Bathurst Regional Council’s latest car parking usage survey in the central business district has revealed more people are utilising the city’s off-street parking areas.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Council staff undertook the survey of on and off-street parking in late 2016.
It acts as a follow-up to the similar examinations conducted by council in 2013 and 2015 regarding the supply, and future demand of, car parking in the CBD.
The data collected by council in 2016 has been collated with the 2009-10 and 2014-15 data to illustrate some of the trends in car parking usage.
According to a report to council, there has been no major changes in utilisation rates for Howick, Keppel and Rankin streets.
There has been a decrease in utilisation rates for Church, Russell and Bentinck streets.
Meanwhile, George Street, William Street between Durham and Elizabeth streets and Keppel Street between Rankin and George streets have had increased usage.
The usages rates of off-street car parks ranged from 50 per cent to 92 per cent in 2016, up from 27 per cent to 84 per cent in 2010.
The data collected also revealed that several car parks often had vacancies available, including the Elizabeth Street and library off-street car parks and within the four shopping centres, however these are timed.
A vacancy rate of around 83 per cent was determined for the George Street car park, behind Bathurst RSL, which council may review at a later date.
“An observation during the survey was that there were more vacant spaces within the timed areas of the car park than the all day parking, suggesting that a review of parking restrictions may be warranted, particularly since Clancy Motors have vacated their Howick Street site,” the report to council said.
The data from the 2016 survey will be used to inform a future car parking strategy and a Bathurst CBD Integrated Transport Plan.
Council will continue to monitor the car parking resources in Bathurst’s CBD annually.
