Parking study shows councils way to riches Author: By FRANK WALKER Date: 05/02/2006 Publication: Sun Herald
COUNCILS are doubling up on the money they collect from some parking meters that print tickets as many motorists leave before using all the time they have paid for.
Sydney City Council has pocketed 40 per cent more than it expected from the meters because motorists often leave before their time has expired and another motorist takes the space and pays for the same time.
A confidential parking study prepared for Ryde Council said councils can double the revenue from the one parking spot simply by using meters that print tickets - called Pay and Display (P&D) meters - rather than meters that display the time left on the machine called Pay by Space meters (P by S).
Traffic consulting engineers URaP TTW recommended in their study that the council use P&D meters as they made more money.
"P&D machines increase income from parking because parkers often leave before their pre-paid time has expired and the replacement parker pays for a part of the parking duration covered by the previous parker," the study said.
"This duplication of the parking space usage within the P&D system may increase the revenue in some [commercial] areas by more than 100 per cent over budget.
"In the City of Sydney, for example, the revenue increase due to parking duplication has been about 40 per cent per annum over budget," the engineers' report said.
Sydney City Council pocketed $16.5 million from parking meters last year. It has 1196 P&D meters and 66 P by S meters.
"The advantage of pay and display meters is they provide a receipt for the customer and the City's newly installed solar-powered meters also accept credit cards and payment via mobile phone in addition to coins," a council spokesman said.
Parking meters have become a major source of council revenue. Meters brought in 4.5 per cent of Sydney City Council's revenue, parking fines another 7.9 per cent.