is on top of their salary, whereas other employees need pay out of their salary and also pay parking roulette given how fast the carparks fill up.
agree that a myway system for parking should be implemented.
taninaus said :
Ahh yes, but they expect us to meet all our commitments using the bus. They shouldn’t be reading or phoning while driving anyway.
housebound said :
There is this fabulous new technology that you can use these days called bluetooth!!!
goggles13 said :
Paying for parking sucks, but the allowance (or carpark in lieu of) for SES is given with the expectation they will be attending meetings at other Depts or called up to the Minister’s Office at short notice in the normal course of their day. Waiting around for a bus to Parliament House or circling the carpark for 20min on returning to work would time that could be spent working. Whether carparking is part of or on top of their salary is academic really – they have a different pay structure, and indeed a different act covering their employment.
EL2 staff at our Dept can go into a ballot to secure their own carspace for the year, cost is packaged and is the same/slightly cheaper than paying for a public park on a daily basis. I would love to see this option extended to those who have to drop kids off at school, because they arrive at work long after the public parks are full, and this will get worse in Woden in the near future.
You get what you vote for
http://the-riotact.com/why-did-the-pay-parking-fees-go-up-and-then-not-go-up/85252
http://the-riotact.com/why-did-the-pay-parking-fees-go-up-and-then-not-go-up/85252
The land the parking is on is worth money. The government needs to make a return on the ownership of this land – otherwise they should sell it and make some money that way. So they charge fees for parking on it. It is part of their income. The people that whinge about paying for parking still whinge about cuts in spending and changes in rates. Running a government costs money – its that simple.
Parking is cheap in canberra by other capital city standards. If you want to park in the heart of the city pay up! If not; drive close and walk, ride a bike, catch a bus or get a job somewhere else.
Just stop whinging – please!