THE PROHIBITION OF

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 28

THE PROHIBITION OF

PARKING

In proposing a bylaw whereby parking in a specific area is forbidden to the advantage of a .private park the Wellington City Council has taken a course ; that may well be resented by the motoring public. Whatever one's private views may be as to the parking responsibility of any civic authority there is not likely to be much division of opinion that it should not make fish of one and fowl of another. There are "plenty of places where the congestion difficulty is every whit as bad or worse than the vicinity of Taranaki Street, and if a bylaw is to be made it should be of general, and not of particular application.

For years, for instance, the bottom

of The Terrace at night has been almost closed to the motorist by reason of a litter of cars on both sides of the narrow street that make it exceedingly difficult for traffic to struggle through. Nothing has ever been done about it, despite repeated complaints, yet within reasonable distance there are garages that offer space if people choose to use it. Why should not people who park at the foot of The Terrace be equally forced to go to private space as people who park in any other quarter of the town? However honest in their endeavour they may be, the City Fathers have certainly opened the way to' a grave questioning of their judgment.

..The discussion round the council table revealed another aspect of this parking business, the possibility of charges being imposed for parking space in the streets. If a council finds that parking causes congestion it should be patent to its .members that charging for parking cannot be a cure. A charge is permission to park, not prohibition. Over and over again articles, have appeared in these, columns following the evolution of parking in America. A correspondent recently wrote objecting to all this Americanism, but-America leads the. way, and.it is wise to watch. From charging : for parking America has gone one better ■ and established meters. Now the motorists -.are fighting tooth and nail in a battle for their rights, the free use of the streets.

Nobody questions the authority. of thei.civic body to control the streets. Commercialisation of the streets, however, is quite another matter. If parking, reaches a stage where it becomes an cvil —and, of course, it does—it must be controlled. The method taken, however, should* not be to the advantage of a particular interest. It is too late now for local authorities to repudiate responsibility for parking. If it was to be done it should have been done years ago. They accepted—even acknowledged—the responsibility, and motoring has grown up upon that basis. If there is to be repudiation let it be in toto and not in parts. The principle is just the same applied to the part, and who knows where its application may. end?

The parking problem so far as local authority is concerned really resolves itself into the question of free flow of traffic and right of entry to business premises.. All sorts of attempts have been made to limit periods and places. In this connection a further American opinion may appeal to many. It is that parking time limits should be abolished. Such limits merely give space to a greater number of the motoring public,, but do nothing to speed up the movement of traffic. A space vacated in the business section of a city is quickly filled by another motorist. Traffic men detailed to the parking job should be ordered to watch out for double parkers, drivers who ignore traffic signals, drivers who pay no heed to ordinary traffic rules, and speedsters. In zones where business conditions permit there should be no parking restrictions, and in busy areas parking should be barred.

Those are his opinions. He means simply that local authorities should say whether parking shall be permitted or forbidden in any particular spot but not concern themselves about who is parked or for how long" in a permitted area. People would soon learn to take advantage of the nearest available space instead of driving around and around to general inconvenience awaiting the moment when somebody's half-hour expires in the place they hope to catch.

involved. , Recently, the Department of Road Transport placed an order for the construction of twenty-seven Diesel buses to meet present needs. The question of future requirements was being examined with a view to drawing up a programme for the purchase of trolley or Diesel buses :to keep pace with the expansion of traffic.

. At tht-. moment, there are;. several large, red, double-decker buses operating in Sydney, particularly along the longer,. tram routes. Electric trolley buses are used alons densely-populated routes where there is no tram service. There is, for example, a trolley bus service to Potts' Point.