News that Wilson Parking in Fort Street, Auckland, is the most expensive parking in New Zealand says a lot more than just a company creaming it. 

If you turn up first thing at the park and you use the on site machine then a days parking will cost you $74.

Now who pays $74 for a days park?

If you park casually then it will cost you $22 an hour - more than the minimum wage. 

I’m picking that if you park in this park then you’re not working in hospo, you’re earning enough to blow money like this, you don’t feel you have an alternative and you love your car and want to park near work. 

So let’s break that down.

The average wage in Auckland is $72,000 a year, after tax that’s $900 bucks a week in the hand. The median rent is $700 dollars, you need $100 a week for power, phone internet and gas, you need to eat.

So where’s the money for that park?

The only people paying that earn way more than $72 grand.

On the alternative, most don’t have a car park. 50 per cent of workers in Auckland’s CBD take public transport into work. That’s because they don’t get a park from their employer and they don’t earn enough to face the parking charges. That’s not their choice, it’s an economic necessity, that’s why public transport is critical to our productivity. Remember that the next time you complain about a bus lane.

And finally a love of the car distorts the debate, because there are plenty of parks that don’t cost that much. Like the city owned downtown car park, a car park which is half empty most days, which is why the council has sold the car park to developers to become a skyscraper and much more expensive parking. But park there and you may have to walk, so many don’t and pay a fortune on wasted productivity.

There comes a time in every city where the ease and convenience of driving to town becomes only available to the better off and that kills a CBD, a CBD that has already been gutted by suburban malls and cinemas. 

The fact that so many Aucklanders are prepared to pay so much to park a car in the CBD it makes me believe that the idea of congestion charges in an attempt to reduce traffic will fail, we’re just going to pay to stay stuck in the same traffic queues. 

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