Infrastructure Victoria report recommends expanding congestion levy to inner-eastern suburbs

MOTORISTS in select Melbourne suburbs would be slugged an extra $20 a week to park under plans to tackle the city’s growing traffic jams.

MOTORISTS seeking a parking space in the inner east would be slugged an extra $20 a week under an Infrastructure Victoria plan to expand Melbourne’s congestion levy.

In a report today, the infrastructure body has recommended expanding the current levy zone east of Hoddle St — Punt Rd to include Richmond, South Yarra, Windsor and Prahran, in an effort to tackle growing traffic snarls.

Off-peak journeys on public transport would also be discounted to ease overcrowding.

PARKERS SLAPPED WITH PRICE HIKE

COUNCILS CALL FOR CONGESTION LEVY RETURNS

Under the changes, owners of off-street private and public carparking in those inner-east areas would be charged $1000 a year per parking space.

Infrastructure Victoria estimates the charge, which already applies in areas of the inner north, south and west, would add $4 per weekday to the cost of a parking space — a cost that operators are likely to pass on to consumers.

Infrastructure Victoria’s chief economic and commercial adviser Catherine Rooney said IV believed the $1410 levy per space in the CBD had had a direct effect on prices.

South Yarra is one of the suburbs that would be included under the plan. Picture: Sarah Matray

“Carparking operators are passing on the cost of that levy to users, and that’s putting the price of parking up,” she said.

“We know from our research that the cost of parking is the biggest deterrent to people driving, and so people are making a choice. There has been an increase in public transport into the city over the same period of time.”

It is believed there are about 8500 commercial parking ­spaces in the suburbs to which the levy would now apply.

Ms Rooney said that since 2015, the number of CBD parking spaces had fallen, taking the equivalent of 3900 vehicles off roads in the morning peak.

“To put that into perspective, you would have to add two lanes of freeway to accommodate that many extra cars on the road network,” she said.

“We’ve got a congestion problem that’s getting worse over time, so it would make sense to expand the levy area into those parts of the city.”

HOW TO FIX MELBOURNE’S TRAFFIC NIGHTMARE

Modelling from the Managing Transport Demand report shows that many road links within the Stonnington and Yarra municipalities, such as High St and Toorak Rd, are already at capacity.

IV has also recommended public transport fares outside the 6.30-8.30am, 2.30-5.30pm  peaks  be cut 50c from 2019.

Fares would be full price between 6.30am to 8.30am and 2.30pm to 5.30pm, with the plan estimated to cut ticket revenue by up to $80 million.

CEO Michel Masson said the price variation could have a major impact on public transport movements.

“The modelling showed that by just having that 50c difference about 3000 public transport trips would shift from peak to off-peak,” he said.

“On top of that it would encourage more people to catch public transport than drive, taking roughly 2,200 cars of the road.”

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