Two signs on State Highway 1, showing real-time parking availability at four centre-city carparks, will be installed next year.
In a tender document released last Friday, the Dunedin City Council said the signage was expected to make parking easier to find and "challenge public perception around perceived lack of parking availability".
"The St Andrew St carpark, offering more than 200 spaces and located just eight minutes’ walk from George St, is often more than half empty," the document said.
"Once the new Dunedin Hospital opens, this site, only a three-minute walk from the hospital, is expected to become a preferred parking location for visitors and staff."
The council said the signs would provide better use of existing off-street parking and public land, reduce congestion and emissions and increase motorist satisfaction.
They would also reduce "vehicular traffic from routes which favour active modes and public transport".
Installation is planned near the intersection of Crawford St (SH1)/Water St and in Cumberland St North opposite North Ground.
Transport group manager Jeanine Benson said $1.2 million was funded through the council’s nine-year plan for a range of central city parking management initiatives in 2025-26.
"We can’t be more specific about the cost of electronic wayfinding parking signs at this stage as the tender is still live."
Signage size would be decided during the tender process, as would any consent or permission requirements, Ms Benson said.
Cr Lee Vandervis contacted the Otago Daily Times yesterday to say the council could produce more carparks in the central city by, for example, rerouting the SH1 cycleway.
"In my view it is patronising by DCC staff to suppose that Dunedin drivers are not capable of finding the few available carparks near the hospital, Otago Museum, university and central Dunedin businesses," Cr Vandervis said.
The signs would initially display live parking availability for at least four sites, proposed to be the Great King St carpark, Meridian Mall, Wilson carpark (Upper Moray Pl) and St Andrew St carpark.
Depending on the tender, signage for individual sites or additional carparks could be developed in the future.
The signage also could be used in emergency situations, such as civil defence events, the document said.
The tender is expected to be awarded in February and signage installed by April 30.
