FREE parking comes at a high cost.
People have been complaining about the availability of car parking in Newcastle since cars became a thing. In 1949, an editorial in The Newcastle Sun reflected a view that has been echoed every day by private vehicle users in Newcastle for over 70 years:
"In this day and age it is strange, to say the least, that in a city the size of Newcastle there is not enough room to use motor cars for business except at great inconvenience or the risk of substantial penalties...
"It is true that any adequate scheme in Newcastle would be costly but against that must be set the increasing cost, not only of fines and traffic policing, but of wasted time, the slowing up of business and civic confusion.
"The motor car will have its way." ("Newcastle's Car Parking Headache", 21/1/49).
The letters page of the Newcastle Herald has contained correspondence regarding the difficulty of finding convenient parking in the city for as long as anyone can remember, even well before, as correspondent Paul Murphy wrote last week, (B)y my calculations, we have lost around 1345 parking spaces in the city area... ("We can't park issue of car access", Letters, 1/3).
Mr Murphy was concurring with Ross Edmonds of Waratah, who wrote there rarely is one within a kilometre of where I want to go ("Parking is getting worse in the CBD, not better", Letters 27/2).
I wonder if Mr Edmonds means there is no unrestricted parking without a fee within a kilometre of where he wants to go. Because on most weekdays and even on weekends, there is little difficulty in securing a car park in the CBD between 9am-5pm within a kilometre of anywhere in the city.
While the parking is available, it is restricted in that it is both time-limited and requires the payment of a fee. That which is not restricted is gobbled up by city workers, often by 6.30am on weekdays.
Removal of all unrestricted parking within 1km of the CBD would help address Mr Edmond's problem. It would free up many hundreds of car parks.
The introduction of restricted car parking in King Edward (Car) Park has had immediate results for the park, with drivers of personal chariots being restricted to four hours. But they have spilled out onto nearby streets without restrictions.
Parking around The Hill in unrestricted areas is gone by 6.30am - much of it to construction workers who for the past eight years have been reshaping the former CBD with apartments.
I shun the use of the word free when discussing parking that does not require drivers to pay at the time of use.
Free creates a sense of entitlement, an expectation of immediate and convenient parking availability and a FOMO (fear of missing out) that is hardwired into Novacastrian DNA, as is complaining loudly and often about parking availability.
There must be a fee attached to discourage all day use by workers and encourage turnover for people to have a coffee or go for a walk or a swim or whatever.
A fee of four dollars an hour, with the first 15 minutes available at no charge when one uses the EasyPark app, seems to upset people.
The ongoing perception of parking being a problem in the city is partly fed by CoN providing any parking at all without cost to the user within a kilometre of the city between the hours of 9am-5pm on weekdays.
Drivers will seek out free parking as long as it exists, and if that means circling and circling and bypassing paid parking stations or on-street parking they will continue to do so.
Only persons with disabilities should be provided with unrestricted parking in the CBD.
While the hand wringing and bleating about car parking in the CBD is unlikely to cease any time soon, there are those who do not share the view of Mr Edmonds about parking in the CBD.
Responding to Mr Edmond's letter in the comments, Timothy Wills wrote: "I am not happy with many of the actions made by NCC, but I have to say that I almost never have a problem finding a park spot in any part of the CBD. I usually have to pay for the spot, but with the Easypay App, that is not a problem".
Touche.
Perhaps the motor car will not always have its way in Newcastle, but I doubt anyone will hold their breath waiting for that time.
