FAQs

Great North Road is a busy and growing area, with more people living, working, and visiting. This puts pressure on parking, especially for short visits. Local businesses have told us they need better access for customers and deliveries. Our proposal aims to manage parking more fairly and efficiently, while supporting safety and access for everyone.

Currently, in places where no parking restrictions exist, all day and extended parking means parking isn’t well managed.  

A parking survey showed on side streets unrestricted car parking is occupied 98% of the time (weekdays) and vehicles are parked for close to 6 hours (on average) at a time.)

These changes we propose align with Room to Move: Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s Parking Strategy, which guides how we manage parking across the city

What are the benefits? 

• More short-term parking for customers and visitors.
• Better turnover of parking spaces to support local businesses.
• Encourages use of public transport, walking, cycling, and ride-sharing.
• Helps reduce long-term parking on public streets.
• Supports a safer and more accessible street environment.
• Supports growth in the area

• Parking surveys show that unrestricted parking is often full, leaving few options for short visits with stays of five hours or longer. *
• Ongoing growth locally will increase demand for parking (by 2030, the local population is expected to grow by 24%).
• Between 2014 and 2019, there were 139 crashes and 11 serious injuries on this stretch of road—over 80% at intersections.

* A parking survey showed on side streets unrestricted car parking is occupied 98% of the time (weekdays) and vehicles are parked for close to 6 hours (on average) at a time. 

These streets are part of a Business – Mixed Use zone, where paid parking is already in place nearby. Extending it helps manage high demand and ensures fair access for customers, visitors, and employees.

Paid parking also offers flexibility in length of stay, and prices can be adjusted to manage demand. It also helps encourage people to consider other options such as public transport, carpooling, cycling or walking,

Short-stay parking (e.g., P15, P120) and loading zones help businesses by:

• Making deliveries easier and faster.
• Giving customers quick access to shops and services.
• Offsetting the reduction in parking on Great North Road.

No. Parking fees help manage demand and ensure fair access. Revenue from paid parking supports maintenance, public transport, and infrastructure improvements. It also reduces the burden on ratepayers.

Aucklanders have told us they support getting users to contribute to the cost of parking they use to reduce the burden on ratepayers. Without this funding, rates would need to go up by around an additional 1.5%.

Local and global experience is that when parking is managed through pricing, it encourages turnover, meaning more people can make use of a single space each day. This increases the number of customers for each business, helping the economy thrive.

Having users pay some of the cost of parking is no different from how public transport users pay some of the cost of their services.

Local and global experience is that when parking is managed through pricing, it encourages turnover, meaning more people can make use of a single space each day. This increases the number of customers for each business, helping the economy thrive. 

Paid parking provides a solution for people wanting to park for a longer period of time, including all day if they need to. Just having free parking with time limits will not support people who need to stay for longer than a couple of hours.  

Free parking with time limits (like P15 and P60) makes it easy for customers to visit shops and businesses.  Our paid parking spaces also have a 10-minute grace period of free parking to support short visits.

No, existing Residential Parking Zones (RPZs) are unchanged and remain as P120, Monday to Friday, 8am–6pm, with permits available for eligible residents.

Permits are only available for eligible residents in the Residential Parking Zones.  The areas where we propose changes areas are zoned Business – Mixed Use. While there may be residential elements within this zone, these tend to be of an intensified nature which would inevitably bring an unsustainable demand for permits.

The same is applicable for employees, where demand is likely to outstrip the number of available of car parks.

Businesses can sign up to Fareshare where employers can choose to subsidise 25%, 50% or 75% of public transport travel from either Monday to Friday or Monday to Sunday.

New parking arrangements will be introduced after construction on Great North Road is complete. We’ll update this page and notify those who provided contact details during consultation.

The final design results in the removal of 108 parking spaces on Great North Road. This is to:

• Improve safety at intersections and driveways.
• Make space for loading zones, bus stops and new pedestrian crossings.
• Support a safer and more efficient street layout.

We understand business owners are concerned about parking for their staff. We feel that the proposal offers parking benefits for customers and paid parking for those needing to park longer than time restrictions allow.

Continued business and residential growth will increasingly strain parking availability and already in some locations demand is outstripping supply.  With the limited number of kerbside parks available we need to strike a balance that reflects a range of user needs.

This may mean some staff members will need to adapt where and how they park, and their travel options.

We appreciate that existing public transport services might not meet everyone’s needs. However, we cannot ignore the existing problem with overcrowded parking.

AT is investing heavily in the public transport network, to improve access to all parts of Auckland.

Yes, AT has consulted with the community over several years and has been transparent about the project resulting in some car parking removal on Great North Road.

Some kerbside parking is being repurposed as new loading zones and to make space for new pedestrian crossings, or where bus stops are being improved and for safety around intersections where parked cars block views of oncoming traffic. We re-evaluated the parking arrangement plans this year (2025) to ensure as many spaces as able are included in the plans. This process added more car parks back onto Great North Road and created 10 new parking spaces on side roads by reconfiguring parking (i.e changing parallel parking to angle parking).   

Project and engagement timeline:

• 2016: initial consultation on a cycleway and improvements to Great North Road
• 2017 to 2021: design development and community engagement (project delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions)
• 2021: consultation on an updated design, including proposed removal of 115 kerbside car parks.  You can read the feedback report here.
• 2022: community re-engagement in advance of construction (stage 1)
• 2023 - 2024: preparatory works undertaken (stage 1)
• 2024: community re-engagement in advance of construction (stage 2). This included highlighting planned parking management strategy to help offset loss of parking on Great North Road and sharing designs plans showing car parking arrangements.
• 2025: Construction works (stage 2)

Our aim is to introduce parking changes (time restrictions and paid parking) early next year, after construction works are completed.

If you have included your contact details with your feedback, we’ll let you know when the report is available and confirm the timeline. Otherwise you can check back on this project webpage.