Car Parking

Surface car parking accounts for 14 percent (some 14 hectares) of the total area of the Parliamentary Zone (excluding the site of Parliamentary House) compared with 10 percent of the surface area occupied by buildings. Large surface car parks are adjacent to every office building, the national institutions and Commonwealth and Kings Avenues. The car parks dominate the landscape of the Zone and alienate sites that should be available for further development of the Zone. For many visitors their first impression is one of sterile car parks.

There also needs to be greater rationalisation and management of the use of the car parks. Visitors compete with commuters for parking. In a number of cases, commuters from offices in the Civic and Barton districts are parking - at no charge - all day in the Zone car parks, and catching bus services into Civic or walking into Barton. On occasion, during major exhibitions at the National Gallery of Australia, the underground car park has to be boom-gated until 9:30 am to prevent commuters occupying spaces set aside for Gallery visitors.

The parking initiative proposed for the place of the people is aimed at improving the experience of the visitor by creating convenient and safe parking areas, balancing parking demand and supply and reducing the use of the motor vehicle. The parking initiative is an important step toward applying more sustainable management and development practices and in establishing a ‘greener’ Zone.

To successfully establish the campuses in the Zone, future development must take place on some of the existing surface car parks. Obviously, as development increases there will be less surface car parking. Each new building will be required to provide space for its own parking needs either wholly or partly on-site. When buildings are sited on existing surface car parks, an assessment of the overall campus requirement will need to be made.

For the Parliamentary Zone to become the place of the people, there will have to be a reduction in the rate at which parking is provided. This will encourage commuters to make greater use of public transport and, in conjunction with other initiatives, such as completing a convenient and pleasant system of paths, the Zone will become a more accessible and vibrant place.

Nevertheless, demand and consolidation of parking will warrant the erection of structured car parks. It is proposed that these be located centrally in the John Gorton and Treasury campuses to serve the whole of the place of the people. These structured car parks will include some convenient amenities, such as dry cleaners, newsagents and flower shops. They could also be the home base for a shuttle bus that would operate at regular intervals connecting the car parks to the other campuses and buildings.

Viable structured car parking could only be introduced with, or following, the introduction of pay parking.

It is proposed that pay parking be introduced where commuters are displacing visitors. Combined with variable fees for preferential parking locations and improved public transport, pay parking may be an effective management tool. Whilst visitors would still be able to park free in some locations for short stays (1–3 hours), mechanisms could also be explored for the reimbursement of visitors who choose long-stay pay parking, through vouchers at the national attractions. All weekend and public holiday parking would be free.

There is also a high demand for parking in the Parkes and Barton districts, which are major employment centres adjacent to the Zone. Issues related to parking availability and equity for commuters in these areas will need to be addressed as the parking initiative is developed.

Providing parking in the Parliamentary Zone is an ongoing and significant management cost that should be equitably borne by the user. Pay parking would contribute funds to offset the maintenance of car parks and roads in the Parliamentary Zone, which at present escape the ‘user-pays’ principle.

The car parking initiative is consistent with the National Greenhouse Strategy and will balance the needs of the visitor with those of the commuter in a fair and equitable manner.