Does Christchurch have too many car parks?

Thursday, 27 June 2024

Christchurch has more car parks available in its CBD than Auckland and Wellington, and thousands of them are free of charge.

Are We There Yet? is a series examining the transport challenges facing Christchurch - New Zealand’s second largest city. Today, SINEAD GILL takes a look at car parking. Join the discussion in the comment section below.

Christchurch commuters may not like driving in the most congested city in Aotearoa, but the decision to jump in a car is made easier by an apparently generous supply of central city car parks.

The most recent estimate from the Christchurch City Council shows central Christchurch is home to an estimated 33,000 car parks, with as many as 13,000 available to the public in the city centre. This does not include time restricted spaces, like 5 minute parks.

This works out at about one car park for every 3.6 workers in Christchurch’s city centre compared with 7.4 in Auckland.

Wellington City Council data does not differentiate between private and public car parking spaces but the capital has fewer total central city car parks than Christchurch at 28,000 despite having close to three times as many people working in the CBD.

The Christchurch City Council currently estimates there are 8759 public car parks available at a cost - including the council’s own 1146 metered spaces, and combined 913 spaces at its Lichfield St and Art Gallery parking buildings (which the council estimates will generate $3.7 million this financial year).

Wilson Parking, a contentious global parking company, is the most dominant parking provider in central Christchurch, operating a mix of parking buildings and gravel pits (which are increasingly being spruced up, as a consequence of city council policy).

With the city council estimating that 6700 parking spaces are privately operated (not including employee or customer-only spaces) - and there only being one other company operating in the market at scale - Wilson Parking appears to oversee about 70% of the at-cost supply.

A spokesperson for the company rejected The Press’ calculation, saying its true figure fluctuates, and that it can’t confirm how many spaces they operate for commercial reasons.

Simon Kingham, a transport expert and professor at the University of Canterbury, likens the availability of car parking to a subsidy for car drivers.

The cost of free parking

The Christchurch City Council estimated there were 3400 free and not time-restricted parks back in 2020.

Neither Auckland nor Wellington’s city councils have a breakdown of how many - if any - of its central car parks are free, but anecdotally residents say they’re rare.

Simon Kingham, a professor at the University of Canterbury who, until recently, was the Ministry of Transport’s chief science advisor, says Christchurch, likens the availability of car parking as a subsidy for car drivers.

Kingham said Christchurch’s comparative over-supply of parking often surprised visitors. The true cost was more than just an hourly rate, but what the city missed out on, he said: more seating, open air markets and amenities.

Transport commentator Simon Kingham says most people drive because they feel like they have no choice.

He said it showed how much further the city had to go to recover from the earthquakes. The gravel car parks would eventually be sold to developers, but so long as there were vacant lots in the city, there would be property owners wanting to recoup the cost of rates, he said.

And there would continue to be a demand for car parking, if public transport didn’t go when and where people needed, and people felt unsafe cycling.

“Most people get in their car because they genuinely feel like they have no choice,” he said.

It was a “chicken and egg” issue. People shouldn’t feel guilt-tripped into changing their habits when it was the government who had the power to provide options, he said.

Christchurch has the most congested rush hour in New Zealand but has the lowest spend on public transport, despite being the fastest-growing main centre.

“Research tells us very clearly that if you give people choices, a lot of people don’t choose to drive,” he said.

He warned that demand for car parking would increase as more residents move to city centre and into homes without off-street parking. They would remain reliant on cars so long as amenities like supermarkets were not within walking distance, and would compete with CBD workers and shoppers for free spaces.

“In this country, we kind of feel that there’s a right to park on the street anywhere we want … it’s kind of a subsidy for car drivers,” he said.

Lifting the bar

Tim Howe, director of Central Park, says his growing company isn’t interested in building a parking empire - but they do want to prove how the industry can work in a ‘friendly’ way.

Most people park their cars and pay for it without issue. However, the quality of the parking spaces - and handling of complaints by Wilson Parking - are common complaints.

In 2019, a Christchurch-based company was started to provide something different.

Central Park - run by entrepreneur Tim Howe - is the second largest private parking operator in the CBD after Wilson Parking, operating 327 of the estimated 6700 privately run spaces.

Christchurch sites operated by Wilson Parking are increasingly being spruced up, as a result of a city council policy to strong-arm owners of vacant land into getting consents. (File photo)

Howe said the company had “lifted the bar” on car parking. He said he gets one call a week from a car park owner wanting to switch providers, but Howe said his company was only interested in sealed sites with good lighting at a minimum.

There was one exception to this, Howe said, but it was temporary. Central Park operates five sites in the CBD, including Riverside market and Little High Eatery, owned by The Peebles Group, with four more in the works.

In comparison, Wilson Parking operates 58 sites, not including 14 monthly or lease-only locations.

There is also Parkable - a kiwi tech business which has had international success, landing a contract with Meta - which, for $2 an hour, is managing small number of spaces in carparks alongside employee-only parks. The company was approached for comment.

Howe said people would not see negative headlines about Central Park refusing to forgive its customers for making genuine mistakes - as happened with Sir Gil Simpson, who was using his wife’s car when he paid for parking but mistakenly entered his own car’s registration number.

Simpson had to go to the disputes tribunal to get his $85 penalty waived. Howe said his company would have done things differently.

Central Park’s most expensive breach of $55 was for eight hours unpaid - $30 cheaper than customers were charged by his main competitor for overstaying by five minutes, Howe said.

A Wilson Parking spokesperson said the company “simply ask that people who use our facilities pay for the service”. (File photo)

However, Howe said both he and Wilson Parking agreed it was legal to penalise people for not paying for parking.

Central Park is cheaper than Wilson Parking on average, with an hourly rate averaging $4.86 compared to Wilson Parking’s approximately $6 an hour (though some sites offer as much as a $2 discount when using the company’s mobile app).

Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb is concerned about how Wilson Parking handles complaints, and wants the government to review its access to car users’ addresses. (File photo)

The Christchurch City Council’s parking is cheapest on average, at $4.10 or $4.20 an hour in a parking building or $4.60 on-street.

A Wilson Parking spokesperson said the company did not control the cost “at a considerable proportion” of the sites it managed, with landowners having a significant say.

Likewise, it said it did not own the land for most of the sites, and did not always have permission to do the maintenance and improvement works it wanted to.

“We simply ask that people who use our facilities pay for the service they are engaging in,” the spokesperson added.

Is there anything wrong with Wilson Parking’s dominance?

Wilson may be a dominant presence in Christchurch but the Commerce Commission says this is only a problem if the company engages in anti-competitive behaviour, and this has not been alleged of Wilson Parking in Christchurch.

The commission took Wilson Parking to the High Court in 2018 over allegations of “substantially” lessening competition in Wellington. The parties reached an agreement in 2020, with Wilsons agreeing to divest the leases of three parking facilities (totalling 850 spaces) and paying $500,000 in legal costs.

Recently, it was not Wilson’s share of the market, but how it handled complaints which attracted criticism.

Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb has challenged Wilson Parking’s handling of complaints, accusing the company of abusing its access to the Motor Vehicle Register (through which the company can access a car owner’s name and address) - which the company refutes.

'There are very few options other than Wilsons,“ he said. ”They charge far too much. It's entirely disproportionate. It is draconian.”

Last week, Transport Minister Simeon Brown told Webb he has referred the request on to the independent Director of Land Transport (who decides to grant or revoke access to the register) for consideration.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly also told Webb last week he has requested advice about Wilson Parking and aims to discuss it with the Commerce Commission at their next meeting.

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