New Parking System Starts to be Rolled Out

Preparations have begun for a new car parking system that will go live in New Plymouth city in November.

Work has started today (Monday) on mounting solar-powered zone controllers on streetlight poles, which will take about a fortnight to finish.

Small dome-shaped sensors will be placed within every metered and time-limited parking space in the city from the middle of next month.

“People will see these items being installed during the next several weeks but the system won’t go live until the middle of November – the existing meters will continue to be used in the interim,” says Manager Customer and Regulatory Services Simon Pickford.

The pay by space system, which enables payment by mobile phone and credit card as well as cash, was previously trialled at the Wind Wand Car Park. Mr Pickford says the Council received positive feedback about it from the public, who particularly liked being able to pay for their parking space without having to return to their vehicle to display a ticket on the dashboard.

“With this system you pay for the parking space and then walk away. And if you don’t have coins on you, you can pay for your parking with your phone or credit card.”

Fees and existing time limits will remain the same. Super Gold Card users will continue to have free parking until 11am every day, and the NPDC’s usual grace period after a meter’s expiry will remain in place.

The new pay by space system will enable parking officers to use real-time data to know when a parking space has not been paid for or when a vehicle has overstayed.

“Our parking officers will be able to work more efficiently and we’ll get better turnover of parking spaces – which is good news for businesses who don’t want nearby parking spaces blocked by overstayers and for people who want to find an available car park,” says Mr Pickford.

“We’ll also be able to properly monitor time-limited spaces outside the CBD, such as in Westown, Fitzroy and Moturoa and in residential streets on the CBD’s periphery.

“Once everything is operating we’ll look at how to develop the system further to bring more benefits to the public, such as by providing a smartphone app which shows in real time the available car parks in the city.”

The Council will prepare an education campaign before the pay by space system goes live, to bring the public up to speed on how to use the new parking machines. “They aren’t complicated, but there is always a learning curve when introducing any new machinery,” he says.