Parking tax bid to stop gridlock. DRIVERS could be taxed hundreds of dollars a year for using their own car parking spaces in the Brisbane CBD. Malcolm Cole, State Political Correspondent The Courier Mail 2nd December 2005
DRIVERS could be taxed hundreds of dollars a year for using their own car parking spaces in the Brisbane CBD.
Drivers parking their cars in some areas would have to get annual licences under the scheme outlined in the transport options paper, Smart Travel Choices for South East Queensland.
The paper also suggests a "scrap and ride scheme" which would give cash to owners of pre-1987 vehicles to get rid of them, more flexible bus and train timetables and greater incentives for commuters to ride bikes to work.
Premier Peter Beattie, who launched the paper, said it foreshadowed "some of the most far-reaching transport related policy initiatives ever to be considered in Queensland".
But opponents blasted it as "ideological claptrap" which would do nothing to ease peak-hour congestion.
RACQ spokesman Ken Willett said the proposal for a parking tax would not address the fact that two-thirds of the traffic entering the Brisbane CBD was actually passing through the city.
The proposed tax would be similar to that used in Sydney and Perth where there are licensing schemes for car parks in busy and popular suburbs serviced by public transport. In Sydney, licences cost up to $880 a year, and in Perth up to $189.
Money raised from the Brisbane scheme would be diverted to public transport.
Mr Beattie said he accepted some of the paper's proposals would be controversial. But residents needed to think outside the square to encourage greater use of different and more environmentally friendly public transport options.
"We are relying on our cars more and more to get around," he said.
"If this trend continues, traffic conditions will worsen, air quality will deteriorate, travel times will go up and quality of life will go down."
Mr Beattie said the ideas were options, and no policy decisions had been made.
The paper's "scrap and ride" scheme proposes handing up to $500 to owners of pre-1987 cars to spend on a bicycle or free registration on a newer, smaller car.
The paper proposes the creation of cyclists' hubs where riders could lock up their bikes and shower or change at the end of a journey.
Mr Beattie called on the Federal Government to include bicycles, cycling equipment and public transport fares in salary packaging schemes. "Salary packaging of bikes and public transport attracts fringe benefits tax, but why should they be treated differently from cars, mobile phones and laptop computers?"
The paper proposes more flexible public transport and timetable information, with commuters requesting train times and even ordering bus pick-ups by mobile phone.
It suggests car clubs to allow young people to rent cars as they need them, rather than buying their own and driving every day.
Mr Willett said the paper was ideological claptrap which failed to tackle the serious problems facing drivers.
"It's a blueprint for a centrally planned utopia where we all live like rats in high-rises, walk to the shops, walk to the bus and ride our bikes to the sprocket factory," he said.
Bicycle Queensland manager Ben Wilson welcomed the proposal for infrastructure support for cyclists.