New South Wales motorists have been declared the country’s worst parkers, just narrowly beating out those in Victoria, after an analysis of complaint data.
The mobile incident reporting service Snap Send Solve released its 2018 report of the most common gripes submitted by its users.
It found dodgy parking was the top issue across the country, with 14,758 reports in New South Wales alone, representing an 82 per cent year-on-year increase.
The Snap Send Solve app enables people to photograph an issue they see in their community and submit it as a report. It then sends the report to the responsible authority.
Danny Gorog, the service’s founder and chief executive, said illegal and unauthorised parking was one the biggest complaints last year.
Victoria racked up the second most complaints with 10,694 bad parkers dobbed in, up 61 per cent on 2017.
In Queensland, parking was also the top issue and accounted for 3566 reports, while in Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia it amounted to less than 1000 reports in each state.
“Dumped rubbish is another big issue that we see,” Mr Gorog said.
And while it happens in most Australian suburbs, figuring out who to tell — and how to tell them — is usually confusing and time-consuming.
“If you’ve ever been to your council website, you know how tricky it can be to find what you need,” he said.
“If you can snap an illegal parker or dumped rubbish and then a few days later it’s gone, it’s been resolved, it seems like magic.”
Dumped rubbish accounted for 14,324 complaints in Victoria and 10,469 in New South Wales but was not in the top three gripes in most other states.
“You can report most of the common issues, from graffiti to damaged pavements, problems with playgrounds to abandoned shopping trolleys. You can report illegal parking, water issues, dumped rubbish … pretty much anything.”
The app’s technology means the issue is flagged with the proper authority — Telstra for a telecommunications pit issue, a water body for broken pipes or drains, the grocery store in question for wayward trolleys and so on.
Mr Gorog came up with the genius idea while at the park with his young son about nine years ago when he tried to flag an issue with his council.
“I took my son to the playground around the corner from our house one day only to find that the swing was broken. He loved the swing. The chain on it to latch him in was busted and so he couldn’t go on. He went berserk,” Mr Gorog said.
“I tried to figure out who to tell about it to try to get it fixed. It was confusing and time-consuming. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if there was one place where you could make a report that went to the relevant authorities?’
“At the time there was a government competition in Victoria that was all about using publicly available data to do something interesting and useful in the community using mobile applications.”
Related story: Man furious after facing fine for parking in his own driveway
It quickly grew in popularity and last year Snap Send Solve handled more than 200,000 reports.
“It’s one app that does it all, which is great for the community,” Mr Gorog said.
“If you can save someone tripping over a damaged pavement, that’s worth it. If you can help someone with an issue in their area, it’s a great thing.”
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