Bad parking across Melbourne drives surge in complaints
There’s never been a shortage of dodgy drivers in Melbourne, but reports of badly and illegally parked cars and trucks are surging across the city. Here are some of the worst examples.
Victoria
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Reports of badly and illegally parked cars and trucks are surging across Melbourne, the latest spike driven by more vehicles on the road, greater restrictions and poor motorist behaviour.
Frustrated residents are fired up over vehicles parked in front of driveways, blocked footpaths and illegal use of disabled parking spaces.
Melbourne’s inner city streets are increasingly crowded by construction works and associated traffic, plus constant road closures caused by major projects, as well as the impact of a growing population.
New data from reporting app Snap Send Solve revealed more than 43,000 parking and car-related issues reported in Victoria so far this year. The total represents a 48 per cent spike from last year.
Snap Send Solve founder Danny Gorog said the statistics showed that more people were parking badly but also that frustrated residents wanted to take action about poor parking in their neighbourhoods.
“There’s certainly more people parking in disabled bays, people are parking their petrol cars in electric-vehicle charging spots, and more people are parking over driveways.’’
Mr Gorog said council changes to parking times and rules was also causing problems.
“And that drives people to do things that are illegal.’’
The City of Melbourne alone had a population of about 160,000 in June 2022, an 18 per cent increase from 2016, despite the effect of the pandemic.
The City of Melbourne received 2344 reports of illegal parking in the three months to October 30 – about 200 reports a week.
About one in three reports from the community was for vehicles parked without the required permit, followed by vehicles in no stopping areas, such as clearways.
Other common complaints were for vehicles overstaying a time limit, as well as blocking driveways, laneways or bike lanes.
Parking over more than one allocated space was also cause for annoyance.
Motorist desperate to find a park have even indulged in the art of ICE-ing — in which internal combustion engine (ICE) cars block access to EV charging bays. The act attracts a $369 fine or the loss of two demerit points for misusing an electric vehicle charging location in Victoria.
In recent cases, motorists in Box Hill and Mornington have parked across at least three charging bays, infuriating EV drivers.
And some EV drivers are aggravating their neighbours by parking across footpaths to charge their cars.
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