Australia has some of world's most costly parking

Sydney and Melbourne have some of the most expensive parking rates in the world, according to research released Tuesday, as both cities try to encourage people to leave their cars at home. The Colliers International Parking Rate Survey has Oslo as the priciest place to park at $US89.04 a day, followed by Copenhagen at US$73.11, then Melbourne on US$69.53 and Sydney at US$67.42. The Indonesian capital Jakarta has the cheapest daily parking of the 156 cities surveyed at just 92 cents. Colliers national director of research Nerida Conisbee said council and government levies had pushed up costs in major Australian cities' central business districts (CBDs). "In Sydney and Melbourne's CBDs councils are actively discouraging people driving into the city," she said, adding that the strong Australian dollar had also increased the relative cost of parking. Earlier this month, the Economist Intelligence Unit's biennial cost of living survey showed Sydney and Melbourne are now the sixth and seventh most expensive cities on the planet, respectively. It attributed the rising cost of living to the soaring Aussie dollar, which this year passed parity with the greenback and was trading Tuesday at above 108 US cents, having spiked from around 50 US cents a decade ago.