Two in five drivers who park in Brisbane’s CBD don’t pay a cent

Two in five people who park in Brisbane’s CBD don’t pay a cent.

That’s despite Brisbane retaining its position as Australia’s most expensive capital for parking, with daily casual rates averaging $80.84, according to Ray White.

However, on-street car parking in the inner city on weekdays costs $6.35 an hour at meters for up to three hours.

Research conducted for Brisbane City Council found about 40 per cent of people who parked in the CBD did not pay for the parking, usually leaving within 30 minutes.

Brisbane has 15-minute free parking in more than 7500 on-street spaces, while people who overstay risk a $125 fine.

The project, reported by iMOVE Australia, developed modelling to understand and predict how drivers cruise around looking for on-street parking, which affects traffic congestion.

People who park in the CBD for work tend to do so more frequently and for longer compared with other drivers.

But frequent parkers usually don’t have to search for long, showing they know the best spots to nab a sneaky on-street park.

About 80 per cent of drivers who park every day in the CBD find a spot in less than three minutes, with distance to their final destination a key factor in where they look for on-street parking.

But parking types vary by location.

There are more casual visitors on Alice Street, which is close to QUT and the City Botanic Gardens, and more delivery visits to Elizabeth and Turbot streets.

People who park near the city centre – close to shops and businesses – are often dropping off passengers or making deliveries, while the CBD’s west has more visitors to medical centres and specialists.

Researchers found people have a higher chance of finding an on-street park in the CBD’s east.

Interestingly, the study found a negative association between traffic volume and cruising time as drivers who tend to search for on-street parking in the CBD are more likely to avoid rush hour.

University of Queensland urban planning associate professor Dr Dorina Pojani, who was not involved in the study, said Brisbane was still a monocentric city, with one main business district.

She said the concentration of people travelling in from the suburbs created “huge pressure”.

Pojani said the most sustainable way to accommodate travel demand into the city was mass transit, which freed up on-street parking for those who really needed it.

“Pricing is a good mechanism to get people to reduce driving into the CBD, and it’s also simply about providing less parking,” she said.

“Traditionally, the paradigm has been, we need to provide as much parking as people ask for.

“But now it’s clear that the more parking we provide, the more we induce car-based mobility, and then the more demand for parking we generate.”

Council Infrastructure chair Ryan Murphy said the research, delivered with the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology, aimed to understand how people used parking and how it could be improved.

“Now the full report is available, we’re working through the findings and looking at practical ways to improve the on-street parking experience,” Murphy said.

The project included on-street and online surveys, fixed and mobile cameras, with algorithms created to integrate parking occupancy data with payment transactions to forecast availability.

About 200,000 parking fines were issued across the city in the 2024-25 financial year, with Margaret, Wickham and Alice streets topping the list.

Over the same year, there were 44,000 complaints about illegal parking.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.

More:

• City life
• For subscribers
• City council
• Roads
• Traffic
• Brisbane
• QUT
• University of Queensland