Page 549 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 February 2020
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the freedom to do what many of us take for granted: shopping, picking up prescriptions, catching up with friends for coffee.
That quote from Ms Le Couteur, from Robert Altamore, dates back to 2012. We are now in 2020, and People with Disabilities ACT is still raising concerns about the lack of parking and the confusion about parking options for their members. It is true that accessible parking on an individual basis has become more accessible. The spaces are now wider than before, and there are additional spaces to allow the unloading of wheelchairs and other equipment. What has not changed is availability, fair use and consistency in the application of rules.
Within the ACT a mobility parking permit allows a person to park in the special wide bays reserved for mobility parking permit holders. Each parking bay consists of a dedicated non-shared space, with a shared area on one side of the dedicated space. Some of the mobility parking permit spaces have time limits; others do not. Mobility parking permit holders can park free of charge in ticketed ACT government operated car parks and in on-street parking spaces that are free but time restricted, but even that is confusing.
For example, disability permit holders can park for free for up to two hours if the time limit on the parking sign is 30 minutes or less, and for an unlimited time if the time limit on the parking sign is more than 30 minutes. But for parking restrictions of less than 30 minutes—for example, 15, five and so on—mobility parking scheme permit holders can park for up to 30 minutes. In privately operated car parks, these may or may not apply.
It is this inconsistency, this lack of certainty, that has been a focus of People with Disabilities ACT and has been brought to my attention. That is why I bring this motion on for debate today. In a transport position statement People with Disabilities ACT released in March 2019, they said inter alia:
1. PWDACT advocates for inclusive transport in accordance with Article 9 of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disability.
2. We advocate that the Government take appropriate measures to ensure persons with disabilities can access all aspects of transport and the built environment in Canberra.
3. Disabled carparks across Canberra should have the same time limits set, whether private or publicly operated. We call upon the ACT Government to standardise the time limit, regardless of whether publicly or privately managed.
Their transport paper also seeks to extend the general ACT entitlement for mobility permit holders to park free of charge in non-disability spots in both public car parks and privately managed car parks, particularly in public spaces like hospitals. These requests have arisen from frustration at the lack of availability and accessibility, not knowing where or how many car spaces there might be in any location.
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