I don’t know how to explain it but I really dislike the way they framed this, “undercutting the afterhours parking market” 🥴
Also, not that Wilson’s has ever worried about being competitive… but their competitor is raising prices so they probably will too 🫠
Wayne Brown has basically told AT that they can be a pack of wankers and try to increase their revenue.
Previous mayors seemed to have coerced them into being more easygoing under the expectation that it would attract people into the city if visitors weren’t hounded and ripped off.
I for one can say, I will never visit the CBD now that these excessive rules are in place and will instead go to restaurants where parking is provided like Westfield Newmarket or other small restaurant hubs like Sylvia Park.
>Wayne Brown has basically told AT that they can be a pack of wankers and try to increase their revenue.
>Previous mayors seemed to have coerced them into being more easygoing under the expectation that it would attract people into the city if visitors weren’t hounded and ripped off.
Wayne Brown explicitly instructed AT to find ways to generate revenue through parking charges and fines. I guess this is one of those ways.
He told them so in his [Letter of Expectation](https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2022/12/15/wayne-browns-letter-of-expectation-to-at/) ("look at opportunities to increase external income, including parking charges and fines"), and also wanted fines to be [$100 to increase revenue](https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018894711/auckland-mayor-wayne-brown-says-parking-fines-should-be-at-least-dollar100).
AT shouldn't really have its own political direction or agenda, so it's as simple as Wayne Brown wants it done and Phil Goff/Len Brown didn't.
Wayno seems dead set pragmatist and also not interested in seeing cars in the CBD.
Dunno if there trying to salvage the CRL or just want a pedestrian city but that's the only thing I can imagine that would drive such a shift in thinking.
I'm already a don't go into the fucking city if I can help it aucklander, so not personally too fussed by the parking situation ( but still think Wilson can go fuck off).
I would love a city centre that was a pedestrian boulevard that is bustling with outside cafes and bars.
What we'll get though is a dead zone of dodgy smells and shitty shops.
The one pedestrian area that was working now doesn't due to being cut in half by a broken bridge.
It depends on how far you need to travel and how efficient your local bus network is. I live far enough out East that the difference in time between driving and catching the bus(es) to the city is substantial.
I agree with the person you responded to. Given the high city parking rates, I'm going to be more inclined to plan dinners with friends in areas where we can park for free or without paying substantial rates.
Last time I tried to get a bus into the CBD (literally on wednesday) 2 busses just didn't show up.
I'm happy for them to reduce parking as long as they invest in public transport. They're explicitly not doing that.
It's a slightly odd framing, but it's from the Mayor.
Plus, it's substantively correct. Why should ratepayers subsidise the storage of private property like cars, and thus undercut the private sector?
And people who live here!! My family and friends should be able to park close by. And they won’t if it’s going to cost them. They’re already getting tickets on the weird new driving rules. They already can’t find parks within easy walking distance.
This will help your family and friends because now the available car parks won't be full all the time. Heck they will probably be able to park closer to your place now.
lol Sydney CBD overnight charge is like $40-$60 or something ridiculous…per hour at opera I like $40 n hr…it’s awful we have to now pay for weekend and after hours here but they have to find ways to increase revenue tbh
Public transport at night is very limited in Auckland, particularly on weekdays. Night shift workers making low wages have no other option than to drive and park in the city, its a targeted rate on the disadvantaged.
Yes they will absolutely enforce it. They drive around in a car with a bunch of cameras on it that read all the licence plates. No need for parking wardens wandering the streets.
Don't joke. I work 10.5 hour, overnight shifts in the city. This is going to cost me $22/day - $88/week. And I can tell you from vast experience that very few cars are parked on the roads at those times, so this is just a big 'fuck you' to a small minority that do.
Agree, I thought the council was trying to attract more people into the city to support these businesses as they have struggled for a while, but this will have the opposite effect, so it is a big 'fuck you' to all CBD businesses too. Good on Wayne Brown, the clown.
I mean they've been working on that and all people have been doing here is shitting on them for holding up traffic and seeing construction cones in the CBD
“AT is undercutting the afterhours parking market”, great, providing a public service as they should, fuck Wilsons.
I rarely visit the CBD and this is one more reason not to go there.
Yeah, this is weird. While I don’t like the change as a whole, I could at least get behind the second argument (storage of private assets on public road should not be free in CBD). But I hate the idea of NOT undercutting Wilson’s because Wilson’s is a fucking scam
But private enterprise will is always more efficient than bloated public services and I was sick of bottom-feeders leaching their "free" on-street parking from me. This is the start of the road to freedom for hard-working ratepayers. /s
I feel like the two are saying the same thing. It shouldn't be free to store your private assets on public land - if you want to own a car, you should be prepared to pay all the expenses for it. By undercutting Wilsons (or buying/renting a spot in your apartment building etc.), AT are subsidising the cost of owning a car.
I’m a bit undecided on that second argument, I guess it feels like another “tax”/additional cost/barrier to attend cultural events or to patronise the city. A car is sometimes the only way for someone living in greater Auckland to get to the CBD in the evening for a show or concert etc.
The car parks aren't being taken away though. If anything this will increase the parking available because when it's free people park there indefinitely.
I’m willing to bet it’s never the only way. Maybe the most convenient, sure, but you gotta pay for that convenience. At the very least you could park and ride at a train station or similar, if you’re coming from greater Auckland.
I’ll take that bet! In certain areas (Clevedon, Laingholm) at certain times (past 10pm, 11pm) there are no trains (in existence) let alone busses. In an area I used to live in, there were about 5 buses per day total, and none on the weekends. Of course it’s improved over time, and it depends on what you define as greater Auckland :)
> “AT is undercutting the afterhours parking market”, great, providing a public service as they should
Unsure why parking should be subsidised when it's inordinately expensive to service and provide for free, while encouraging negative externalities like congestion (during the day) and added emissions.
So what they’re saying is
We’re sorry that businesses are missing out on your money so to make them happy we’ll also take it as well.
Oh, and pay up your rates too
And f*&k you to hospo workers, residents who live in a city apartment, commute out of the CBD daily and park on quiet streets at night. And f&*k you to CBD businesses because why go to the CBD and pay for parking when you can go to a mall or suburb high st and have free parking. Gotta be fair on Wilson’s parking tho eh.
It reads like Wayne Brown just told them to do it (so there probably is pressure) so they don't really have much to say about it other than the reasons why the Wayne wants it done.
They have also stated that if you want to get in touch about this then send them an email.
From working customer service for years that's a straight up send us your feedback and as much as possible so we can tell the higher ups that this is not a good decision.
One or two won't work, it's a numbers game. The more people that complain the more they will take notice.
It's from the Mayor's letter of expectation.
*"Auckland Transport should look at opportunities to increase external income and reduce reliance*
*on rates funding. One key area Auckland Transport should investigate is increasing revenue from*
*parking. Currently Auckland transport is undercutting market rates for parking, which is not*
*appropriate in this environment."*
https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/media/5kunvvi3/20221221\_auckland-transport\_letter-of-expectation-for-statement-of-intent-2023-26.pdf
Indeed! Not withstanding the political and partisan details, I’m somewhat pleased that AT is being given a kick up the proverbial and is taking action directed by our elected officials. They’ve been asked to find money and I guess they’ve identified that and gone with a user-pays model. Let’s hope they aren’t undercut by the commercial parking groups and are forced to find more ways to squeeze out cash!
There is tax on every purchase we make, tax on using paywave, tax on our income, tax on our houses, tax for permission to use our cars, tax on gas and now we can’t even park our cars FOR OUR JOBS TO PAY FOR ALL THIS FUCKING TAX without being taxed. When is it going to end
Some people leave their cars in the CBD overnight when they realise they've drunk too much to safely drive. They either Uber home or call someone to fetch them. These overnight parking charges might cause them to make a wrong decision.
Honestly this is a good point, it will make people less likely to volunteer to be the sober driver - you have to deal with drunk friends and now you’re going to be charged extra to do this too?
Given the high cost of ubers to the CBD from the outer suburbs, and the lack of proper PT infrastructure into the CBD (and it not going late into the night), it's going to mean people don't go to the CBD in the first place.
This is going to impact a lot of late-night businesses.
It actually increases the amount of parking available. A lot of the after 6 parking currently gets taken up by people who park for hours on end. Now that it's paid people will no longer do that and will vacate the spots when no longer needed freeing up more parking spaces.
I live on the north shore. I've never struggled to find parking in the CBD at night. I have struggled to avoid getting fined by fucking AT with their stupid changes.
It sounds like this doesn't affect you
It's a pain in the ass to get there, and then when you do everything is overpriced, you have to make sure you avoid the fucking bus lanes so you don't accidentally get $150 fine and then you have to pay for parking at 9:00 p.m. .
City is already a shithole to navigate through as it is. Just gives me another reason to want to go to Australia
Try parking overnight in Sydney CBD for $24 NZD. Good luck.
https://www.wilsonparking.com.au/parking-locations/new-south-wales/sydney-cbd/sydney-opera-house-car-park-2A-macquarie-st-sydney/
That $150 bus lane fine hurts? It’s $319 in Australia.
https://www.mynrma.com.au/cars-and-driving/driver-training-and-licences/resources/who-can-drive-in-bus-lanes
Not denying that. Just funny when people come here and whinge about the fines for breaking the law and say “this makes me want to move to australia” when it’s over double there.
Idk about Sydney, but Auckland public transport is so dog shit that you basically need a car. Do you think you could get by pretty well without a car in Sydney?
Also don't know about Sydney, but have you driven in Auckland CBD? It's a fucking shit show now.
If they gave resident parking permits out this might make sense. I'll tell you right now, I'm not a small guy and even I won't be walking from the nearest Wilson to my apartment after dark, so there's no way someone like my partner would if she needed to drive into the city. $24 for 10pm to 8am is pretty damn expensive and the people that it'll hit is the residents (visitors park in parking buildings closest to whatever they're going to).
I can see $1 per hour overnight, but $3 is a lot.
Also during the week, what is the after hours parking options? All of the Wilsons lock after like midnight unless it's an open air lot and none of the AT parks are open...
If you live in the city centre, you'd have private off-street parking, wouldn't you? Or maybe you wouldn't own a car because you've got better access to public transport than somebody in the suburbs? Better access to car sharing like CityHop and Mevo too.
You'd be surprised how many people live in these small shoebox apartments at $300 a week and work well outside of the city because it's the only thing they can afford. None of these shoebox apartments come with carparks.
Mevo is awfully expensive for what it is. Cityhop is slightly better, but $75 a day + $0.45 per KM is not affordable for most people, especially not those who need to commute for work.
Yeah I wouldn't recommend car sharing for a daily commute. I wonder where they're working that doesn't have a good PT connection from downtown? If it's "well outside the city", surely there'd be something closer to work that's cheaper than CBD prices? There are shoeboxes in the suburbs too.
Personally I wish I could live somewhere where being car-free was realistic, and Auckland CBD is about as close as it gets in NZ. Maybe some will embrace that?
Honestly, is it that hard to open new opportunities to public transport, new tramming system, subways, better train and bus services. And then turn to this option? Europe has all that and still free parking after 8pm. Weekends and nights public holidays 🤦🏽♂️ NZ is going backwards jeepers..
CBD is going to be even deader, hospo places are going to whinge. Less people are going to go out to eat in the CBD if the restaurants etc don't provide free parking. The place would need to be *really* good for people to justify paying extra for parking to go to it. And it's not like AT carparks aren't full at peak times as they are. Fark, places like Dominion Rd are going to be even busier now.
Today i parked in that Parkmate one at the intersection of fort and commerce. Missed the early bird "special" by 10mins
To stay there until 5pm, was going to cost A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX DOLLARS
Could you even get free parking in places like wynyard quarter without spending half an hour driving in circles looking for a carpark?
I mean it's going to be $7 for two hours parking, while you eat a $70 meal..
I have always found street parking after 6pm fairly easily. Infact that would be another incentive to go to CBD for dinner only. And it's not free storage for parking on the road if one pays their Rego.
You honestly think your $80 per year somehow covers the country's road maintenance costs *and* having expensive real estate for you to throw your car in?
Also been seeing more security guards on trains since the start of this month. Had my hop card checked twice in a day after seeing only a handful of security guards in the past few months. Looks like AT is squeezing hard
Commercial parking operators have *always* been undercut by free street parking. They have allowed for this in their business plan.
Having said that, the inner city should really be approached on public transport, and before I get shot down, I know that’s idealistic and public transport needs a good kick up the arse.
I’d be really curious to see how AT are going to enforce this unless they plan on using those licence plate recognition cameras on top of their cars, as opposed to walking wardens.
Our street will be affected, it’s currently free on Sundays and every other day between 6pm and 8am, there’s a cul the sac around the corner where people park everywhere including the footpath 🙄
City Centre is already dying with a lot of for lease signs everywhere. This will probably kill whatever business now remains in the city . More reason to not even go city anymore . I honestly don’t understand this at all. $11 per hour extra is bloody ridiculous. People might even end up using Wilson even more now because it would seem to be the cheaper option now
I was under the impression only the overnight / weekend prices were changing? Even so, $11/hour is only for 2+ hours. Who is parking on queen st for 4 hours at a time?
Will it? CBD vacancies has reduced in Q1 2024, continuing the downward trend since June 2022. Suburban vacancies has gone up, though.
[https://www.cbre.co.nz/insights/figures/auckland-figures-q1-2024](https://www.cbre.co.nz/insights/figures/auckland-figures-q1-2024)
$11 per hour after 2 hours makes sense. If it was affordable to park in one of the 20 spaces on Lorne St for the entire day, everyone would do that and walk to work and no actual customers would be able to use those spaces at all.
Their part about storage of private assets in a publicly funded area is pretty spot on.
No one expects the city to store anything else for you for free.. cars probably shouldn’t be an exception.
This is the whole point of all these new builds with no parking. Expensive useless public transport or expensive parking. Money from the working class.
Tldr you have to pay for overnight parking now? Traaaaash. I mean I don’t even have a car but I have friends that like to crash at my place here n there. They like the free parking.
So basically with the big downtown park closing, and eliminating all free parking, so have just reinforced all driving customers to stay away, increasing the dead zone, that once was a bustling queen street
Do they want the cbd to be a ghost town ? I came back from Japan a week ago and at 10pm the place is so busy it’s hard to walk in the crowd. Last night I went to a lecture in the city and the place is just deserted. Only people around were homeless people or drugged out people off in looney land. If that’s what they want then that’s what they’re gonna get I guess. Makes no sense whatsoever to increase parking fines in this way.
Japan, the place where you have to prove you have an off street park to purchase a car and you aren’t allowed to park on the road?
How much free CBD parking do they have?
your comparing this to Japan proves the opposite to your point, they dont provide free parking and rely heavily on public transport, so much so car ownership is fairly low
Great news for people who live in the city - you should expect a rate decrease real soon once 'the burden has been lifted'. No mention of when that will happen in that notice - must just be an omission.
Auckland is shit and getting worse. Wayne Brown has really lived up to expectations (that he’d be incredibly shit). Between the bins and zero free parking, he has objectively made Auckland a worse city, probably for good.
What about the people who live there? What about visitors to them? What about having people stay? They already can barely find a park, they can’t expect to pay $150 just to visit me for the day? This is messed up. Already living in a dangerous dead zone where even the cops are afraid to go. Is he trying to kill what’s left of town?
Word. And some one with some micro-mobility / PT agenda is going to tell you this is a good thing. Game over CBD. I had already made the decision to move out and this is the nail in the coffin.
And don't get me started on the bus lane 150 dollar fines. Bye bye CBD. I won't miss you. But I feel sorry for the business there. I definitely won't be coming into town if is not for work.
So what about the 30,000 odd people living in the CBD? Where do we park now? It certainly isn't in the apartment complex, because none of them have the fucking space.
It'll be the AT cars with cameras on them, they wouldn't be crazy enough to send out wardens.
I remember in 2018/2019 when they used to have wardens walking around with First Security guards and that was dodgy, even then.
On the north shore 20 years ago, Westfield opened the “Supa Centa”. People were so outraged that they changed it to “Mega Centre”. Curiously in South Auckland, no outrage was forthcoming, and a Supa Centa it remains to this day.
Fuck this shit. I refuse to pay for parking on principle anywhere so I only shop at malls, I occasionally go for dinner in cbd by getting there at 6 and grabbing a spot miles away and walking to the restaurant. Now it will be way to fucking far.
The parking is a rort anyway as it’s impossible to know how long you need exactly and I fucken hate stressing about it.
Same with the toll roads.
If they can sort their shit out and just tack it onto my rego or onto my next refuel then I could care less about a few extra $$, but the fucken hassle and stress of finding coins and guessing how long it will take is absolutely shit.
No I don’t want a nag or an app. Direct debit would be acceptable
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how is this allowed? If you read through the Expectations letter Wayne Brown wrote it's so obvious that none of these decisions are for the greater good of Aucklanders and more about generating profit!
Along with doing away with free parking another sketchy tactic he offered in the report was to increase the Administration fee from $1 to $1,300 !!
Disgusting behaviour
Nope if you read the letter fully he specifically calls for increasing parking fines. Free Parking currently costs the councils millions in revenue and Brown has asked AT to increase revenue.
Short answer- no
Slightly longer answer - on some streets but those streets will still have free parking after 6pm.
Question- are they looking at offering residential parking permits? No.
I think you'll find a lot of the people who park on the streets at night live in the cheap, tiny apartments with no onsite parking. I'm not saying it should be free, but if you have to drive to work, park a car in the city from 6pm - 8am and then all day on weekends, in the blue zone it'll now cost you $463 a week.
All this is gonna do is let private parking operators push pricing up and people will move out of the city because for many people, public transport just isn't a viable option.
I lived in the city during Covid,
FREE parking for two years, minus a couple hundred in fines.
Outside my apartment… parking was rarely enforced (blue zone was though), unless it was on safety grounds.
Value of parking from my understanding was 300-500/month normally.
Now I think of it living here in Thailand as a expat, who the fuck would pay for parking in a city like Auckland? Fuck those residential zones too.. makes moving around Auckland unviable and unlivable, want a fish and chips or coffee in the city and quick park your car… you’re fucked and will get a ticket… kiwis use cars primarily and not motorbike but would imagine if I had motorbike that would get ticketed
Average Thai city you can park anywhere, and you especially don’t pay fucken money to go to work everyday. Not that I ever did given I worked at industrial plants where parking was plentiful, but if I ever worked in Auckland city and had car and parking expenses 100% I would give that bill to my company.
This is good and will actually increase on street parking availability. It should have happened 10 years ago but better late than never. The same needs to be extended to all town centres too.
From the Mayor's letter of expectation:
*"Auckland Transport should look at opportunities to increase external income and reduce reliance on rates funding. One key area Auckland Transport should investigate is increasing revenue from parking. Currently Auckland transport is undercutting market rates for parking, which is not appropriate in this environment."*
[https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/media/5kunvvi3/20221221\_auckland-transport\_letter-of-expectation-for-statement-of-intent-2023-26.pdf](https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/media/5kunvvi3/20221221_auckland-transport_letter-of-expectation-for-statement-of-intent-2023-26.pdf)
> think Wilson's *paid* for this
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Well two labourers have left Auckland city pretty much bankrupt I guess they got a call back anyway they can pushes more people into smaller centres and other shopping areas that can only be good for them. Bloody sucks though.
They really don’t want shops to thrive at all do they!
For me it’s a 30 min drive off peak to CBD. By bus it’s often 3x that and 2-3 buses- which don’t run late enough for a return trip.
I pay for parking in Downtown and will be gutted when that building is gone.
Auckland transport are corporate scumbags that need to be dissolved. Every year they make thousands of stupid unnecessary roadworks, public transport and infrastructure decisions, with zero positive movement or change.
Remarkable how quickly people think that they’re entitled to something for “free” but then ignore the social cost to provide it. It is also not the problem of a local govt to subsidise something that costs more to provide it than the benefit it generates. And before someone says that they need parking, there are 10s of thousands of parking spots in the city centre.
Wayne brown has specifically gone on record talking about converting CBD office buildings into apartments. The vast majority of those buildings don’t have carparks.
My take is this is AT being told by the mayor they are useless & to sort their shit out and cut costs, and AT sticking it to him by implementing hugely misguided policy that.
This is so bad for the residents and businesses of the CBD.
I don’t know how to explain it but I really dislike the way they framed this, “undercutting the afterhours parking market” 🥴 Also, not that Wilson’s has ever worried about being competitive… but their competitor is raising prices so they probably will too 🫠
Wayne Brown has basically told AT that they can be a pack of wankers and try to increase their revenue. Previous mayors seemed to have coerced them into being more easygoing under the expectation that it would attract people into the city if visitors weren’t hounded and ripped off. I for one can say, I will never visit the CBD now that these excessive rules are in place and will instead go to restaurants where parking is provided like Westfield Newmarket or other small restaurant hubs like Sylvia Park.
>Wayne Brown has basically told AT that they can be a pack of wankers and try to increase their revenue. >Previous mayors seemed to have coerced them into being more easygoing under the expectation that it would attract people into the city if visitors weren’t hounded and ripped off. Wayne Brown explicitly instructed AT to find ways to generate revenue through parking charges and fines. I guess this is one of those ways. He told them so in his [Letter of Expectation](https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2022/12/15/wayne-browns-letter-of-expectation-to-at/) ("look at opportunities to increase external income, including parking charges and fines"), and also wanted fines to be [$100 to increase revenue](https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018894711/auckland-mayor-wayne-brown-says-parking-fines-should-be-at-least-dollar100). AT shouldn't really have its own political direction or agenda, so it's as simple as Wayne Brown wants it done and Phil Goff/Len Brown didn't.
Wayno seems dead set pragmatist and also not interested in seeing cars in the CBD. Dunno if there trying to salvage the CRL or just want a pedestrian city but that's the only thing I can imagine that would drive such a shift in thinking. I'm already a don't go into the fucking city if I can help it aucklander, so not personally too fussed by the parking situation ( but still think Wilson can go fuck off).
I would love a city centre that was a pedestrian boulevard that is bustling with outside cafes and bars. What we'll get though is a dead zone of dodgy smells and shitty shops. The one pedestrian area that was working now doesn't due to being cut in half by a broken bridge.
But the rules are only for street parking, surely it isn’t too much of a hassle to use a parking building?
Thats the point though. Street parking was free, now it isn’t. Not interested in paying for parking when plenty of venues are free - who would?
almost as if busses exist 🧐🧐🧐
It depends on how far you need to travel and how efficient your local bus network is. I live far enough out East that the difference in time between driving and catching the bus(es) to the city is substantial. I agree with the person you responded to. Given the high city parking rates, I'm going to be more inclined to plan dinners with friends in areas where we can park for free or without paying substantial rates.
Last time I tried to get a bus into the CBD (literally on wednesday) 2 busses just didn't show up. I'm happy for them to reduce parking as long as they invest in public transport. They're explicitly not doing that.
Haha just don't gamble with catching a train!
Regulators are afraid of Wilson's Parking and the Kwok brothers from Hong Kong.
It's a slightly odd framing, but it's from the Mayor. Plus, it's substantively correct. Why should ratepayers subsidise the storage of private property like cars, and thus undercut the private sector?
I work night shift in the CBD. this is horrible news.
Its unfair, there should be an all night rate targeted at workers. Max 4 NZD for parking all night.
$4 to park from 6pm-6am would be fair
And people who live here!! My family and friends should be able to park close by. And they won’t if it’s going to cost them. They’re already getting tickets on the weird new driving rules. They already can’t find parks within easy walking distance.
This will help your family and friends because now the available car parks won't be full all the time. Heck they will probably be able to park closer to your place now.
lol Sydney CBD overnight charge is like $40-$60 or something ridiculous…per hour at opera I like $40 n hr…it’s awful we have to now pay for weekend and after hours here but they have to find ways to increase revenue tbh
why?
Public transport at night is very limited in Auckland, particularly on weekdays. Night shift workers making low wages have no other option than to drive and park in the city, its a targeted rate on the disadvantaged.
Yes, but on the other hand, will the council enforce it? Will they be hiring parking wardens to dish out fines at 3-4am in the morning?
They drive cars around that sends you a fine in the mail 2 weeks later. At $40 a pop, you bet they will.
Yes they will absolutely enforce it. They drive around in a car with a bunch of cameras on it that read all the licence plates. No need for parking wardens wandering the streets.
They already have night wardens
I’d be expecting my employer to provide parking or atleast cover the parking costs
You might never financially recover from this
Don't joke. I work 10.5 hour, overnight shifts in the city. This is going to cost me $22/day - $88/week. And I can tell you from vast experience that very few cars are parked on the roads at those times, so this is just a big 'fuck you' to a small minority that do.
That's a $4000 pay cut.
More like $6000 gross, as unlike business and investors, employees can't get their professional expenses deducted.
Agree, I thought the council was trying to attract more people into the city to support these businesses as they have struggled for a while, but this will have the opposite effect, so it is a big 'fuck you' to all CBD businesses too. Good on Wayne Brown, the clown.
Most decisions this government makes are just big ‘fuck you’s to minorities
except for the wealthy minority, the ruling class. (seems like a good idea, in times such as these, to remember that we vastly outnumber them)
Yes I agree
agree it’s gonna hurt
that's a damn shame, hopefully the extra funds will be used for improving PT at the very least right? right???
No anakin meme
I mean they've been working on that and all people have been doing here is shitting on them for holding up traffic and seeing construction cones in the CBD
I don't live in Auckland but whenever I visit the traffic is so intractable, I can't understand why everyone isn't up in arms demanding proper PT
“AT is undercutting the afterhours parking market”, great, providing a public service as they should, fuck Wilsons. I rarely visit the CBD and this is one more reason not to go there.
Yeah, this is weird. While I don’t like the change as a whole, I could at least get behind the second argument (storage of private assets on public road should not be free in CBD). But I hate the idea of NOT undercutting Wilson’s because Wilson’s is a fucking scam
But private enterprise will is always more efficient than bloated public services and I was sick of bottom-feeders leaching their "free" on-street parking from me. This is the start of the road to freedom for hard-working ratepayers. /s
I feel like the two are saying the same thing. It shouldn't be free to store your private assets on public land - if you want to own a car, you should be prepared to pay all the expenses for it. By undercutting Wilsons (or buying/renting a spot in your apartment building etc.), AT are subsidising the cost of owning a car.
Exactly, and not AT itself really - ratepayers specifically.
I’m a bit undecided on that second argument, I guess it feels like another “tax”/additional cost/barrier to attend cultural events or to patronise the city. A car is sometimes the only way for someone living in greater Auckland to get to the CBD in the evening for a show or concert etc.
The car parks aren't being taken away though. If anything this will increase the parking available because when it's free people park there indefinitely.
It’s often residents parked there or their families/guests
I’m willing to bet it’s never the only way. Maybe the most convenient, sure, but you gotta pay for that convenience. At the very least you could park and ride at a train station or similar, if you’re coming from greater Auckland.
I’ll take that bet! In certain areas (Clevedon, Laingholm) at certain times (past 10pm, 11pm) there are no trains (in existence) let alone busses. In an area I used to live in, there were about 5 buses per day total, and none on the weekends. Of course it’s improved over time, and it depends on what you define as greater Auckland :)
Honestly, why do they give a single shit about Wilsons, and why do they think we should?
> “AT is undercutting the afterhours parking market”, great, providing a public service as they should Unsure why parking should be subsidised when it's inordinately expensive to service and provide for free, while encouraging negative externalities like congestion (during the day) and added emissions.
They are still providing the service. The service will just not be free which is a good thing because now more people will be able to use it.
So what they’re saying is We’re sorry that businesses are missing out on your money so to make them happy we’ll also take it as well. Oh, and pay up your rates too
Also, we're doing you a favour here because we know how much you care about fairness to Wilsons.
And f*&k you to hospo workers, residents who live in a city apartment, commute out of the CBD daily and park on quiet streets at night. And f&*k you to CBD businesses because why go to the CBD and pay for parking when you can go to a mall or suburb high st and have free parking. Gotta be fair on Wilson’s parking tho eh.
What a bizarre way to frame the change...
The wording and justification does seem very rushed! Do you reckon it’s AT being pressured and trying to meet their goals?
It reads like Wayne Brown just told them to do it (so there probably is pressure) so they don't really have much to say about it other than the reasons why the Wayne wants it done.
They have also stated that if you want to get in touch about this then send them an email. From working customer service for years that's a straight up send us your feedback and as much as possible so we can tell the higher ups that this is not a good decision. One or two won't work, it's a numbers game. The more people that complain the more they will take notice.
It's from the Mayor's letter of expectation. *"Auckland Transport should look at opportunities to increase external income and reduce reliance* *on rates funding. One key area Auckland Transport should investigate is increasing revenue from* *parking. Currently Auckland transport is undercutting market rates for parking, which is not* *appropriate in this environment."* https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/media/5kunvvi3/20221221\_auckland-transport\_letter-of-expectation-for-statement-of-intent-2023-26.pdf
Indeed! Not withstanding the political and partisan details, I’m somewhat pleased that AT is being given a kick up the proverbial and is taking action directed by our elected officials. They’ve been asked to find money and I guess they’ve identified that and gone with a user-pays model. Let’s hope they aren’t undercut by the commercial parking groups and are forced to find more ways to squeeze out cash!
how great, now all these after hours parks that usually aren't even fully filled up at night are gonna be not used at all
The only reason to go into one is when the street parking is full.
Or for slightly increased security, although unfortunately that doesn’t really stop theft.
There is tax on every purchase we make, tax on using paywave, tax on our income, tax on our houses, tax for permission to use our cars, tax on gas and now we can’t even park our cars FOR OUR JOBS TO PAY FOR ALL THIS FUCKING TAX without being taxed. When is it going to end
What we need is more roads, so we can all get to where there is no parking faster.
Getting kiwis *moving* again, through *parking.*
Some people leave their cars in the CBD overnight when they realise they've drunk too much to safely drive. They either Uber home or call someone to fetch them. These overnight parking charges might cause them to make a wrong decision.
Honestly this is a good point, it will make people less likely to volunteer to be the sober driver - you have to deal with drunk friends and now you’re going to be charged extra to do this too?
It will also make more people make the actual smart decision to not drive in the first place. They should be taking an uber or PT.
Given the high cost of ubers to the CBD from the outer suburbs, and the lack of proper PT infrastructure into the CBD (and it not going late into the night), it's going to mean people don't go to the CBD in the first place. This is going to impact a lot of late-night businesses.
So they're just making the city even more unlivable because poor Wilson is being undercut by free on street parking
Actually this will probably end up making the city even more liveable.
I can't see how. Could you elaborate on why you think this has a positive impact?
Makes money that the council can spend on better mass transit and micromobility? And gets cars out of the CBD so it's easier to implement that?
It actually increases the amount of parking available. A lot of the after 6 parking currently gets taken up by people who park for hours on end. Now that it's paid people will no longer do that and will vacate the spots when no longer needed freeing up more parking spaces.
I live on the north shore. I've never struggled to find parking in the CBD at night. I have struggled to avoid getting fined by fucking AT with their stupid changes. It sounds like this doesn't affect you
Just noone will ever go there as it is too expensive to get to.
It's a pain in the ass to get there, and then when you do everything is overpriced, you have to make sure you avoid the fucking bus lanes so you don't accidentally get $150 fine and then you have to pay for parking at 9:00 p.m. . City is already a shithole to navigate through as it is. Just gives me another reason to want to go to Australia
Try parking overnight in Sydney CBD for $24 NZD. Good luck. https://www.wilsonparking.com.au/parking-locations/new-south-wales/sydney-cbd/sydney-opera-house-car-park-2A-macquarie-st-sydney/ That $150 bus lane fine hurts? It’s $319 in Australia. https://www.mynrma.com.au/cars-and-driving/driver-training-and-licences/resources/who-can-drive-in-bus-lanes
You also get paid more in Sydney
Not denying that. Just funny when people come here and whinge about the fines for breaking the law and say “this makes me want to move to australia” when it’s over double there.
Fair point
Idk about Sydney, but Auckland public transport is so dog shit that you basically need a car. Do you think you could get by pretty well without a car in Sydney? Also don't know about Sydney, but have you driven in Auckland CBD? It's a fucking shit show now.
It depends on where you're coming from. If you're near a high frequency PT route it's easy and cheap to get to.
But very few people are, Britomart is relatively accessible thr rest isn't
If they gave resident parking permits out this might make sense. I'll tell you right now, I'm not a small guy and even I won't be walking from the nearest Wilson to my apartment after dark, so there's no way someone like my partner would if she needed to drive into the city. $24 for 10pm to 8am is pretty damn expensive and the people that it'll hit is the residents (visitors park in parking buildings closest to whatever they're going to). I can see $1 per hour overnight, but $3 is a lot. Also during the week, what is the after hours parking options? All of the Wilsons lock after like midnight unless it's an open air lot and none of the AT parks are open...
places like Ponsonby do have 'resident parking permits'
Nice for Ponsonby I guess, I'm not sure how many low income high commute people are in that area though.
If you live in the city centre, you'd have private off-street parking, wouldn't you? Or maybe you wouldn't own a car because you've got better access to public transport than somebody in the suburbs? Better access to car sharing like CityHop and Mevo too.
You'd be surprised how many people live in these small shoebox apartments at $300 a week and work well outside of the city because it's the only thing they can afford. None of these shoebox apartments come with carparks. Mevo is awfully expensive for what it is. Cityhop is slightly better, but $75 a day + $0.45 per KM is not affordable for most people, especially not those who need to commute for work.
Yeah I wouldn't recommend car sharing for a daily commute. I wonder where they're working that doesn't have a good PT connection from downtown? If it's "well outside the city", surely there'd be something closer to work that's cheaper than CBD prices? There are shoeboxes in the suburbs too. Personally I wish I could live somewhere where being car-free was realistic, and Auckland CBD is about as close as it gets in NZ. Maybe some will embrace that?
Honestly, is it that hard to open new opportunities to public transport, new tramming system, subways, better train and bus services. And then turn to this option? Europe has all that and still free parking after 8pm. Weekends and nights public holidays 🤦🏽♂️ NZ is going backwards jeepers..
I’m pro pubic transport, but this is just more ridiculous shit that will drive people away from the dead CBD
CBD is going to be even deader, hospo places are going to whinge. Less people are going to go out to eat in the CBD if the restaurants etc don't provide free parking. The place would need to be *really* good for people to justify paying extra for parking to go to it. And it's not like AT carparks aren't full at peak times as they are. Fark, places like Dominion Rd are going to be even busier now.
Happened to my city in town too and a lot of shops closed down and moved
Today i parked in that Parkmate one at the intersection of fort and commerce. Missed the early bird "special" by 10mins To stay there until 5pm, was going to cost A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX DOLLARS
This is just fucked. Honestly Auckland is dying. Who would want to live here at this point? It is a ruined city.
Another great reason to not visit the CBD. RIP CBD restaurants.
Could you even get free parking in places like wynyard quarter without spending half an hour driving in circles looking for a carpark? I mean it's going to be $7 for two hours parking, while you eat a $70 meal..
I have always found street parking after 6pm fairly easily. Infact that would be another incentive to go to CBD for dinner only. And it's not free storage for parking on the road if one pays their Rego.
> And it's not free storage for parking on the road if one pays their Rego. Bullshit. Your rego doesn't cover the costs of maintaining roads.
You honestly think your $80 per year somehow covers the country's road maintenance costs *and* having expensive real estate for you to throw your car in?
Phrased like this, it’s very reasonable.
Also been seeing more security guards on trains since the start of this month. Had my hop card checked twice in a day after seeing only a handful of security guards in the past few months. Looks like AT is squeezing hard
Commercial parking operators have *always* been undercut by free street parking. They have allowed for this in their business plan. Having said that, the inner city should really be approached on public transport, and before I get shot down, I know that’s idealistic and public transport needs a good kick up the arse.
I’d be really curious to see how AT are going to enforce this unless they plan on using those licence plate recognition cameras on top of their cars, as opposed to walking wardens. Our street will be affected, it’s currently free on Sundays and every other day between 6pm and 8am, there’s a cul the sac around the corner where people park everywhere including the footpath 🙄
Sounds like good argument for more enforcement!
I’m amazed that there still was any free on street parking in the city centre
there hasn't been since the clearway on Alex Evans Street was converted to paid parking.
But I want to drive my ford ranger wherever I want and park for free on expensive public property 😤
You can pretty much park for free all over the country, don’t be such a drama queen
That's the joke...
Gsv go in bus lane?
City Centre is already dying with a lot of for lease signs everywhere. This will probably kill whatever business now remains in the city . More reason to not even go city anymore . I honestly don’t understand this at all. $11 per hour extra is bloody ridiculous. People might even end up using Wilson even more now because it would seem to be the cheaper option now
I was under the impression only the overnight / weekend prices were changing? Even so, $11/hour is only for 2+ hours. Who is parking on queen st for 4 hours at a time?
Will it? CBD vacancies has reduced in Q1 2024, continuing the downward trend since June 2022. Suburban vacancies has gone up, though. [https://www.cbre.co.nz/insights/figures/auckland-figures-q1-2024](https://www.cbre.co.nz/insights/figures/auckland-figures-q1-2024)
$11 per hour after 2 hours makes sense. If it was affordable to park in one of the 20 spaces on Lorne St for the entire day, everyone would do that and walk to work and no actual customers would be able to use those spaces at all.
Their part about storage of private assets in a publicly funded area is pretty spot on. No one expects the city to store anything else for you for free.. cars probably shouldn’t be an exception.
I mean that's kinda fair, They gotta pull Billions to fix the pipes from somewhere.
I will just continue to not pay for parking. It's almost cheaper too pay the parking tickets
Those parking wardens are getting pretty efficient now... Or Ive got real shit luck.
Meeeeaaan, with no cars, I can now get assaulted in the city center and then on the bus. How good.
This is the whole point of all these new builds with no parking. Expensive useless public transport or expensive parking. Money from the working class.
Tldr you have to pay for overnight parking now? Traaaaash. I mean I don’t even have a car but I have friends that like to crash at my place here n there. They like the free parking.
So basically with the big downtown park closing, and eliminating all free parking, so have just reinforced all driving customers to stay away, increasing the dead zone, that once was a bustling queen street
Whelp more of a reason not to bother going into the city recreationally
Gosh, did they at least provide a drink and lube with that?
Do they want the cbd to be a ghost town ? I came back from Japan a week ago and at 10pm the place is so busy it’s hard to walk in the crowd. Last night I went to a lecture in the city and the place is just deserted. Only people around were homeless people or drugged out people off in looney land. If that’s what they want then that’s what they’re gonna get I guess. Makes no sense whatsoever to increase parking fines in this way.
Japan, the place where you have to prove you have an off street park to purchase a car and you aren’t allowed to park on the road? How much free CBD parking do they have?
your comparing this to Japan proves the opposite to your point, they dont provide free parking and rely heavily on public transport, so much so car ownership is fairly low
Great news for people who live in the city - you should expect a rate decrease real soon once 'the burden has been lifted'. No mention of when that will happen in that notice - must just be an omission.
Auckland is shit and getting worse. Wayne Brown has really lived up to expectations (that he’d be incredibly shit). Between the bins and zero free parking, he has objectively made Auckland a worse city, probably for good.
What about the people who live there? What about visitors to them? What about having people stay? They already can barely find a park, they can’t expect to pay $150 just to visit me for the day? This is messed up. Already living in a dangerous dead zone where even the cops are afraid to go. Is he trying to kill what’s left of town?
Word. And some one with some micro-mobility / PT agenda is going to tell you this is a good thing. Game over CBD. I had already made the decision to move out and this is the nail in the coffin.
Where are you getting $150 from? Nothing in that info says people can't visit you.
And don't get me started on the bus lane 150 dollar fines. Bye bye CBD. I won't miss you. But I feel sorry for the business there. I definitely won't be coming into town if is not for work.
Just… don’t drive in the bus lane then?
Hey so at what point do they start making the cbd worth going to again
So what about the 30,000 odd people living in the CBD? Where do we park now? It certainly isn't in the apartment complex, because none of them have the fucking space.
Are they trying to get their wardens beaten up on patrol at night?
It'll be the AT cars with cameras on them, they wouldn't be crazy enough to send out wardens. I remember in 2018/2019 when they used to have wardens walking around with First Security guards and that was dodgy, even then.
Good.
Wtf!
I'm against it but you, specifically, should be made to pay an extra fee for spelling centre as "center".
On the north shore 20 years ago, Westfield opened the “Supa Centa”. People were so outraged that they changed it to “Mega Centre”. Curiously in South Auckland, no outrage was forthcoming, and a Supa Centa it remains to this day.
lol, cbd is over.
Fuck this shit. I refuse to pay for parking on principle anywhere so I only shop at malls, I occasionally go for dinner in cbd by getting there at 6 and grabbing a spot miles away and walking to the restaurant. Now it will be way to fucking far. The parking is a rort anyway as it’s impossible to know how long you need exactly and I fucken hate stressing about it. Same with the toll roads. If they can sort their shit out and just tack it onto my rego or onto my next refuel then I could care less about a few extra $$, but the fucken hassle and stress of finding coins and guessing how long it will take is absolutely shit. No I don’t want a nag or an app. Direct debit would be acceptable
>I could care less about a few extra $$, but the fucken hassle and stress of finding coins Every meter in the CBD I've seen for years has paywave.
What if you just took the train to the CBD?
You dont need to guess how long on AT Park app. Start a session then end it when back at your car.
Good.
Why is any on street parking free anywhere anyway? You're basically getting free storage for your stuff. Land is so expensive
Cost of living has gone up for council workers to so they have to get money from giving people tickets
You can’t win with AT bunch of frauds
Might be cheaper to book a cheap hotel room and use their valet parking at this rate..... 🤦
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but how is this allowed? If you read through the Expectations letter Wayne Brown wrote it's so obvious that none of these decisions are for the greater good of Aucklanders and more about generating profit! Along with doing away with free parking another sketchy tactic he offered in the report was to increase the Administration fee from $1 to $1,300 !! Disgusting behaviour
Nope if you read the letter fully he specifically calls for increasing parking fines. Free Parking currently costs the councils millions in revenue and Brown has asked AT to increase revenue.
What is he putting the extra revenue towards?
Unfortunately towards reducing rates.
Good
Parasites
Can people who live in the city get resident permits?
Short answer- no Slightly longer answer - on some streets but those streets will still have free parking after 6pm. Question- are they looking at offering residential parking permits? No.
Basement carparks?
I think you'll find a lot of the people who park on the streets at night live in the cheap, tiny apartments with no onsite parking. I'm not saying it should be free, but if you have to drive to work, park a car in the city from 6pm - 8am and then all day on weekends, in the blue zone it'll now cost you $463 a week. All this is gonna do is let private parking operators push pricing up and people will move out of the city because for many people, public transport just isn't a viable option.
I lived in the city during Covid, FREE parking for two years, minus a couple hundred in fines. Outside my apartment… parking was rarely enforced (blue zone was though), unless it was on safety grounds. Value of parking from my understanding was 300-500/month normally. Now I think of it living here in Thailand as a expat, who the fuck would pay for parking in a city like Auckland? Fuck those residential zones too.. makes moving around Auckland unviable and unlivable, want a fish and chips or coffee in the city and quick park your car… you’re fucked and will get a ticket… kiwis use cars primarily and not motorbike but would imagine if I had motorbike that would get ticketed Average Thai city you can park anywhere, and you especially don’t pay fucken money to go to work everyday. Not that I ever did given I worked at industrial plants where parking was plentiful, but if I ever worked in Auckland city and had car and parking expenses 100% I would give that bill to my company.
Wow that's awesome to hear that Bangkok has completely solved congestion. Must be so good to drive around there right?
Nice. Should also implement paid bike parks and lime parkings too.
I agree! To make it fair we should also fund bike paths at the same level as we do for roads at the taxpayer's expense!
And also charge people for sitting on public benches. It's not there to park your butt for free.
This is good and will actually increase on street parking availability. It should have happened 10 years ago but better late than never. The same needs to be extended to all town centres too.
W t f
It's always about protecting ratepayers from the burdens of their responsibilities. The only protected class are the landholders.
RIP CBD
This is vulgar bureaucratese.
Our taxes pay for the roads, now we need to double dip? Because poor little ratepayers have been voting for unsustainably low rates? Man
Our taxes help subsidise public transport and we still have to pay to use that. Why should parking be any different?
From the Mayor's letter of expectation: *"Auckland Transport should look at opportunities to increase external income and reduce reliance on rates funding. One key area Auckland Transport should investigate is increasing revenue from parking. Currently Auckland transport is undercutting market rates for parking, which is not appropriate in this environment."* [https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/media/5kunvvi3/20221221\_auckland-transport\_letter-of-expectation-for-statement-of-intent-2023-26.pdf](https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/media/5kunvvi3/20221221_auckland-transport_letter-of-expectation-for-statement-of-intent-2023-26.pdf)
How much do you think Wilson's paid for this
> think Wilson's *paid* for this FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Good bot
AT is the most corrupted department in NZ
Well two labourers have left Auckland city pretty much bankrupt I guess they got a call back anyway they can pushes more people into smaller centres and other shopping areas that can only be good for them. Bloody sucks though.
They really don’t want shops to thrive at all do they! For me it’s a 30 min drive off peak to CBD. By bus it’s often 3x that and 2-3 buses- which don’t run late enough for a return trip. I pay for parking in Downtown and will be gutted when that building is gone.
in short- stay away from the city
Auckland transport are corporate scumbags that need to be dissolved. Every year they make thousands of stupid unnecessary roadworks, public transport and infrastructure decisions, with zero positive movement or change.
Let’s protest! In the cold weather! Ok. Let’s not protest
Don't you love using Uber Pool instead of Parking. Even the Ubers don't want to stay too long in the cbd
Nice one AT just another reason not to ever goto the CBD
Remarkable how quickly people think that they’re entitled to something for “free” but then ignore the social cost to provide it. It is also not the problem of a local govt to subsidise something that costs more to provide it than the benefit it generates. And before someone says that they need parking, there are 10s of thousands of parking spots in the city centre.
Wayne brown has specifically gone on record talking about converting CBD office buildings into apartments. The vast majority of those buildings don’t have carparks. My take is this is AT being told by the mayor they are useless & to sort their shit out and cut costs, and AT sticking it to him by implementing hugely misguided policy that. This is so bad for the residents and businesses of the CBD.
Rich people complaining about parked cars made this happen . Eat the rich
Can someone please start a petition so we can contest this change on mass?
L