Motorcycle-riding public servants took the National Capital Authority to task on Thursday night, over a lack of parking spaces for bikes ahead of the introduction of pay parking.
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At the NCA's annual public forum on Thursday, a number of questions were raised around pay parking with the majority focusing on for motorcycles and scooters.
Canberrans were concerned that continued free parking for motorcycles would lead to a surge in colleagues driving them to work, using up the small number of parking spaces.
Public servant Julia Sisson said she knew a number of her colleagues who worked in the parliamentary triangle and were going to start riding to work when pay parking is introduced.
''The cost of buying a motorcycle or scooter is less than one year of paid parking fees. We already have a shortage of parks so we can see it's only going to get worse,'' she said.
At the public forum, the NCA said they planned to put in parking for 10 more motorcycles as well as constantly re-examining the adequacy of their parking arrangements. But Ms Sisson said the extra parks wouldn't be close to enough to fill the current demand, let alone any future increases. ''Their surveys are two to three years old, [they're] talking about 2010, 2012 surveys. Well there's been an increase in motorcycle scooters since then,'' she said.
NCA chief planner Andrew Scott said they were confident they had got the right mix and would adjust the number of car parks as necessary after pay parking was introduced.
