One of the largest surveys ever carried out on paid parking is coming to Melbourne’s inner-west.
The survey will be delivered to 10,300 randomly selected homes from Footscray to Williamstown on the weekend of November 28 and 29 as part of a University of Melbourne study of the effects paid parking is having on Yarraville Village businesses.
The survey will ask households whether paid parking has changed their shopping and parking habits.
Yarraville academic Gary Au, who is leading the study in collaboration with Emeritus Professor William Young of Monash University, said the survey would help determine whether shoppers had been driven to other destinations by the introduction of parking meters three months ago.
“We’re measuring whether this is significant enough to trigger them to visit elsewhere,” Dr Au said.
“This is an academic research study. There’s no commercial link, we are paying for it from our own funds and it’s going to be used to inform decision-making.”
Both Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay City councils are aware of the study.
Maribyrnong chief executive Stephen Wall said he was confident it would be a rigorous study.
“Council doesn’t have the resources to conduct a survey such as this and we’d be keen to see the scope and the data,” he said.
Mr Wall said the council had been meeting traders and trader associations about the effect of paid parking, but most of the evidence it obtained had been anecdotal.
The study comes as Maribyrnong councillors who voted against the introduction of paid parking continue to agitate for the removal of the meters.
Yarraville ward councillor Michael Clarke put a motion to Tuesday night’s council meeting calling on the council “to cease the operation of pay parking in Yarraville immediately”.
The motion pointed to reduced turnover by traders, a decline in use of parking spaces that now have meters, and pressure on parking spaces outside the pay parking area.
“I’m concerned for the economic viability of Yarraville Village and I’m proposing that pay parking be removed immediately to support this important retail strip,” he said.
