PARKING CARS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 128, 28 February 1928, Page 11

PARKING CARS

A GROWING PROBLEM JVHY SHOULD SPACE BE FREE?

(By

H.P.).

In every progressive city of the world where the motor-car has asserted itself as the popular means of transit the problem of finding sufficient space out of the way of traffic for the parking of cars has obtruded, and nowhere, as far as is known, has it been satisfactorily settled. Wellington has no great traffic problem yet as compared with the larger centres. Anyone coming either from the east—say, San Francisco and Los Angeles—or the west, say, Sydney or Melbourne —will agree that this city is only at the beginning of its troubles, and yet those who perhaps have not seen larger cities insist that Wellington’s traffic is congested. By comparison it is nothing of the sort. Yet even now a good deal of difficulty is being experienced in finding sufficient reasonably safe space in the city to serve those who wish to park their cars, either for a few minutes or for hours.

Wellington car-owners may account themselves fortunate in some respects. In the first place, the number of parking places provided for the public is fairly liberal in view of the comparatively few mid-city streets not subjected to heavy traffic, and the width of such streets; secondly, car-owners do not have to pay for the privilege of parking their cars, which is quite the ordinary thing in many English and American cities. In London, I understand, there are no such charges, save where the parking ground is a private one, but in Exeter and Plymouth a charge of 6d. is made for the privilege, and the time limit is one hour. There is a uniformed officer in attendance at the central parking place at Exeter (not far from the famous cathedral), who gives each person a check slip from his book on the payment of the charge. This means that not only has the owner an established right to park his car, but the officer supervises or guards the whole of the parking place, and prevents petty theft or anything in the form of “car-lifting.’’ There are certain parking places in mid-Wellington, where cars are parked the whole day long, chiefly by . business people, occupying a good third of the width of the road. Surely the privilege of having tomewhere to park in safety would be worth a small sum a day—money that could be ear-marked for the improvement of roads. Between the Thorndon Railway Station and the Basin Reserve there are parking places for some 950 cars, but the trouble is that there are between 3000 and 4000 cars that, want parking space, and cannot find it in the areas officially designated. As a matter of strict by-law "any car-owner can park his car on either side of any street, save those thoroughfares traversed by the city tramways. The by-law was passed by accident or inadvertence, as the right to park on any side of any street conduces to danger in many of our narrow streets. But such is the by-law at present. It may . not. exist much longer as the city solicitor is engaged on the consolidation of the whole of the city by-laws—a work of considerable magnitude—and it is not likely that this blunder will be perpetuated in view of the rapid growth of motor traffic. One of the most extraordinary sights to be seen in Wellington is in the neighbourhood of the De Luxe Theatre at 8 o’clock on a Saturday night. Not only are the legalised parking places in Clyde Quay' and Cambridge Terrace fully occupied, but the cars of the theatre patrons line both sides of Majoribanks Street up as far as Brougham Street, and have now invaded Roxburgh Street, much to the annoyance of its residents. This is an instance where all the legal parking space imaginable would not be sufficient, for in time there might be three or four other theatres in the locality, just as large as the De Luxe and just as popular on a Saturday night. What, then, is to be done with the cars ? In some cities great buildings, with ramped ways extending from floor to floor, are being used as parking places, car-owners paying so much per week or per month to use the place as they like, but this is not altogether satisfactory, as it takes some little time to negotiate a car up and down five or six flights daily. Probably there is no lasting solution to the problem. It is just one of those things which have to be dealt with from day to day as efficiently as possible under the circumstances then existing.