19 March 2015

Cheap parking in Civic during weekdays?

| jambamafi
Join the conversation
32
ask-riotact-default

I’m hoping the RA brains trust will be able to help me out here…

Where are the best (by this I mean cheapest) places to park Monday to Friday in/around the city? I’m not averse to a bit of a walk each way if it means saving a few thousand a year!

Alternatively, does anyone have experience parking somewhere relatively safe in inner city suburbs and catching the bus for the final part of the trip? I will be travelling from Jerrabomberra if that helps.

I recognise this question has been asked a few times already, but was unable to find anything recent (particularly after the introduction of PP in the Parliamentary Triangle last year).

Join the conversation

32
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

Postalgeek said :

letterboxfrog said :

Get a Scooter. I live in Queanbeyan East, and haven’t looked back. Got my Daelim S1 from Motocentral in Mitchell. It’s 125cc of Korean-powered fuel injected grunt gets me anywhere significantly cheaper than any Cabcharge owned bus, with rego and fuel being is nice and cheap, and feeling of freedom when on the bike can’t be beaten. Don’t let anyone tell you Asian motorcycles are rubbish – even some BMWs are being manufactured in Taiwan these days.
Only annoyance – minus 7 morning in winter, and getting from L’s to Opens is a minimum 15 month process, meaning I can’t have a beer with colleagues before I go home, which wouldn’t be a problem if I drove a car. I am looking forward to my son being 8 so I can take him for a ride (can’t do that until on opens either)

Get a motorbike or at least get something over 250cc. Safer and more stable on Canberra’s higher-speed trunk roads. Gives you the option to rapidly accelerate out of a bad situation and lets you make the most of lane filtering. Bigger wheels negotiate bumps better, provide more road surface, and improve centre of gravity, and legs over instead of forward allows for more dynamic weight distribution which offers better chance of recovery in a skid. Small scooters are fun in lower speed areas, and inner city areas. But in Queanbeyan you’ve got roads like Pialligo Ave, Monaro and Canberra Ave to contend with, lined with bush and roos. You don’t want to be sitting on 90km full throttle on Monaro on a squirrelly 125cc caged in between b-doubles, or unable to accelerate out of someone’s blind spot.

And don’t stick a kid on the back. Once you start to get a real taste of the random idiocy out there, you won’t want to.

Motorbikes are the go!

They don’t have speed limits, are allowed to overtake on the left, and they have their own dedicated lanes, marked with white dashes in between all the other vehicles stuck in traffic. 😀

They also are a great way to locate all the black ice on Canberra’s roads in mid winter.

Could ACTION have an opportunity to extend their reach? ACTION-owned car parks could actually make current parking rates much, much cheaper than they are now, as well as making a profit 5 years after carparks are built completely (my estimate: 8 years simultaneous building time, some small, some large) and reduce congestion significantly, combined with collaboration with the car park systems for efficient traversal to destinations.

Pipe dream, perhaps..

Funky1 said :

Sandman said :

Motorbikes park for free. Pays for itself in the first year.

Of course, you could park in suburban inner north side streets. Be careful though. It’s hard to tell from looking at the house but I have a forklift hiding in my garage that will deal with a regular all day parker.

A motorbike pays for itself in the first year??
Where can you buy a decent bike for under $3000?? I’d love to know, as I’d go and buy one tomorrow if I could.

Gumtree, eBay, Allclassifieds. Unless of course your interpretation of “decent” is absurdly high. Plenty of good bikes around but you have to be quick. Take too long to think about it and it’ll be gone.

Or get a Toyota i-road and confuse everyone when you park it in the motorcycle bay.

Argue it’s basically a Piaggio mp3 with a roof.

Funky1 said :

Sandman said :

Motorbikes park for free. Pays for itself in the first year.

Of course, you could park in suburban inner north side streets. Be careful though. It’s hard to tell from looking at the house but I have a forklift hiding in my garage that will deal with a regular all day parker.

A motorbike pays for itself in the first year??
Where can you buy a decent bike for under $3000?? I’d love to know, as I’d go and buy one tomorrow if I could.

Try Canberra Motorcycle Centre – they have lots of options for 50 dollars a week – less than parking… http://www.canberramotorcyclecentre.com.au/more/latest/promotions/item/what-do-you-get-for-50-a-week

Sandman said :

Motorbikes park for free. Pays for itself in the first year.

Of course, you could park in suburban inner north side streets. Be careful though. It’s hard to tell from looking at the house but I have a forklift hiding in my garage that will deal with a regular all day parker.

A motorbike pays for itself in the first year??
Where can you buy a decent bike for under $3000?? I’d love to know, as I’d go and buy one tomorrow if I could.

Chinese/Korean bikes are rubbish, don’t let any cheapskate tell you otherwise.

letterboxfrog said :

Get a Scooter. I live in Queanbeyan East, and haven’t looked back. Got my Daelim S1 from Motocentral in Mitchell. It’s 125cc of Korean-powered fuel injected grunt gets me anywhere significantly cheaper than any Cabcharge owned bus, with rego and fuel being is nice and cheap, and feeling of freedom when on the bike can’t be beaten. Don’t let anyone tell you Asian motorcycles are rubbish – even some BMWs are being manufactured in Taiwan these days.
Only annoyance – minus 7 morning in winter, and getting from L’s to Opens is a minimum 15 month process, meaning I can’t have a beer with colleagues before I go home, which wouldn’t be a problem if I drove a car. I am looking forward to my son being 8 so I can take him for a ride (can’t do that until on opens either)

Get a motorbike or at least get something over 250cc. Safer and more stable on Canberra’s higher-speed trunk roads. Gives you the option to rapidly accelerate out of a bad situation and lets you make the most of lane filtering. Bigger wheels negotiate bumps better, provide more road surface, and improve centre of gravity, and legs over instead of forward allows for more dynamic weight distribution which offers better chance of recovery in a skid. Small scooters are fun in lower speed areas, and inner city areas. But in Queanbeyan you’ve got roads like Pialligo Ave, Monaro and Canberra Ave to contend with, lined with bush and roos. You don’t want to be sitting on 90km full throttle on Monaro on a squirrelly 125cc caged in between b-doubles, or unable to accelerate out of someone’s blind spot.

And don’t stick a kid on the back. Once you start to get a real taste of the random idiocy out there, you won’t want to.

ChrisinTurner11:52 pm 19 Mar 15

As a resident in on of the the nearby suburbs who can’t get trademen to come because they can’t park anywhere I hope you find your parking away from Civic and close to a Rapid bus line and use the bus.

letterboxfrog7:34 pm 19 Mar 15

Get a Scooter. I live in Queanbeyan East, and haven’t looked back. Got my Daelim S1 from Motocentral in Mitchell. It’s 125cc of Korean-powered fuel injected grunt gets me anywhere significantly cheaper than any Cabcharge owned bus, with rego and fuel being is nice and cheap, and feeling of freedom when on the bike can’t be beaten. Don’t let anyone tell you Asian motorcycles are rubbish – even some BMWs are being manufactured in Taiwan these days.
Only annoyance – minus 7 morning in winter, and getting from L’s to Opens is a minimum 15 month process, meaning I can’t have a beer with colleagues before I go home, which wouldn’t be a problem if I drove a car. I am looking forward to my son being 8 so I can take him for a ride (can’t do that until on opens either)

wildturkeycanoe3:32 pm 19 Mar 15

David M said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

David M said :

Yep, still $11 for rooftop in either of the two Canberra Centre car parks, Target or the other one, just across the way. Not sure about day-long parking in the new CC car parks, I think they just go by the hour
.

Yes, all day is over $30, so why was I charged $18 then? By the hour [even though I was on the roof] it should have been around the $30 mark but my rooftop fee was over-cooked. Too late to complain now…

Not sure why you got charged $30, you need to insert your ticket in the reader as you enter the roof to have it endorsed for all-day parking. They say you should do this even if the boom gate to the roof parking is up. Note that as far as I know, this is only available in the two original car parks, not the new ones near Dendy. Sorry for your loss or your mistake. If you have a query, you can use the call button on the pay machines to query with it. I understand a real person will eventually answer.

I was only charged $18, but the this is what happened. I swiped the card at the top boom gate. Nothing happened. I pressed the button and was told the carpark was full. I asked if they wanted me to try and reverse all the way back down the winding ramp and then they opened the gate for me. As I drove through, I found a spot anyway and parked there for the roughly 9 hours or so. That’s what confused me, as it is rooftop parking, swiped legitimately, but I was charged some weird fee halfway between the two rates? Go figure…

wildturkeycanoe said :

David M said :

Yep, still $11 for rooftop in either of the two Canberra Centre car parks, Target or the other one, just across the way. Not sure about day-long parking in the new CC car parks, I think they just go by the hour
.

Yes, all day is over $30, so why was I charged $18 then? By the hour [even though I was on the roof] it should have been around the $30 mark but my rooftop fee was over-cooked. Too late to complain now…

Not sure why you got charged $30, you need to insert your ticket in the reader as you enter the roof to have it endorsed for all-day parking. They say you should do this even if the boom gate to the roof parking is up. Note that as far as I know, this is only available in the two original car parks, not the new ones near Dendy. Sorry for your loss or your mistake. If you have a query, you can use the call button on the pay machines to query with it. I understand a real person will eventually answer.

Do what the Belconnen Public service do since ACT Labor sold all the carparks in Belco and started payed parking.
Park at the Jammo shopping centre for free all day so the senior citizens who frequent Jamisson Plaza can’t get a park and spend their money.

Motorbikes park for free. Pays for itself in the first year.

Of course, you could park in suburban inner north side streets. Be careful though. It’s hard to tell from looking at the house but I have a forklift hiding in my garage that will deal with a regular all day parker.

Raging Tempest12:54 pm 16 Mar 15

You could park and ride (Action) from Fyshwick. Its a no-permit P&R car park on Tom Price St.

Dame Canberra11:09 am 16 Mar 15

Have you tried Parkhound? I have friends who use the app for all-day parking in the city and Braddon and it’s generally much cheaper than regular car parking. You’re also guaranteed a parking spot, as it’s in someone’s driveway or garage.

carnardly said :
switch said :
carnardly said :
park in any suburban street in yarralumla/deakin and jump on a pushy to do the rest.
A lot of streets there now have “You can’t park here” signs…
north curtin oval area is less than 8 kms away from the city. Weston park is about 6.5 and Meuller Street in Yarralumla is about 6. there are plenty of places to look. None of those locations have paid parking and that was with 20 seconds worth of thought.
“None of those locations have paid parking”

“”They will if they get abused by people parking there all day, every weekday. Then everyone will be disadvantaged.””

This is like telling someone your favourite fishing spot. Why would you give that away for free?

carnardly said :

switch said :

carnardly said :

park in any suburban street in yarralumla/deakin and jump on a pushy to do the rest.

A lot of streets there now have “You can’t park here” signs…

north curtin oval area is less than 8 kms away from the city. Weston park is about 6.5 and Meuller Street in Yarralumla is about 6. there are plenty of places to look. None of those locations have paid parking and that was with 20 seconds worth of thought.

“None of those locations have paid parking”

They will if they get abused by people parking there all day, every weekday. Then everyone will be disadvantaged.

switch said :

carnardly said :

park in any suburban street in yarralumla/deakin and jump on a pushy to do the rest.

A lot of streets there now have “You can’t park here” signs…

north curtin oval area is less than 8 kms away from the city. Weston park is about 6.5 and Meuller Street in Yarralumla is about 6. there are plenty of places to look. None of those locations have paid parking and that was with 20 seconds worth of thought.

carnardly said :

park in any suburban street in yarralumla/deakin and jump on a pushy to do the rest.

A lot of streets there now have “You can’t park here” signs…

wildturkeycanoe6:41 am 15 Mar 15

David M said :

Yep, still $11 for rooftop in either of the two Canberra Centre car parks, Target or the other one, just across the way. Not sure about day-long parking in the new CC car parks, I think they just go by the hour
.

Yes, all day is over $30, so why was I charged $18 then? By the hour [even though I was on the roof] it should have been around the $30 mark but my rooftop fee was over-cooked. Too late to complain now…

park in any suburban street in yarralumla/deakin and jump on a pushy to do the rest.

Yep, still $11 for rooftop in either of the two Canberra Centre car parks, Target or the other one, just across the way. Not sure about day-long parking in the new CC car parks, I think they just go by the hour
.

wildturkeycanoe9:29 am 14 Mar 15

Are you sure rooftop in Canberra Centre is $11? Last time we went there [ICC World Cup SA vs IRE], they charged me $18 and then I found out the bottom gate was open anyway. What a rip off.

Check out some of the streets in AinslIe close to Limestone Avenue and near to Ainslie Avenue. Unless things have changed there also free parking on the other side of Anzac Parade. Both are about a 13 to 15 minute walk from Civic. To get this free parking your need to arrive sometime before 8 AM in the morning if you arrive after this time you may not get it

If your inclined for a bit of a walk looking off parkopedia (http://au.parkopedia.com/free/canberra/parking/) I think the cheapest is probably off commonwealth avenue near the lake (i.e. floriade parking area).
http://au.parkopedia.com/free/canberra/parking/
Otherwise what I was thinking about doing when living in Jerra was the parking at DFO then catching the bus in

tim_c in regards to the buses from Jerra the cost of the bus is a bit more expensive than the cost of parking (it was either $13 or $14 return from memory and I wasn’t sure if from Jerra more needed to be added on top, I never caught the bus here). The buses also don’t run on Sunday and I think the last one from civic was at 6:30 but I could be wrong about that.

Park for free undercover at the DFO, catch the 200 into the city.

tim_c said :

I don’t know what the buses are like from Jerrabomberra, but most places in Canberra there are direct services to City. If I worked in the City I’d be on the bus more often than in my car.

ACTION doesn’t go to Jerrabomberra, because that’s in NSW. That’s a major reason I would not have bought a house here; lack of public transport. I have only ever bought houses with convenient public transport.

From Jerrabomberra, drive to Fyshwick. Catch the bus from there.

Other alternatives include parking in Narrabundah, Kingston, Phillip, Mawson, etc. Catch the bus to Civic.

I don’t know what the buses are like from Jerrabomberra, but most places in Canberra there are direct services to City. If I worked in the City I’d be on the bus more often than in my car.

Depends where you work in Civic. $11 for all day in the Canberra Centre carparks is reasonable value, although don’t get me started on the forever-broken ticket machines and boom gates etc…

I know people used to park on the far side of Anzac Pde and walk in – but I think they’ve stopped that?

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.