Members of the public are being encouraged to report people who misuse mobility park spaces, through a new smartphone app.
Photo: 123rf
CCS Disability Action partnered with Thundermaps to create the Access Aware app, which lets the user send a photo and information to parking enforcement officers. It also has locations of mobility spaces to help people find a park.
Project manager Raewyn Hailes from CCS Disability Action says 10-20 reports are coming in through the app each day of vehicles without a mobility sticker using the spaces.
Drivers will say they’re ‘only there a minute’ - but that may be the time that a person is driving past and really needs to get into that space, she says.
“We’re hoping that we can make social change and get people to be more thoughtful about using mobility car parks.”
Hailes says the aim is to raise social awareness and get infringements issued where possible.
“We don’t want to become a vigilante organisation and we don’t the app to work in that way.”
It’s operating in Wellington and Christchurch – but Hailes says in the trial period in October and November they also had people using the app in other cities.
“We had a huge number of reports from Auckland, even though there was no guaranteed outcome with those.”
Hailes is talking to Auckland City Council and some of the major retail providers of parking spaces to try to get them to come on board, and with councils to improve enforcement for longer hours.
Reports are often made after 6pm when councils don’t have large numbers of enforcement officers.
“So people with impairments who want to go out for a meal or to go to a show may not be able to find a park anywhere close to where they want to go and sometimes they just go home.
“With the app, we’re building stats that show the hours and the parks that are most abused.”
