Hamilton City Council is changing the way it currently manages parking within the central city. From July this year, the Council will start rolling a series of changes starting with use of licence plate recognition(LPR) vehicles to monitor parking compliance.
Over the next six months, Council will be using technology and touch-screen paperless payment systems and eventually go paperless, leaving behind the paper tickets left on window screens for violations.
A new fleet of hybrid cars to scan licence plates will start operating from July, which coincides with the roll out of new all-day paid parking areas within the central city.
LPR technology uses optical character recognition to read vehicle registration plates, and vehicles fitted with ANPR cameras can provide real-time information and reporting to enforcement authorities.
“The technology in these cars helps us monitor parking compliance more efficiently and find those parking illegally – such as on footpaths, across cycle lanes and on ‘no stopping’ lines,” said Council’s City Transportation Manager, Gordon Naidoo.
“It will also make it safer for our parking team who often deal with unhappy members of the public. Instead of tickets placed on windows, these will be posted out to the registered car owner.”
The technology can also be integrated with ‘pay by plate’ devices. Over the coming months, these devices will replace the single-head parking meters with a paperless system – where you would use your licence plate number to pay for parking.
Licence plate recognition is already used in other New Zealand cities and plans to install the technology in Garden Place and Sonning carparks are also in the pipeline.
New all day parking (8am to 6pm) for $6 is being introduced on Knox Street and Nisbet Street, providing parking option for those who work or spend longer periods of time in the central city.
