On 14 March 2011, Labor Councillors and two independent Councillors (total 8 out of 15) voted to reinstate car parking restrictions for the Parramatta City Centre. These unreasonable car parking restriction were first introduced in August 1999, and has been in effect for over 10 years, through the law called Sydney Regional Environmental Plan No. 28, and reintroduced via the newer law called the Parramatta City Centre Local Environmental Plan 2007. And there has not been sufficient political willpower to overcome the shortsightedness of this car parking restriction.

Prior to August 1999 (some 12 years ago), the genesis of the car parking restrictions is on the presumption that there would be more public transport options in order to carry people in and out of the Parramatta CBD, and to transforming commuters from then 60% of people using private vehicles, to 60% using public transport. However, in reality especially between the years 1999 and 2011, there has not been sufficient positive evidence of public transport upgrades to support that presumption, with approximately 60% of commuters in 2011 still using private vehicles.

The reality is that until there is significant uplift of viable public transport services between the Parramatta City Centre and Parramatta workers’ and visitors' homes, especially where rail links do not exist, commuters will continue to rely on their private vehicles instead of public transport. Especially from a convenience, security and time-poor perspective, private vehicles still present the most attractive transport options for Parramatta's workers and visitors.

In the meantime, while we wait for such real and affordable public transport alternatives to materialise, we should implement some interim measures. Two comes to mind.

First is the temporary suspension of the car parking restrictions for the Parramatta City Centre. This will address the pent up and latent demand for more car parking capacity particularly for the Parramatta CBD. And should we be more precise, we could suspend this car parking restrictions to encourage more car parking capacity primarily along the perimeter of the Parramatta CBD where the major arterial roads are. This will also help address the concerns about internal traffic congestions and now adding to them.

Secondly, Parramatta CBD alone has 4,351 car parking spaces under direct Parramatta City Council control (see list below). Many of which are on sites that are prime commercial land that should be used for other purposes than exclusively car parking. Parramatta City Council should be leveraging this to develop even more car parking capacity along the perimeter of the Parramatta CBD, dovetail those new car parking stations with the Free Parramatta Shuttle Buses (more popularly called "The Loop"), and we should then get a superior transport solution that mirrors authentically with Perth’s wildly famous and popular CATS buses and car parking stations.

To simply vote to reinstate car parking restrictions for the Parramatta City Centre is not only unhelpful, but also betrays the public trust in us to find solutions to make it just that bit easier for people to get to work and return home safely, easily, cheaply, quickly and without bother. It is bad enough that Parramatta City Council still has parking meters that now generate pure profits/surpluses in the millions of dollars. And while new public amenities are being produced from those profits/surpluses, that is not what the public is asking for ultimately.

And let's be honest. We Australians love our cars. And although petrol prices are heading towards $2 per litre (or $3,000 per year in petrol alone), more and more cars near the $10,000 price mark are heading to our shores especially from China and India. Considering Korean cars improved markedly in a short number of years, China's and India's will be equally if not more competitive and impressive. Australia is also seriously examining electric cars as alternatives to the reliance of expensive petrol based transport.

So, unless governments can provide us with persuasive alternatives to moving us to and from work without our cars, cars are here to stay and we need solutions for our cars too.

External Links:

1. Copy of 2009 and 2010 letters from Urban Taskforce Australia opposing Parramatta's car parking restrictions

2. Click here for Parramatta City Council's report of 14 March 2011

List of Parramatta City Council's car parks in its CBD:

1. Lennox Bridge car park (84 spaces)

2. David Frater Reserve car park (50 spaces)

3. Brandsmart car park (535 spaces)

4. Leabeater car spaces (39 spaces)

5. Civic Place car spaces (80 spaces)

6. Fennell Street car park (126 spaces)

7. Erby Place car park (559 spaces)

8. Horwood Place car park (780 spaces)

9. Hunter Street car park (550 spaces)

10. Macquarie Street car park (197 spaces)

11. Wentworth Street car park (1163 spaces)

12. Valentine Avenue car park (188 spaces)