Number's up for new parking machines after outrage

Photo / APN

Public pressure has forced Auckland Transport to cancel the installation of new parking machine technology requiring drivers to enter their car registration numbers.

The council-controlled organisation yesterday pulled "pay-by-plate" displays out of three trial machines in Wynyard Quarter and abandoned a plan to add the same technology to carparks in Takapuna and at Waiheke Island's ferry wharf at Matiatia.

Communications manager Sharon Hunter acknowledged the move was in response to opposition from drivers having trouble adjusting to the new technology at Wynyard Quarter.

She said it was "human nature" for people to resist innovation, and the technology might be introduced next year, when 950 pay-and-display machines in the region would have to be replaced.

"Pay-by-plate may be included as an offering, among other options, from a successful tenderer," Ms Hunter said.

Dozens of Aucklanders have written to the Herald and the transport website www.aktnz.co.nz opposing the new technology.

Many were concerned about not being able to pass unexpired tickets to strangers once they had finished with them, as the registration details made each one specific to the purchaser's car.

"Absolutely disgusting behaviour," Victoria Smith said in an email to the newspaper. "It is paid for already, whether the drivers want to give it to another person is their right and their business."

Bill O'Connell took exception to a comment by Ms Hunter in the Weekend Herald that Auckland Transport was "all about giving more choice to the customer through innovation".

"This is just arrant nonsense," Mr O'Connell wrote. "Anyone with a small fraction of common sense can see that this is a revenue-gathering device."

Another man said he believed the machines were being used "to keep track of your movements ... so I will no longer be parking in town."

Ms Hunter stood by her comment yesterday, saying the technology had the capability of doing away with paper tickets.

But the last of the three Wynyard Quarter machines marked for conversion back to the older technology was still causing confusion yesterday.

It still required drivers to provide their registration details before printing tickets with the numbers on them.

One woman punched in incorrect plate details, so scribbled a note on her ticket to explain her mistake to parking wardens.

Ms Hunter said later that the machine had been disabled, ready to be converted today, while the other two were already back in "pay-and-display" mode.