Albury Council will begin installing car park sensors along busy CBD roads this week as part of a two-year trial, which if successful could have the monitoring system expand throughout the city.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
From Monday, crews will install electronic devices beneath parks in Olive Street, between Dean and Swift streets, Dean Street between Kiewa and David streets and in Kiewa Street between Dean and Smollet streets from 7.30pm to 5am.
Once operational, the sensors will monitor how long a car stays in a parking bay and feed the information back to council rangers for enforcement.
Albury mayor Kevin Mack said the sensors would monitor occupancy rates, the number of vehicles in the streets and a car's length of stay, which council could use to inform decision making.
"Parking regulations and enforcement will remain unchanged," he said.
"Sensors simply provide a more efficient way of monitoring parking practices.
"Council prefers drivers do the right thing and vacate spaces when their time is up, but fines will be issued as per our usual practice if drivers overstay."
IN OTHER NEWS:
Chair of Albury Business Connect and owner of Dean Street's Essential Ingredient Barry Young said the system will benefit retailers and cafes in the area.
"Hopefully it encourages that turnover of parking so people can circulate," he said.
"I guess the concern is that they don't police it too hard initially but I think the incentive to turn over parking regularly is good for traders."
Cr Mack said the council would inform the community before the sensors went live.
Eventually the sensors will be used to provide motorists with real-time information about the location of available parking spaces along the streets.
"Among a range of benefits will be an increased ability for our rangers to help people with other tasks by freeing up some of the time they usually allocate to parking patrols," Cr Mack said.
"The sensors will also increase parking turnover to provide fair access to everyone."