Urban Decay?

Australian cities all seem to be putting strict parking policies in place to reduce the number of vehicles in the urban centers.

Perth, the capital and largest city of Western Australia, is taking proactive measures to avoid congestion that does not even exist yet by enacting restrictive parking policies.

"Perth parking policy is aimed at reducing vehicles in the Perth Central Business District (CBD)," says Joe Lenzo, Executive Director, Western Australia, Property Council of Australia. "The key factor is to minimize forecast congestion - there is no real congestion currently."

"The main mechanism being used to reduce parking is a private and public car bay license fee - currently AU$586 per bay per annum," he continues.

This amount is the result of a 165% increase over the previous license fee, imposed last year.

"There is strong opposition to this levy as it penalizes city workers and shoppers," Lenzo says. "The Property Council in our latest pre-budget submission has called on the government to abolish the Perth Parking Levy. It has done nothing to reduce congestion only made parking more expensive."

"Some 110,000 workers commute to the CBD each day," he adds. "The frustration for CBD workers and businesses is that the parking levy will not improve access to and from the CBD. In other words, the levy is a straight tax grab on a trapped group of tax payers."

Lenzo also sees long-term negative impacts of these policies that, ironically, could impact the economic viability of Perth and other cities.

"The cost of parking in Perth and other Australian Capital cities has become one of the top considerations by companies in choosing their office location," Lenzo points out. "A number of companies have moved out of the Perth CBD, citing cost and lack of parking as one of the key reasons to move."

If the businesses make a mass migration out of Australia's urban CBDs, cities like Perth might not have to worry about congestion, because there may be no reason to go downtown anymore.