Cairns Central to charge $15 a day to park
MOTORISTS may have to get used to walking from the outskirts of the CBD as about 10,000 daily commuters try to fit into 9500 CBD street parking spaces.
It comes as Cairns Central Shopping Centre will charge $15 a day for people to park from September 14, or between $1-$12 after the first two hours.
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People with movie tickets will not pay for a longer unconfirmed period.
Cairns Regional Council says it will put out a tender for an investigation into a new parking strategy as population forecasts show Cairns will have 222,000 people by 2031.
But a plan to fix the chaos and congestion will not be known until next year. The strategy could include extending the CBD’s limits and adding more parking spaces but the demand for a new car parking centre would also be investigated.
Councillors have said the extra $500,000 motorists will contribute each year caused by a rise in parking meter fees would help fund a centre. However, no location has been announced.
About 400 extra cars, which use Cairns Central for daily parking, are expected to move on to the streets by mid September.
The council’s asset management co-ordinator for infrastructure management, Graeme Offer, said the review of parking spaces would extend past the Cairns Base Hospital, down Charles St, along Sheridan St and on to Water St.
He said the streets would be included in the study because the CBD had extended over the years.
A survey conducted in 1998 showed the average occupancy of CBD parking spaces was 73 per cent but this jumped to 83 per cent in 2007.
The CBD has 3100 on-street parking bays, both metered and free, 360 on-street special zones, 200 on-street motorcycle parking bays and more than 1000 parking spaces in the council’s off-street car parking stations.
There are believed to be more than 5000 private parking spaces within the CBD.
Cairns and Far North Environment Centre’s Steve Ryan said the council must invest in light rail, trams or a dedicated bus network instead of trying to fix congestion by building more parking spaces.
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Limited spaces: Parking in Cairns is getting tighter.
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