Decimal Parking Fee Defended

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31378, 25 May 1967, Page 1

Decimal Parking Fee Defended

Christchurch was among the cheapest places in the world for on-street parking in the central city area, said the City Council’s Traffic Superintendent (Mr J. F. Thomas) yesterday.

Questioned on the changes being made to the city’s parking meters so that they no longer take threepences for 30 minutes’ parking, but 6d or 5c for an hour, he said Wellington, Dunedin, and Auckland charged fid for 30 minutes’ parking. Twice this time for 6d was given in Christchurch. In London, Mr Thomas said, he had noted that in main streets in the central city area parking was not permitted at all. In side streets, fid was charged for 15 minutes.

There, the price structure was such that it was aimed to have a vacant parking space for every seven occupied. With off-street parking buildings and the present charges in Christchurch, the ratio, he estimated, would be about the same, or certainly one vacant space for every 10 occupied. The mechanism of half the 1553 meters in the city had been changed to take decimal currency, Mr Thomas said. The aim was to have all meters take 5c or fid before D.C. Day. “The threepence will go by the board, and it is cut out by a simple operation,” he said. “Red tags are being placed on meters indicating the change to 5c or 6d.” Meter charges would be increased in two high-density-parking streets, Mr Thomas said. In Lichfield street, be-

tween Manchester and Colombo streets, and in Hereford street, between Colombo street and Oxford terrace, meters would be altered to take 6d for 30 minutes. Parking at all red standard meters would be for a maximum of one hour. Two sixpences, or five-cent pieces, oould be used in the high-density-parking streets, if necessary.

However, most motorists parking in this area wanted to stay only a short time, Mr Thomas said.

The maximum parking time for green standard meters would be two hours, and two sixpences or fivecent pieces could be used for this. Mr Thomas was asked about the motorist who wanted to park only for a short time, and now would be forced to pay 6d for 30 minutes or less, whereas previously he had paid only 3d.

The proportion of drivers in this category was between only 7j per cent and 10 per cent, he estimated. Most people who exceeded the metered time gave as their excuse that they had estimated that 3d or 30 minutes would have given them sufficient time.

There were few with shopping to do in a store, or important business to carry out in the city, who did not need an hour in which to do it, he said.

In any case, five minutes’ grace was given at the beginning of parking in a metered space. This enabled a man to dash into a shop to make a small purchase, or to obtain change if he did not have any.

“If someone wants parking close to the Post Office and the main business area in the city, is 6d an hour too high a charge?” asked Mr Thomas.