Students urged to be smarter with their parking

Education is one of the main aims of student life and a campaign this month by Hamilton City Council is aiming to educate students about parking smarter. 

Council often receives complaints from residents living near Waikato University as new students look for parks in surrounding streets. This year the University has introduced parking charges across the campus, which could put further pressure on available on-street parking.

Historically, the most common complaints have been vehicles illegally or inconsiderately parked on grass verges, over driveways, on footpaths or on broken yellow lines. The new education and signage campaign highlights these issues with bold signage asking motorists to ‘Park Smarter – Avoid a Fine’.


Photo courtesy of Hamilton City Council

“We know it can be tough being a student, and the last thing most students need is a parking fine,” says City Transport Manager Jason Harrison. “Taking an extra few minutes to find a legal place to park, or being a little more considerate about where to park can makes life a lot easier for people living in the area and also improves traffic flows.”

“We have been gathering data with a number plate recognition vehicle in recent weeks, and we can identify streets where we seem to be having more problems than others. Our parking services team’s role is to make accessing the city and suburbs easy and safe, and we would rather achieve this through education than enforcement,” Mr Harrison says.