Auckland Transport to discontinue the option
I saw on Twitter earlier today that Auckland Transport were to discontinue the Early Bird parking fee for their three City Centre Parking parking buildings.
This from the AT website:
Downtown car park
Casual parking $3 per hour*
Early bird parking discontinued
From 1 December 2014, early bird parking is being discontinued in Auckland Transport’s Downtown, Civic and Victoria Street car park buildings. Our daily rate of $17 will apply to all day parkers.
- Historically AT has subsidised people to drive into the city at peak times, which is adding to congestion.
- Our prices are increasing to dis-incentivise people to drive during one of the busiest times of the day (am peak).
- Moving forward that money will be used to put into public transport, which is our number one priority.
- View public transport options.
- See what AT is proposing with the new public transport network.
Fees
| MONDAY – FRIDAY 6AM – 5PM | |
|---|---|
| 0-1 hours | $3 |
| 1-2 hours | $6 |
| 2-3 hours | $9 |
| 3-4 hours | $12 |
| 4-5 hours | $15 |
| 5+ maximum fee | $17 |
…….
Source: https://at.govt.nz/driving-parking/parking-in-auckland/downtown-car-park/
Talking Southern Auckland 
What a bunch of weasel words.
So at a lower price it is a subsidy but at a higher price it is a disincentive. What about the price in between?
if it is a subsidy, where was the top up coming from? And if the carpark is still full after price increases, where is the disincentive?
And what type of business model subsidies people to drive in when it would have been full anyway?
Any normal business would be trying to get the highest utilization possible while achieving the highest price possible. And not have been afraid to call it that.
What they spend the profit on is up to them as a business and if they want to spend it on ‘subsidizing’ PT so be it.