The Australian city of Brisbane, Queensland, has gone cashless at 960 parking meters following a decision made at the height of Covid-19.
David McLachlan, chair of Brisbane City Council's infrastructure committee, says in a statement that the decision was based on health advice to remove the use of coins in parking meters to reduce the handling of cash.
“What this proved to us is that so few people use coin payments with motorists embracing technology to pay for parking,” he says.
Drivers can make payments at parking meters by debit and credit cards. Contactless payment is available by Tap N Go and pay-by-app with the CellOPark Australia app. There are no surcharges applied.
Additionally, 15-minute free parking will remain available at all metered car parking spaces, with more than 7,500 on-street spaces available across a range of suburbs.
“We will be the first state in Australia to use cashless payment only for parking and it is a sign of how we are working to quickly adapt to a new normal post coronavirus.”
“Not only are cashless payments great from a hygiene purpose, but they also significantly reduce the maintenance costs for our meters by hundreds of thousands of thousands of dollars a year, which is a great outcome for ratepayers,” he continues.
“As part of our steps towards a more technologically advanced on-street parking system, the Schrinner Council Administration will also be looking to introduce digital receipts for parking in 2021.”
