In today’s Brisbane daily mX Newspaper Torny Jensen wrote the following article about the costs of parking – and how Brisbanites, particularly in the CBD area, are searching for parking alternatives such as those offered by SpaceOut.
Workers on park avenue
Fed-up city workers are ditching expensive CBD carparks for cheaper backyard spots.
Brisbane was ranked as the seventh moist expensive city in the world for parking in the most recent Colliers International Global CBD Parking Rate survey, with motorists having to pay a median monthly cost of $596 for parking.
The survey found Brisbanites were spending more on their parking than those living in Tokyo or New York.
But a local website is revolutionising city parking by matching desperate motorists with inner-city tenants who have room to spare in carparks backyards and garages.
SpaceOut.com.au advertises private car spaces for rent, and places ads for commuters hoping to find cheap car parks close to their work.
This morning the site offered an undercover parking space in South Brisbane for $50 a week or $160 a month
Meanwhile a space with double-swipe security protection at Spring Hill was being advertised for the bargain price of #240 a month.
Spaceout’s Andy Henderson said many private carpark providers were inner-city residents who lived and socialised in the city and chose not to have a car.
“We’re getting a lot more inner-city accommodation, and a lot of those, for example are being filled by foreign students who don’t have a car.” he said.
“They see this as an opportunity to subsidise their rent.“
I was absolutely disgusted by the treatment I received at Secure Parking’s Roma Street car park today. Although I park there every day on Early Bird, I won’t be going back. I misplaced my ticket, and despite repeatedly ringing the ‘help’ button, was ignored and repeatedly hung up on when I heatedly disputed having to pay $65 for a day’s parking instead of the usual $19. I couldn’t raise anyone to help, and when I told staff I simply didn’t have the money to pay, was told I should ‘ring a friend’ to get the money. Appalling treatment. No staff would give their names, and after 20 minutes, and a threat to park at the gate until they let me through, someone wandered down and issued an IOU for $65. Again I was told staff didn’t have to give their names. This anonymous male did his best to delay me as long as he could, repeatedly threatening to walk off and leave me standing next to my car with no way to leave the car park. In addition, he told me he was recording me – obviously not knowing that this is illegal without the other party’s consent. It was incredbly stressful, and the behaviour of Secure parking staff an absolute disgrace. I later found my ticket caught up in a box I was carrying. I will not be paying the bill, nor will I be back to any Secure Parking carpark. A disgraceful way of doing business. Obviously have no care or concern for patrons, ripping them off blind and providing no facility for complaints. I will fight the excessive $65 payment demanded on principle to draw attention to this company’s disgusting treatment of its customers.