A year of fighting about car parks in Wellington

Saturday, 9 September 2023

The same old concern crops up again and again in the Wellington City Council’s latest transport plans: what about the car parks?

The council will soon get more of the same feedback. New residents’ parking rules in Newtown, where spaces are already at a premium, will go out for consultation alongside two cycleways (Berhampore and Karori) – bringing inevitable complaints about car parks being removed, new time limits around the hospital and tougher resident-only parking restrictions.

Maria Kassa, who spoke to The Post while heading to the Wellington Regional Hospital on Friday morning, said she often left home an hour before her appointment to try to find a parking space.

“There have been times where I've worried if I'm going to miss an appointment because I can't park.

'But it's not just here, it's all everywhere around here. It's a real struggle just to get from one place to another.'

Councillors were this week briefed on the roll-out of a new parking policy, starting in Newtown and Berhampore. (Next on the list is Wadestown.)

Instead of continuing the free-for-all parking system, more than 2000 car parks in the most high-demand areas will have a time limit of two hours except for residents. That policy is intended to lock out the estimated 1200 hospital staff who park on the streets and prioritise Newtown residents instead.

“I’m nervous for myself and I’m really terrified for my colleagues,” New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation spokesperson Hilary Gardner said.

“It’s a huge safety concern. The number of staff who finish in darkness, to be expected to walk over 10 minutes by themselves, is scary.”

Hospital staff on night shifts were mainly women in jobs like nursing and midwifery, Garder said. It was “not okay” for the hospital and the council to put them at risk.

The union will be asking the council for an exemption for hospital staff.

Newtown resident Kerry Smith said she understood it was difficult to park in the suburb, but felt the $195 a year cost for a resident parking permit was tough for families.

The main reason for the residential parking changes in Newtown and Berhampore is not bike lanes — it’s other cars. With expected population growth, there is not enough room for residents and hospital visitors to park on the streets.

Councillor Iona Pannett said parking was a “sacred cow” in the city and she appreciated that it was a painful process when changes were made.

“People see the car parks as an extension of their property. But they’re not, they’re a public space.”

She doubted that the parking policy in Newtown had the balance right, suggesting that 2000 residents’ parks in a suburb so close to the city was too many. “I think an orderly who drives in from Upper Hutt probably needs higher priority.”

The hospital needed to innovate as well, Pannett said, suggesting a system like a shuttle bus could be a good option to get staff home safely.

Kate Clarke, a doctor who works at Wellington Regional Hospital along with Bowen Hospital, bikes to work and between the two hospitals, which are suburbs apart, when she needs to change over.

“It’s more efficient, it’s faster, I’m sure it’s better for my patients because my head is clear.”

She looks forward to the day the entire 20-minute route will be covered with a stress-free protected lane.

Another obvious solution for the demand around the hospital area was a parking building, councillors suggested in their briefing on Wednesday.

Roger Palairet, from Te Whatu Ora, said the hospital was looking into whether a parking building was feasible, but no decisions had been made.

“We recognise that it can be frustrating for patients, visitors, and staff who find themselves having to drive around the campus to find a place to park and we empathise with anyone who experiences this.”

The roll-out of Wellington’s bike network is putting pressure on the available parking spaces as well.

Two stages of the bike network (Newtown and the Botanic Garden) are complete, while another four (Kilbirnie, Aro Valley, Ngaio and Thorndon) are beginning construction.

The council is also facing a fresh judicial review, from grocery giant Foodstuffs, over the placement of the Thorndon cycleway in relation to the local New World car park.

It is the fourth court case over a cycleway in recent years, although none have succeeded. Previously stoushes included the cycleway in Newtown, the Thorndon Quay parking changes and the Island Bay cycleway.

Cycling advocate Patrick Morgan said he was expecting “organised opposition” in Karori, while Berhampore was likely more accustomed to the cycleway roll-out because of the nearby Newtown to city route. There would be a “real contrast” between the two routes, he said.

Morgan’s oft-repeated “build it and they will come” slogan — from the Kevin Costner baseball movie Field of Dreams — meant people would take up cycling if safe paths were available. It had “absolutely” been proved in the roll-out of the new bike lanes, he said.

There has been a 92% increase on the cycle counter beside the Basin Reserve since the protected lane down Kent Terrace was installed. More than 10,000 trips were recorded on that route in August.

Council cycleway team leader Claire Pascoe said the projects out for consultation next week, Berhampore to Newtown and Karori to the city, would form two totally connected routes.

It would allow people to ride in a protected cycleway from Island Bay to the city, or from Karori to the city – two full stretches of about six kilometres.

By 2030, most Wellingtonians will live within a five minute ride of the protected network.

Berhampore resident Erica Mangin bikes to work most days and estimates about 85% of the route is protected. Previously she’d had near misses with buses and cars, adopting what she described as a tense “defensive cycling” stance to avoid crashes.

“Now I can relax … I get to work and I’m not so full of adrenaline.”

– Additional reporting by Conor Knell and Rachel Thomas