Melbourne City Council recently released figures (Feb 3) on the state of parking in the Melbourne CBD area, analysing increases in demand and supply over the past four years. The number of people working in the city has grown by 40,000 in that time, and the resident population has increased by more than 4,000.
In the same period, the number of commercial and private car park spaces in the CBD (excluding Docklands) has risen by 3,000 – although only 500 of these were spaces available commercially to the general public.
Since 2003, the number of on-street parking spaces has reduced from 3,230 to 3,080, with another 70 spaces scheduled to be removed by the Swanson Street upgrade.
Whilst Melbourne has always been held up as a great example of effective public transport in Australia, the increasing pressure on the CBD infrastructure from the rate of growth will need to see the public transport system grow at a rate equal to that of the demand. Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle says people should not be encouraged to drive to the CBD, but has ruled out a London-style congestion charge for the city at this point in time.
The article quotes Craig Smith from Wilson Parking as saying that “Melbourne has approximately 43 spaces per 100 employees compared to Sydney with only 18 spaces”.