Revealed: Top 10 Brisbane streets where you risk parking fines
New data has revealed the top 10 Brisbane streets for parking fines and has blown the lid on just how little chance you have of appealing a fine.
The top 10 streets where motorists copped a parking fine have been revealed, with data also showing that 57,630 infringement notices haven’t been paid.
Margaret St recorded the most fines with other CBD streets once again topping the annual list of lucrative parking fine locations.
Last year Alice St in the CBD topped the list, racking up more than $1m in parking fines.
Outside the CBD, top areas for the inspectors to swoop included in the Lang Park Traffic Area (3678 fines), Dutton Park Parking Control Area (2622), St Lucia (1246) and Queensland Tennis Centre Parking Area (541).
The data, released this week in answer to Questions On Notice by the Labor Opposition, revealed only 406 people were nabbed for parking in a disabled zone or not displaying a disabled permit.
The overwhelming number of people pinged by council inspectors overstayed their time limit (15,150), with loading zone violations the next most common issue.
Council’s total parking revenue last financial year climbed past the $40m mark, with mobile phone app payments now a significant earner.
Last year $18.3m in parking fees was paid for via the controversial CellOpark app, compared with $23.9m for street meters and council carparks.
In February, Council announced it was calling tenders for parking app providers after some CellOPark customers raised fears about the privacy of their data, following a commercial dispute with the developer of its software.
The data also revealed council called out tow trucks 8768 times for illegally parked vehicles.
The old-style parking inspector has largely been replaced by AI, with the figures showing the lion’s share of illegally parked cars were detected by AI cameras mounted on council vehicles.
In the past eight years 324,274 vehicles were nabbed using the technology.
Despite the large sums involved few motorists challenged their fines, although 83,709 called council’s contact centre.
Only 2.5 per cent of fines, or 5719, were successfully appealed.
Labor Opposition Leader in Council Jared Cassidy said when residents copped a fine they should expect their money went towards projects to bust congestion and make streets safer.
But he said Council could not detail exactly where the $42.2m in parking fees and also the fines revenue was being spent.
“They also can’t detail how much they’ve collected after spending almost $7m on AI technology to help them ping people almost 330,000 times,” Mr Cassidy said.
“The Story Bridge is crumbling into the river, our roads are riddled with potholes, we’re the most congested city in Australia and this Council can’t tell Brisbane if they’re spending $42.2m of your money on fixing these issues.”
Customer services committee chair Sarah Hutton a single car stopped in a clearway could cause traffic chaos for thousands of people.
“Every dollar raised by ensuring people park appropriately and safely is invested straight back into the community to deliver services and build better roads to keep Brisbane moving,’’ she said.
“This includes projects like our Moggill Rd corridor upgrade, our clearway action plan and smarter corridors.
“While Labor claims to be concerned about congestion, the fact is they promised to cut road funding and cut Brisbane Metro, which has had almost three million passengers.’’
Residents made almost 44,000 complaints about illegal parking in Brisbane last financial year.
