Revenue

Charge commuters $10 per day to park in Yarra

Commuters like driving to Yarra because 3/4 of Yarra’s parking bays are offered for free.

This compares with off-street parking costing commuters up to $27 per day.

Council could ask commuters to pay a fee to park each day in Yarra, e.g. matching the $10 for a daily Myki (public transport) fare. For example, if 1/3 of Yarra’s 47,000 bays were used by commuters for 250 days each year (5 business days per week for 50 weeks), then council would raise $39 million per year (1/3 x 47,000 x 250 x $10 = $39 million). Council can do this by selling digital permits via a smartphone app.

Charge residents & businesses $1 per day to park in Yarra

Yarra sells residential & business parking permits for 14 cents per day (or $50 per year). These are in high demand, with council issuing approximately 20,000 permits each year. If the price was increased to $1 per day then Yarra would raise an extra $6 million per year. This price would be comparable to the fee charged by the City of Vancouver for residential on-street parking permits in the high demand West End area. Note that such a change would not impact the households who receive a free parking permit, based on approved concessions.

These ideas aren’t new

Increasing the price of parking to provide revenue for safe travel infrastructure isn’t a new idea. Here’s a local resident suggesting it in 2016:

Conclusion

Reforms to the pricing of on-street parking can raise an extra $45 million each year ($39 million + $6 million), enabling $10 million to be spent on infrastructure for walking and biking, with the remainder going to other services, capital expenditure, or cuts to rates.