PARKING METERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 187, 10 August 1939, Page 9

PARKING METERS.

AMERICAN SYSTEM.

PROPOSED FOR MELBOURNE.

RELIEVING THE CONGESTION.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

MELBOURNE, August 3,

A proposal for the introduction of parking meters for motor vehicles along selected streets of Melbourne and its principal shopping suburbs has been submitted to the traffic authorities.

Though as yet unknown in Australian cities, parking meters have been in operation in various parts of America for some years, and it is claimed that wherever they have been installed they have done a great deal to relieve congestion of traffic and to solve the problem of car parking in city streets.

The introduction of parking meters is regarded as one of the most interesting—and possibly one of the most important—of America's endeavours to solve the car parking problem. This system has not been adopted by the largest cities, such as New York or Chicago. For them it probably would be unsuitable. Nothing short of a ban on kerb parking would be effective. But the system is now established in other great centres of population throughout the United States.

The purpose of the parking meter is to make the streets in selected parts of the city available for car parking at a moderate charge for short intervals, so that car owners having shopping or other business to do can drive wherever they wish to go, and, while transacting their business, leuve their cars at the kerb, subject to payment for parking according to the time nccupied. In America the usual charge is a nickle (fhe cents) for a stipulated time, which varies according to place, but is usually half an hour.

Where this system is adopted the roadways alongside the kerbs are divided into parking zones, each clearly

defined, and with sufficient room to ensure easy entrance and exit. On the kerb beside each zone is a parking meter set on a post about sft high. The motorist, on drawing up in the parking zone, drops the stipulated coin in the slot of the meter.

The mechanism then is automatically set in action. A green signal rises on the face of the meter, and a hand moves across the dial, showing how much time is left to the parker. When the time is up the green signal drops, and a red sign indicates that the car is parked overtime. Ten minutes' grace is allowed before the owner of the car becomes liable to prosecution for illegal parking. 1 The meter can be set for any time desired, from 15 minutes to 60 minutes, so that the time of parking allowed for each coin can be varied by the traffic authority, according to the situation of the parking zone. For instance, in the busiest section of the city (if parking is permitted at all), fhe'time allowed for threepence might be 20 minutes, with five minutes' jrrace. In a less congested area, it might be half an hour with ten minutes' grace.