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Parking Enforcement in Yarra

Sat, 2008-10-18 21:51 — Ian Quick

Parking enforcement Statistics - look up your street! Click here

Parking enforcement is one of the most significant resident issues in Yarra. Unlike visitors, residents want effective enforcement of parking restrictions!

Unfortunately, parking enforcement in Yarra is run as a revenue-raising exercise, not one of trying to maximise compliance with parking restrictions.

On multiple occasions over the years, Yarra Council has explained to me that they don't want to do 'strict' enforcement. They argue that if people obey restrictions, revenue falls. No, I'm not joking!

Compare this to other councils. In many you have a high chance of (correctly) getting a ticket if you slightly overstay the limit, or park where you shouldn't. Not in Yarra!

What do we need to do? My best summary is this paper, submitted in 2004 to Yarra Council.

Enforcement Plan
Parking enforcement is one of the key areas of parking management for the City of Yarra. However, it is an area that has no clear public policy, and is an area that concerns and frustrates residents.

We need to –

  1. Develop a comprehensive enforcement policy document, that details objectives, strategies and processes used in enforcing parking restrictions in Yarra.
  2. Review the implementation of the enforcement function, including methodologies, funding, signage, and effectiveness relative to other councils and global practice.
  3. Develop ongoing monitoring tools and reporting.
  4. Implement any recommendations generated from the above.

For the policy, it needs to contain at least –

  1. Clear policy objectives of maximising compliance and/or revenue.
  2. A complete description of all parts of the enforcement process and implementation, including low level details such as
    • Detailing what we can and cannot enforce.
    • When and when not to issue infringements, and the process for having them withdrawn. Also implementation details need to be included such as –
      1. If a permit sticker needs to be displayed, or whether having one in the enforcement database is sufficient.
      2. How permit zones are managed at boundaries, including tolerances within adjoining zones.
      3. etc
  3. How the mix of enforcing major versus smaller streets is managed.
  4. Etc …

The review should include –

  1. Reviewing the ways we do enforcement compared to other councils, both locally and internationally

    For example, other councils have officers on trikes, quads, or in vans – with a long stick with chalk on the end – in order to put chalk marks on parked car tyres quickly. (Note: I have received feedback that this is considered unsafe in Yarra. I'm not sure why given I have seen this done in much larger, more crowded cities. However, surely there are other ways we can improve what we are doing?)

  2. Review how signs are used and their effectiveness e.g. distance between signs, size etc.
  3. Rank parking implementation measures relative to how effectively they can be enforced e.g one hour, two hour, meters, permit only etc.
  4. Review the range of enforcement activities e.g. clearways, cars over driveways, other illegally parked cars, overstaying times etc.
  5. Identify any State government changes required to strengthen the role of council in the enforcement process i.e. –
    • Council's ability to set fines,
    • Tow away cars blocking driveways etc.
    • Examine the management of bad debts, and any options i.e. refuse parking permits for those with unpaid fines? Do we have any options for people who do not live in Yarra versus those that do? Could we do reciprocal agreements with other councils? Etc.
    • Compare Yarra's parking enforcement resources with other inner city councils.

Ongoing monitoring should include –

  1. Reviewing ways of measuring the effectiveness of the enforcement process, and to understand what is happening i.e. if the number of infringements issued drops, it should be clear if this is due to a) a change in enforcement practice; b) higher compliance; or c) something else.
  2. Providing resident accessibility to enforcement information i.e. details of enforcement activity in their street.
  3. Regular reporting to council on enforcement activity.