source : the age
Collins Street shoppers will soon be able to pull up to a car space and toss their keys to a waiting valet, who will park their car in an off-street car park.
Traders claim the valet parking scheme, launching on Monday and backed by the City of Melbourne, will make it easier for shoppers to visit Melbourne’s most prestigious street, but active transport advocates are worried it will clog city streets even further.
The trial of the 24-hour Valet on Collins service will use two public car pick-up and drop-off zones on Collins Street. The service will cost $80 a day for users, which includes parking costs.
When the shopper is ready to return home, they can send a text message to summon their car, which will be returned to the street-side car space.
The trial’s two car spaces are outside the Novotel Melbourne, but unlike traditional valet parking attached to a single hotel, restaurant or shopping centre, the service will be available to anyone visiting the area.
If the trial is successful, Valet on Collins will expand to more car parks.
The valet parking service is modelled on similar services internationally in Austin’s Old Sixth Street, the Miami Design District and the Dubai International Financial Centre.
James Temelli, owner of Temelli Jewellery in Centreway Arcade off Collins Street, welcomed the scheme.
“We specialise in high-end jewellery and custom jewellery, and one of the biggest hurdles we’ve had is actually having clients either find parking or having long enough to spend time going through what we need to do with them,” he said.
Temelli said most of the parking around Collins Street was half an hour to one hour, and so having the option of valet parking for a longer period would be good for his customers.
Collins Street Precinct Group president Luke Harris said valet parking offered easy parking for people coming into the area to shop, dine or be entertained.
“If we look to some of the other great boulevards, similar to Collins Street but in other parts of the world, it’s a service they already offer, and it’s one that is welcomed by people in those areas that are really looking for ease when they’re coming into the CBD,” he said.
However, Nik Dow of cycling advocacy group Bike Melbourne, said trying to attract more cars into the area was a “fairly stupid” idea.
“Trying to cram more cars in Collins Street is not a volume solution,” he said. “It’s going to cater for a tiny minority of wealthy people. It just shows the city’s priorities are completely wrong.”
Dow said the City of Melbourne had done nothing to provide the two missing East West bike routes that have been long promised for Bourke and Flinders streets.
Victoria Walks chief executive Sarah Pilgrim said making it easier and more attractive to drive straight into Collins Street was difficult to reconcile with Melbourne’s longer-term commitment to increasing walking, cycling and public transport.
However, Lord Mayor Nick Reece claimed valet parking would help ease congestion in the city based on data that showed 95 per cent of drivers look for an on-street car park first, even when off-street car parking is available.
“A large amount of vehicle congestion in the CBD is people circling the block in their car looking for an on-street car park,” he said.
He also defended the City of Melbourne’s partnership in a scheme taking up public on-street car parks for a luxury service.
“There are 20,000 on-street car parking spots around the city,” he said. “We’re talking about two spots being taken up by this current service, so even if this valet parking service is expanded, we are still talking about a very, very, very small percentage of all the on-street car parking spots in Melbourne.”
He said valet parking offered a luxury experience for people visiting Collins Street.
“It is the premier high street of Australia, it is home to iconic Melbourne boutique stores, as well as some of the world’s biggest luxury brands, and now we’ve added something more to the experience: valet parking for people who want to make their way to the city by car,” he said.
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