KEY POINTS:
Drivers of low-polluting hybrid cars will soon receive privileged spots in Auckland City Council carparking buildings.
The council's transport division will, from next month, set aside easily accessible "eco-bays" at its big Downtown parking building for petrol-electric vehicles and small cars with engines of up to 1.3 litres.
Although the scheme will have small beginnings, with eight such bays to be reserved from the building's 2000 vehicle spaces, council transport group manager for parking Brian Tomlinson says there will be room for up to 52 if the demand justifies them.
He said yesterday that the scheme would be a pilot for all the council's 11 off-street parking facilities and would be complemented by other "travel demand management" measures such as car-pooling and public transport noticeboards.
The new bays would be reserved in a similar manner to parking spaces for people with disabilities and situated close to where most car occupants walked into or out of the building - on its second storey adjoining the covered pedestrian bridge over Lower Albert St.
Mr Tomlinson said the scheme would send a message of support to people who considered energy efficiency and the environment when buying cars, and may be adjusted later to give priority to whichever vehicles were ranked the cleanest by a proposed new government website.
"It is one of a number of green initiatives we are looking at - our objective is to put this in all our locations to recognise people who go the extra mile," he said.
The council already provides free, security-camera monitored spaces at its parking buildings for motorcycles, scooters and bicycles.
It is not yet proposing free or discounted parking for hybrid cars but Mr Tomlinson said that might be a matter for future consideration.
He said there would always remain a need for carparking, no matter how much effort went into encouraging Aucklanders to use buses, trains or ferries.
Council transport and urban linkages committee chairman Richard Simpson said the incorporation of off-street parking into the transport division had given it a powerful management tool, which he hoped would help improve the environment for pedestrians in central Auckland.
