Coronavirus: No more parking charges, and new app shows if bus full

Friday, 27 March 2020

Parking charges have been waived in Auckland during the lockdown period.

Parking charges have been dropped in Auckland, and a new app shows when approaching public transport is effectively full based on coronavirus distancing rules.

Auckland Transport parking buildings remained open, but charges for both on and off-street parking have been scrapped during the lockdown period, and time limits removed.

A new app update allows users to see how full an approaching bus is.

For those using public transport, a new feature shows whether an approaching bus or train has space to keep your distance from other passengers.

The agency said the new feature, available as an update to its app, had been developed over the past week.

Auckland's Inner Link bus route has a new electric bus as part of its fleet (Video March 2019).

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'This allows people to see if the recommended physical distancing between other passengers of 2 metres will be achievable before they get on board,' AT chief executive Shane Ellison said.

Auckland Transport's mobile app now shows whether there's space on services using the Covid-19 spacing criteria

Once a bus is at its safe-distance capacity, the AT Mobile app will show passengers are no longer being accepted and the driver will only do drop-offs until it is safe to accept passengers again.

The app displays four human figures, which progressively darken as available safe space fills.

'This update to the AT Mobile app, to show people how many others are travelling on our buses, will give essential workers and those going to get groceries the information they need to make decisions about their health and safety,' said Ellison.

AT has also announced that on and off-street parking will be free of charge, including the use of its parking buildings.

'On street parking will be free and time limits (P30, P60, P120 etc) will not be enforced,' it said in a statement.

Parking prohibitions remain in in place, including in special vehicle and bus lanes or transit lanes.

There was unlikely to be much competition for parking, with central Auckland streets largely empty, and data from NZTA showing traffic movements on the motorway network had plummeted in the run-up the Covid-19 Level 4 lockdown, which came in at midnight on Wednesday.

Public Transport patronage data was not available but most services have been observed as lightly-used.