25 January 2013

Who's got $13.50 in loose change for parking?

| johnboy
Join the conversation
33
13.50

Sent in by Overheard.

From yesterday. Glad I play in a lads card group and have lots of spare change. This added a bit onto my commute yesterday.

It really should be in the “Only in Canberra” part of “Like Canberra”.

$13.50

Join the conversation

33
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

I pay $11 a day, and in coins.

It is cheap as sh*t compared to Sydney. There are places in the Sydney CBD where $11 per hour is unheard of, let alone for the whole day.

wildturkeycanoe7:00 am 26 Jan 13

Sandman said :

250cc Motorbike, $0 parking, $200 per year rego, $10 week petrol. Park out the front of the office.

The missus loves hers and it’s payed for itself 3 times over already. Paid extra

+1
Except if the bike is anything over 250cc, rego is a whopping big $860+??? [why doesn’t a 5L V8 cost twice as much to register than a Hyundai Getz? This argument for another day] It’s also fun to go from 0 – 60 in 2 seconds. 900cc and 4.5L/100km. I’ve had my bike for 3 months and saved $720 compared to the ‘ol 4×4, just in fuel. Then there’s the $600 in parking. That’s half what the bike cost. In another 3 months I’ll be making money and still laughing at everyone trying to dodge the parking inspectors, wading through purses looking for shrapnel and walking for miles.

How much of that $13.50 a day goes into servicing the machines maintaining the pricing displays patrolling for illegal parking, sending out notices.

On the consumer side that $13 comes out of retailers and store spending, not to mention the extra cost to keep all those extra coins in circulation.

Wait till those city developments go up parking will be $30 a day, Canberra will nosedive as it won’t be affordable the low income earners will go on the doll and all the retail staff will go to actual cities with proper infrastructure.

LSWCHP said :

Fyshwick. Loaded to the gunwhales with sex shops, whores, pimps and free parking. Can’t beat it. 🙂

So what you are saying is that you’re not there for the free parking as such?

250cc Motorbike, $0 parking, $200 per year rego, $10 week petrol. Park out the front of the office.

The missus loves hers and it’s payed for itself 3 times over already. Paid extra

Fyshwick. Loaded to the gunwhales with sex shops, whores, pimps and free parking. Can’t beat it. 🙂

Wasn’t it an election commitment from both parties that they would introduce machines that accepted cards as well as coins?

Ben_Dover said :

Parking @ $13.50 vs bus @ $4.40. Tough choice

$8.80 if you want to get home.

OpenYourMind6:05 pm 25 Jan 13

Ben_Dover said :

Parking @ $13.50 vs bus @ $4.40. Tough choice

Bus @ $4.40 vs Bicycle @ $0 + fitness. Tough choice.

And yeah, bring on paid parking in the triangle.

screaming banshee6:00 pm 25 Jan 13

I did some work in a building in Sydney recently, the charge for 8+ hours parking was $187, but they had a special early bird price of $65. Fortunately I was allocated a place in their loading dock. Wish I got a pic of the prices.

(/anecdote)

Parking @ $13.50 vs bus @ $4.40. Tough choice

You need to look at this from the government’s point of view.

For credit card machines:
Happier commuters

Against
Cost to change over to card machines
loss of parking fine revenue
The ungrateful swine will still bitch about the cost of parking

There is nothing in it for them except if they do it just before next elections, which I guess is how long it will take

Velveteen Rabbit4:28 pm 25 Jan 13

carnardly said :

Reply

Velveteen Rabbit said :

So you’re the reason we who actually WORK on the south side of the lake never have enough parking spots. Thanks. Yes, I know, it’s free (argument for another time) but there are approx 3500 workers and just under 2000 spots in the Triangle

Yeah, but then the pollie’s and their assistants would have to start paying to park like the rest of us common folk.

And yeah, anytime our good admin people would like to add card/prepay facilities to every municipal carpark, you could measure the productivity improvements like one of those financial charts they have on the 7 O’Clock news and we could give the GFC a kick in its HSA.

For the record, I normally am one of those annoying types that parks outside Finance/Treasury/Questacon in Parkes and walks across the bridge so my parking is $0 on those days. (‘Annoying’ for those poor people — like I once was — who work in the Parliamentary Triangle, started at all sorts of bizarro hours, and had to sacrifice my first born every time to get a decent park. Worked there in the last hit for 16 months and only got one parking ticket which is pretty good batting.)

If I haven’t got my ship together and do have to park in town, it’s usually underneath the new uni lodge building for $9 undercover all day. Sweet deal. UNLESS you want to leave before 4.30pm or after 7.00pm and for some strange reason it reverts to the full $15.

OR $10 at the tippy top of City West. But that does involve a lot of dizzy up and down the levels and my Econovan a) used to be a van band for two German pop-cabaret performers, so it’s been well-loved (in more ways than one — she’s due to give birth bout now); and, b) handles like an arthritic, half-blind, alocholic heifer — bumps into lots of things, mostly those orange traffic cones that abound on the tighter turns.

Yesterday was a sinfully late start to the day so I went for the path of least resistance, the road of least walkdownatude, and the avenue of leafy roadworks across the road from work, and hence had to pay the city’s coffers from next month’s blackjack stakes.

Growling Ferret1:48 pm 25 Jan 13

Velveteen Rabbit said :

carnardly said :

joipers – I couldn’t afford $13.50 a day. If I did have to work in the city – i’d park on the south side of the lake like all the other scabby folk and walk in .

So you’re the reason we who actually WORK on the south side of the lake never have enough parking spots. Thanks. Yes, I know, it’s free (argument for another time) but there are approx 3500 workers and just under 2000 spots in the Triangle

Which then raises the point – why is there no pay parking in the triangle. Bring it in at say 60% of Civic Parking costs so $8 a day, and voila, your carparking issues will be solved!

Velveteen Rabbit1:13 pm 25 Jan 13

carnardly said :

joipers – I couldn’t afford $13.50 a day. If I did have to work in the city – i’d park on the south side of the lake like all the other scabby folk and walk in .

So you’re the reason we who actually WORK on the south side of the lake never have enough parking spots. Thanks. Yes, I know, it’s free (argument for another time) but there are approx 3500 workers and just under 2000 spots in the Triangle

bd84 said :

I recommend buying a 2 week permit. It’s a bit of a pain to order with the government’s archaic system forcing 7 days before (when it arrives in 2 days), and easy enough with a routine and calendar reminders. It’s is easier to factor in holidays and also a cheaper daily rate than most of the others, but I won’t say why as they might change it.

It’s hilarious, isn’t it? If you can stand the messing about, weekly tickets are even better value at exactly half the price of the two week ticket.

thebrownstreak69 said :

I park and pay $13.50 per day. It is a pain in the rectum. It would have been much better to round the parking charge to a multiple of $2, so any coins could be used (or, heaven forbid, let us use notes or even credit cards).

In more modern cities one can use their mobile phone to pay for parking through SMS.

thebrownstreak6911:46 am 25 Jan 13

DrKoresh said :

thebrownstreak69 said :

carnardly said :

joipers – I couldn’t afford $13.50 a day. If I did have to work in the city – i’d park on the south side of the lake like all the other scabby folk and walk in.

Time vs money – well money I don’ have.

When you get paid by the hour, it’s an economic decision to park as near to work as possible.

Most people have to work when they’re told to work. Not when they want, or for as long as they want.

Which is why I park close by, because time in my day converts to money.

thebrownstreak69 said :

carnardly said :

joipers – I couldn’t afford $13.50 a day. If I did have to work in the city – i’d park on the south side of the lake like all the other scabby folk and walk in.

Time vs money – well money I don’ have.

When you get paid by the hour, it’s an economic decision to park as near to work as possible.

Most people have to work when they’re told to work. Not when they want, or for as long as they want.

Just evidence of this government’s lack of common sense and planning. Ticket machines with credit card and note payment options should have been implemented years ago. Common sense would have limited the cost of parking to a sensible level until new machines were rolled out.

IrishPete said :

It’s not my problem any more, but the pre-paid vouchers actually look like they will cost you more (think about holidays, public holidays, and sick days). A scam perhaps? Knowing that the change issue will be the incentive for people to buy the voucher? Then there’s the lost interest, substantial on a long-term ticket.

IP

I recommend buying a 2 week permit. It’s a bit of a pain to order with the government’s archaic system forcing 7 days before (when it arrives in 2 days), and easy enough with a routine and calendar reminders. It’s is easier to factor in holidays and also a cheaper daily rate than most of the others, but I won’t say why as they might change it.

I do get paid by the hour. But my pay per hour might be less than yours.

It’s not my problem any more, but the pre-paid vouchers actually look like they will cost you more (think about holidays, public holidays, and sick days). A scam perhaps? Knowing that the change issue will be the incentive for people to buy the voucher? Then there’s the lost interest, substantial on a long-term ticket.

IP

thebrownstreak6910:22 am 25 Jan 13

carnardly said :

joipers – I couldn’t afford $13.50 a day. If I did have to work in the city – i’d park on the south side of the lake like all the other scabby folk and walk in.

Time vs money – well money I don’ have.

When you get paid by the hour, it’s an economic decision to park as near to work as possible.

The car park at the AFP building accepts Debit or Credit (Visa, Mastercard) for pay parking. It is the same case as the machine in the picture but contains additional buttons. You can select about five amounts including the flat $10 all day.

I have used a Visa Debit card in this machine, it prints out a ticket the same as for coins. Much simpler, cant see why they won’t just buy this kind of machine.

I tweeted Andrew Barr on this and he seemed to get caught up in people wanting to have text messages and the like. Did not seem to understand that we just want an easy way to pay for parking. While Myway integration would be good, everyone has a credit card or is very easily able to get a debit card to access this machine, it would be much more of an off the shelf purchase.

It’s amazingly annoying to have that many coins on you every day. Shame on the ACT Gov’t for setting such high parking fees, and making it so hard to pay them. Especially in Civic, where there’s no shopfront to get a pre-paid weekly parking voucher. If you order online, you have to do it 2 weeks ahead. Expensive and difficult, fail.

I’m no fan of Mr Snow, who charges people to park in his paddocks, but at least he has proper machines that take cards, and don’t break down all the time (like the ones in the Canberra Centre high rise parks).

thebrownstreak69 said :

I park and pay $13.50 per day. It is a pain in the rectum. It would have been much better to round the parking charge to a multiple of $2, so any coins could be used (or, heaven forbid, let us use notes or even credit cards).

I like the idea of linking them into the MyWay system but would settle for anything that doesn’t require me carrying around a second wallet for the coins. A week’s worth of coins gets bloody heavy!

They keep raising the parking costs – surely some of that increased revenue could be used to improve the car park infrastructure? Or is that thinking too progressive for this town?

joipers – I couldn’t afford $13.50 a day. If I did have to work in the city – i’d park on the south side of the lake like all the other scabby folk and walk in. Time vs money – well money I don’ have.

$13.50 in coins…bloody hell. i refuse to park anywhere that won’t accept credit cards. good thing i ride most places then

thebrownstreak699:24 am 25 Jan 13

I park and pay $13.50 per day. It is a pain in the rectum. It would have been much better to round the parking charge to a multiple of $2, so any coins could be used (or, heaven forbid, let us use notes or even credit cards).

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.