COMMENT

RESPONSE

Difficulty with finding car parking for visitors/guests during weekdays 

Vehicle ownership in the City of Port Phillip keeps increasing. 81.6% of dwellings now own one or more vehicles (Census 2011). Over 88,000 people work in the municipality. Port Phillip is visited daily by large numbers of visitors and tourists. On-street parking is a limited resource within the municipality. There is a greater demand for car parking permits than the supply of on-street spaces. These are the main reasons why Council is conducting this review.

Visitor permit misuse

Council treats and investigates allegations of misuse of parking permits seriously. Misuse of parking permits may result in the withdrawal of all parking permit privileges for life and prosecution for any breaches of the relevant legislation. Please call Assist on 9209 6777 if you witness permit misuse.

Lack of enforcement

Council regularly reviews its parking enforcement practices to keep up with the ever growing demand and changes in technology in order to provide the best possible service to our community. Council’s main focus is on the enforcement of safety related restrictions, such as No Stopping Any Time and Clearway Zones, residential streets and shopping strips. Introduction of new technology such as mobile cameras may be an option towards improving real time data reporting, and improving parking enforcement.

Major events in Albert Park including the MSAC and the Athletics Stadium

The City of Port Phillip attracts a substantial number of visitors who travel to the area for work, shopping and leisure activities. These competing car parking needs increase pressure on the limited on street parking supply in the area. Parking is managed by Council in a fair and transparent way to promote sustainable transport solutions and to optimise residents' access to homes. Recent occupancy studies show that all day ticket parking that exists within South Melbourne is underutilised. There is a mixture of parking restrictions surrounding the Market that caters for resident and customer car parking. Residential streets in the area that are within walking distance of the MSAC and the Athletics Stadium have resident car parking restrictions.

Level of new developments

The City of Port Phillip, being a sought after inner city municipality, is gradually increasing its population. Council, through various planning processes tries to encourage developers to provide adequate vehicle and bicycle parking on their premises in order to reduce on-street parking pressure. Residents of new developments are not entitled to apply for resident and visitor parking permits. This policy is applied in order to encourage new residents to rely on sustainable modes of transport or to use off-street parking spaces available within their buildings. 

Improve bike parking provision and facilities

Council works closely with local traders and community facilities to ensure that adequate bike parking is installed.  The objective of an integrated sustainable transport network is to encourage greater use of alternate transport methods and reduce overall reliance on cars. To register a request for more bicycle racks, please follow this linkhttp://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/street_furniture.htm

Off street parking not used for its purpose

One of the objectives of residents paying for car parking permits is to encourage the use of off- street parking.  Utilising off-street parking assists in reducing on-street parking pressure and enables those with no off-street parking to find spaces.

Poor parking etiquette

Marking of parking bays could alleviate this problem. However, because spaces must be line marked in accordance with standards, sometimes this could result in a loss of parking.  Where three small cars could park only two cars can park after line marking is installed. To see the process to request marking of on street parking places, please follow this link http://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/line-marking-parking-spaces.htm

No parking issues 

Some respondents indicated they were not impacted by parking restrictions. These responses did not come from a specific geographical area and were adjacent to other respondents who encounter parking problems. Parking issues are dependent on availability of off street parking facilities and car ownership. Where residents have access to driveways and garages or do not own vehicles their perception of parking issues vary to those with no off-street parking.