Almost 2000 new park-and ride spaces not nearly enough, AA says

Friday, 29 June 2018

Albany bus station car park fulls to overflowing most days. The station will get an additional 135 parks this year.

Over the next 10 years, Auckland Transport (AT) plans to build new park-and-rides that will create 1900 new parking spaces, but the AA argues that number should be closer to 10,000.

AT is considering locations on the outskirts of Auckland, including Westgate, Kumeu, Drury, Paerata, Pukekohe and the Hibiscus Coast and is yet to settle on exact locations and timings.

Park and rides filled up earlier each year, with 85 per cent of parks now occupied by 7.30am and 100 per cent by 8.30am, according to AT.

That compared with 80 per cent of parks taken by 8am in 2015.

**READ MORE:

Commuters park on the grass at Silverdale park and ride due to a lack of parks. However the park and ride could get additional parks in 2019.

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AT acknowledged overall demand for park-and-rides exceeded supply.

Currently there were four dedicated park-and-rides for bus stations, 14 for train stations and seven for ferry terminals.

In 2015, AT's parking strategy stated 'at least half of all park-and-ride sites have a significant overflow onto surrounding streets affecting accessibility of town centres and residential areas'.

Since then, the problem had only increased. Residents who lived close to transport hubs often dealt with the repercussions on commuters unable to claim a spot in the park-and-ride facilities, including cars parked too close to driveways, parked blocking access to streets and parked illegally on the footpath.

In addition to the new sites, as part of the Regional Land Transport Plan, AT is currently working on increasing the Albany park-and-ride by 135 spaces this year and Takanini by 300 spaces by the end of the year. Pending the outcome of an Environment Court ruling, Silverdale could also get an additional 90 spaces next year.

Papakura could get 300 additional parks for train commuters in 2020.

However, AA principal adviser Barney Irvine said AT's plans did not go far enough to meet demand, which would be closer to 10,000 new parks in the next decade.

Irvine agreed focusing on locations at the periphery of Auckland had merit but said there would still be scope to look at sites closer to the city centre.

'It shouldn't be discounted just because it is hard. If cost was an issue, one way to deal with that would be to charge for parking spaces.'

Irvine said AT's model of feeder buses or improved walking and cycling infrastructure at locations where there were no plans for a park-and-ride didn't line up with what their users wanted.

The AA wanted AT to follow through on the idea of partnering with supermarkets and churches to provide parking spaces during the day for commuters.

'There are piles of underutilised parking spaces out there. Let's see them do it.'