Green Party Councillor Bob Quinn maintains that there are adequate parking spaces in Naas, but not enough information about where they are and which ones are available.
Approximately 600 parking spaces (off-street and on-street) in Naas come under the auspices of Kildare County Council. There are additional privately operated parking spaces, taking the total to around 2,000, said Cllr Quinn at a recent Naas Municipal District meeting.
However, if one is not familiar with the town, finding these spaces can be challenging, and even when one does know one’s way around, it’s impossible to know where the available spaces are without driving around and looking. Cllr Quinn lodged a motion asking Kildare County Council to install real-time parking information signage to be erected around town with a view to saving motorists time and reducing frustration, which can lead to poor parking behaviour.
The meeting heard that such signage is prohibitively expensive; however, several measures were agreed that will significantly improve the available information about parking spaces. Kildare County Council undertook to update the likes of Google maps and Apple maps with locations, hours of operation and parking charges. The website Parkopedia will also be updated with all the available parking infrastructure in Naas, which means that the motorist planning on visiting the town will be able to see at a glance what options are available close to their destination.
“This is a great solution,” said Cllr Quinn, “It’s a free smartphone app and is very simple to use. A map pops up when you input your destination showing where nearby parking places are, the rate per hour and the maximum dwell time. It will show you all parking options that have been added including private and publicly operated ones, on-street and off. Parkopedia is not a private parking operator like APCOA, though of course APCOA-operated carparks will show up, once they have been added to the app.”
Parkopedia is a global source of information on car parking, describing itself as ‘The largest and most accurate parking services provider on the planet.’ It has information on parking in 90 countries.
“In any case, the need for quick-turnaround parking spaces has diminished in Naas,” continued Cllr Quinn, “with the withdrawal of KBC, Ulster Bank and Halifax, coupled with the increased functionality of online banking. The Kilcullen Road active travel scheme should also reduce the number of cars coming into Naas from the southern suburbs,” he continued, “because it is now so much safer for people to travel in on foot and by bike.”
The Garda Bikes Initiative will hopefully start soon, which will educate school children on cycling in an urban setting. This will be invaluable to the usage of the active travel scheme because of the concentration of schools on the Kilcullen Road.
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