As summers grow hotter and Perth's population grows, so does demand at beach car parks... and councils in charge of Perth's most popular shores are scrambling to meet it.
Snapshot : Perth Beach Parking
Sorrento and Mullaloo beaches are some of the state's most popular, says Joondalup Mayor Troy Pickard, attracting thousands of visitors from well outside the northern corridor and causing spikes in demand when hot weather arrives.
This summer, the city significantly expanded on-street parking at Mullaloo, and as Perth's largest beach enclosure opened at Sorrento, it reconfigured the car park there to provide 76 more bays.
Last year, it also doubled the capacity of the Marmion Foreshore car park.
Trigg Beach has a whopping 668 bays, including at Trigg Island café and Clarko Reserve, but the public still wants more. The City of Stirling added 47 new spaces at Trigg Island Surf Life Saving Centre at the end of 2015.
Scarborough's parking is reducing due to redevelopment works, so land manager, the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority, has leased 200 bays in the Wilsons Manning Street car park for free community use from February 20.
Swanbourne's parking station is filling each hot weekend, and the City of Nedlands is opening a grassed overflow area to accommodate up to 100 extra cars.
Cars parked near the beach at Trigg. Photo: Supplied
City and Floreat beaches have major car parks, with 1300 and 285 parking bays respectively, and several smaller ones dotted along the service road running north from Floreat, but the Town of Cambridge's modelling from the past two summers shows these are regularly at capacity.
When the weather is hottest, it fields complaints about people parking in residential streets, outside marked bays, on footpaths and on residents' verges and lawns.
In December, it expanded City Beach car park by 120 bays as part of the precinct redevelopment, but still sometimes has to open Jubilee Reserve for overflow parking on the busiest days.
Cottesloe added 156 bays in 2013 and its draft Foreshore Renewal Masterplan considers more.
Mosman Park dog beach, while mainly loved by dog-walking locals, and overshadowed by its more famous neighbours Port, Leighton and Cottesloe, has its 100-odd bays sometimes overflowing on hot days when the car park is full at Leighton.
Leighton Beach has 206 marked bays but also has a rapidly growing commercial and residential population, and tow trucks have been spotted in recent weeks tugging cars bogged after scoring illegal, sandy parking slots.
Fremantle council has built an extra car park on Curtin Avenue near the footbridge, but continues to consider more options to relieve the pressure at Leighton.
South Beach is similarly heaving, despite its 261 marked bays.
Creative parking at South Beach. Photo: Supplied
Coogee Beach, Ngarkal Beach and Poore Grove patrons were relying on major parking overflow areas this summer, according to Cockburn council's engineering and works director Charles Sullivan.
Poore Grove car park was significantly expanded in 2012, but there were already plans to provide another. Coogee Beach car parking areas were expanded around 2013, and while Port Coogee car park areas were constructed around 2013, the facilities would be expanded.
Something's gotta give?
Modern thinking recognises parking shouldn't expand indefinitely. The MRA's Scarborough Master Plan proposes an overall reduction of 234 bays to make way for new promenades and community amenities, including an 'intergenerational plaza' and Beach Pool.
Its transport consultant cited a foreshore revitalisation case study in New York that found reducing parking resulted in less traffic, and as a result improved amenity, safety and aesthetics.
"In particular, reduction of waterfront car parking helped to create a safer and quieter environment for people," the master plan's movement and parking report said.
Tow trucks recently rescued cars bogged in overflow 'parking' at Leighton. Photo: Supplied
"It also reduced traffic volumes along waterfront streets and improved sight lines from the city to the water. The reclaimed space became available for amenities and pop-ups, reinforcing the new waterfront experience."
The MRA has stuck to its guns, however, on the contested Esplanade road extension proposal into Bush Forever land along the foreshore at Scarborough, despite the anger of residents about the loss of the land.
And as Joondalup Mayor Troy Pickard says, much foreshore is protected by Bush Forever status, so it is difficult to develop new car parks.
Indeed, the state's coastal planning policy urges caution when considering further building on unstable, sensitive sand dune systems.
And it's not just Perth waterside councils thinking hard: Victoria's City of Port Phillip is planning a major conversion of ordinary parking spots into car share bays in the hope it will encourage thousands to give up their cars.
Until the future, when we park our hover cars at the beach...
There are some innovative approaches around.
Cars queue to enter Sorrento Beach's car park on a weekday afternoon. Photo: Supplied
The City of Joondalup is launching a licence plate recognition project at one of its busiest car parks at Mullaloo Beach to determine capacity, and is encouraging people to explore its coastline by foot or bike with directional signage along the Sunset Coast Trail.
Stirling has a strategic footpath program focusing on providing a footpath (connecting to the beaches) along those streets that provide additional on-street parking.
It also monitors bike parking to make sure facilities are working. For example, it recently noticed that surfer-cyclists were locking their bikes to the walls and fences at the southern North Beach car park, and has now installed new racks catering for six bikes.
As part of the Scarborough Beach redevelopment, 200 bike parking spaces will be provided.
Most councils have high quality, dual-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists and try to promote their use through their websites.
The path to and from Swanbourne Beach is classified as a 'High Quality Shared Path'.
Is there a better way? Photo: supplied
City and Floreat beaches can be accessed via the West Coast Highway shared path and The Boulevard and Oceanic Drive shared paths, or Transperth buses 81, 82 and 83.
A free blue CAT bus stops at South Beach.
Leighton Beach now has a universal access ramp to the beach from the new car park.
Mosman Beach's cycle and pedestrian pathways have spectacular river and ocean views – and in a municipality that small, there's no excuse for getting in the car for a dip in the ocean.
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