Late last year Bass Coast Shire announced a surprise $300,000 “Smart Parking” project with about 500 car parks in Cowes installed with sensors from February 2022.
In this second week of a new series – which explores planning: our future – we look at traffic and parking.
Phillip Island – and to a lesser extent San Remo – are natural bottlenecks and with the resident and tourist population growing annually, pinch points are quickly seen in congestion on roads and towns.
Here we explore the pressures and possible solutions.
Late last year Bass Coast Shire announced a surprise $300,000 “Smart Parking” project will see about 500 car parks in Thompson Avenue, Chapel Street, The Esplanade and the Cowes Transit Centre installed with sensors from February 2022.
In Wonthaggi there will be 225 on-street bays, and none in Inverloch.
An optional app will let drivers pre-plan parking, while six message signs will be installed in Cowes to display real-time parking availability, for drivers who don’t use the app.
The vast majority of comments on the Advertiser’s Facebook page opposed the technology, arguing that while it wasn’t paid parking, it would undoubtedly see more residents fined in the 10 months of the year that were off-peak.
Planning: traffic and parking
It’s a simple formula: more residents and more tourists means more cars, more congestion and more parking problems.
Here are a few other examples of where traffic is reaching a tipping point.
