Wellington's new senor parking machines will mean the end of displaying tickets on your dashboard, but will also let parking wardens known when you have run out of time.

The days of being able to outsmart Wellington's parking wardens are officially over.

About 3000 central city car parks, between Molesworth St and Courtenay Place, are to be fitted with electronic sensors that will tip off wardens the second your time is up.

But those sensors will also open the door for new technologies that will allow motorists to add money to their parking meter remotely and track every available car park in the city..

WELLINGTON CITY COUNCIL An example of the parking information Wellington's new sensor car parking app and website will display, including where every available car park in the city is. This is not the final design.

Wellington City Council has decided to press ahead with the new sensor park technology after a successful trial in Blair and Allen Sts. The project will cost $1.4 million.

The switch to what has affectionately been dubbed "pay and walk away" parking will mean the end of printing out paper tickets and displaying them on your dashboard.

It will also see the introduction of a new smartphone app and a website that will alert motorists when their time is running low and allow them to "top up" their parking meter from anywhere.

The app and website will also display in real-time which car parks are occupied and which are empty.

READ MORE

* Wellington parking sensors proposed

* Parking sensors replace paper tickets

* Sensor trial extended to include disability parks

But that technology will allow parking wardens to pinpoint the location of every parking overstayer in the capital. That includes suburban shopping areas, which are likely to receive the new sensor parks after the central city.

Mobility parking passes and company cars will eventually be able to "talk" to the sensors, meaning wardens will know when people are using disabled car parks and loading zones illegally, or have parked over fire hydrants.

Businesses will also be able to access monthly reports that show everywhere their company cars have been parked, and for how long.

Project manager Philip Simpson said the new parking machines would still be able to print receipts. But with the cost of printing tickets and collecting cash expected to dramatically reduce, it was hoped the cost of parking would also come down eventually.

Andy Foster, the council's transport and urban development committee chairman, said he expected wardens would be issuing less tickets with the new technology in place, given there would be greater compliance.

The sensor information could eventually allow the council to have different parking rates in different parts of the city, or extending free parking periods if the two hours offered on weekends was found to be not long enough, he said.

Reducing litter was also a big plus of the new system, as the council often had complaints about parking meter tickets lining gutters and turning up on the city's beaches.

Chamber of Commerce chief executive John Milford said the new technology would encourage more shoppers into the central city because they would know people aren't "hogging all the parks".

"We're all time-poor, so any technology that makes us less time-poor is a good thing. Having to drive around the city for an hour trying to find a park is not a good look for Wellington."

Automobile Association spokesman Mark Stockdale said any technology that helped cut down the the "frustrating" $12 fines motorists got when their meter ran out was a good thing.

HOW DO THEY WORK?

* You find a space, which will have a unique number printed on it. You then enter that number into the nearest pay machine. App users will be able to do this through their smartphone rather than go to the machine.

* You will still be able to select an amount of time and pay in advance but you will not have to return to your car to display a ticket on your dashboard.

* App users will be able to start a timer on their smartphone when they arrive and stop in when they leave, meaning they only pay for the exact number of seconds they use the car park.

* The app will also generate alerts when your time is running low and will allow you to top up the metre from anywhere.

BY THE NUMBERS

3000 car parks will be installed with sensors from March

800 are likely to be switched on in June, with the rest coming online over time

300 pay machines will be converted to the new technology

1.4 million dollars will be spent on the roll out