CITY PARKING PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 16, 18 July 1936, Page 8

CITY PARKING PROBLEM

The problem of parking motor vehicles within the central area of the city grows almost daily more acute with the rapid increase in motoring, the registration of more and more cars and their use for transport to and from and within the city. Where these cars are to go when not in use or waiting for use during the day or in the evening, only to a slightly less degree, is a question not only vexing to motorists, but full of difficulties for the traffic authorities, if they arc to prevent the streets in the heart of the city from being completely cluttered up. At the moment there is a, campaign to enforce more strictly the parking bylaws which fell somewhat into abeyance during the years of the depression, but this is hardly a remedy for the trouble. Welling: ton)with its narrow and rather congested business area presents unusual problems. There is no large open space available in the centre of the city for parking, though suggestions have be<*n made for the temporary use of the Library site, between Harris and Mercer Streets, for that purpose. Proposals have also been made from time to time for the erection of special buildings, where the cars will be parked, in tiers, as it were, on separate floors, with provision for lifts. If these were to pay their way, no doubt, fairly substantial charges would have to be made for use, with the effect possibly of defeating the object for which the buildings were designed. Wellington has not yet attained such a stage of growth as to render such a solution of the problem necessary,' but some-1 thing will have to be done to cope with the existing congestion, if legitimate business is not to'suffer. Some sort of zoning system seenis. worth a trial, the centre of the city to be reserved for those car-owners, such as doctors and commercial travellers, whose calling necessitates movement within that area, with an intermediate zone outside this, for people with less urgent business, and a time limit for parking. Beyond,this- would be an area where cars could be parked all day for the. service of those who use them- for ■transport to and from Uhe city. Admittedly the problem is a very difficult one, but,the facts compel some early effort at solution.