Teachers often report that they have difficulty parking all day in Yarra, near their place of work. Here’s a recent example:
Here’s another example, from the Council Meeting on 4 May 2021:
Some teachers need to drive and park
Some teachers need to drive and park; it’s a reality that we need to accept, and plan for.
Council can’t offer free all-day parking on public streets for one type of worker, but not others, because that would be discriminatory. If teachers were offered free all-day parking, why not nurses, or firefighters, or car mechanics? The list goes on. Council is not in a position to make value judgements about the the relative worth of one role compared with another, and so must treat all workers equally.
Going further, Council can’t offer free all-day parking for all workers, because there simply aren’t enough car parks to go around.
Therefore, we need a way to enable some workers to park all-day, while also preventing our residential streets from being overwhelmed by commuters, so residents (and their visitors) can park near their homes.
A new way to manage parking
Instead of Council offering free 2P or 4P parking, which threatens teachers with a fine if they can’t leave their classroom to move their car, Council can instead offer all-day parking for a reasonable fee, such as matching the cost of a daily public transport (Myki) fare, which is $11.
That would offer teachers the security that they would not receive a fine, and it also encourages those who can, to walk, bike, or take public transport to get to work.
How it would work
Council can offer paid all-day parking by using ‘Ticket Zones’, similar to how parking is managed at the Burnley Golf Course. Teachers would arrive, park in a bay, and use an app to purchase a digital ticket that is linked to their vehicle’s number plate. Parking enforcement officers simply scan each number plate to determine if a vehicle has a valid ticket or not.
Free parking for visitors
Ticket Zones can also support free 2P parking for people who are briefly visiting the school. The visitor would arrive, park in a bay, and use an app to purchase a free 2P ticket that is linked to their vehicle’s number plate.
How would this protect residents?
Schools are often located close to where people live. The beauty of Ticket Zones and digital parking tickets is that the system can limit the number of all-day tickets that is sells, e.g. restricting them to half the number of bays in a street. Parking Enforcement Officers can monitor streets to see how many workers park during the day, or whether residents are able to get a park when they return from their work, and use that information to adjust how many all-day tickets are available for purchase in each zone. Ticket zones can be finely controlled, e.g. each segment of a street can be a different zone.
For example, if a street next to a school has parking on both sides, the whole street (both sides) can become a Ticket Zone, with sales limited to half the bays in the street, and residents (with residential parking permits) able to park on either side of the street at any time.
Let other workers park
The same new parking system can be used around other employment centres, such as a hospital, large office, or factory. Council can even invite residents to nominate their street for a Ticket Zone, if they feel that they are being overwhelmed by workers seeking free all-day parking.
Outcomes
If Council offered all-day parking for a reasonable free, then the likely outcomes would be:
- some teachers would purchase an all-day parking ticket
- some teachers would switch to walking, biking, car-pooling, or public transport
- local residents would be protected from unrestricted numbers of workers occupying all the bays in their street
Overall, the outcome would be a win-win for teachers and residents.
Conclusion
Some people, including some teachers, need to drive and park; it’s a reality that we need to accept, and plan for. Council can’t offer free all-day parking to just one type of worker, because that would be discriminatory, and it can’t offer free all-day parking to all workers, because there aren’t enough car parks to go around. Therefore, we need to change how we manage parking, so it works for both teachers and residents; the solution is to implement Ticket Zones that offer all-day parking for a reasonable fee.
Published 26 October 2025.