Vandalising parking meters: coming to a street near you!
I was recently directed to an article appearing in The Age about how the citizens of a Melbourne suburb literally dealt a blow to the Council’s attempts to manage parking in the district. They resorted to bashing up the meters with hammers and other hooligan-istic practices. I have to say that this is nothing new […]
Belgium takes a leap of faith into green street parking
For the Belgian town of Ghent, population of 600,000, the idea was simple: create a car-free street during the summer months and let the community decide what to do with the space. For a period of two months, 25 streets have been transformed into a perfect playground for kids. The crux of the idea is: […]
Happy PARK(ing) Day
Creativity and a forward thinking group of innovative designers, Rebar, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary park in downtown San Francisco. Bingo – a worldwide event was created – PARK(ing) Day. From its humble beginnings in 2005, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement and it is here in […]
Melbourne car parks valued at $100m+ up for sale
Two car parks located in Melbourne, have hit the market at a time when the number of purpose-built commercial car parks is rapidly declining. According to Urban Developer, the combined sale of these two car parks will see more than 1,000 parking bays on offer with a value of more than $100 million. This […]
Car-Free Areas announced for Central Park
A new initiative from the City of New York, Office of the Mayor, Bill de Blasio, has released some key improvements to major sections of Central Park, which will be solely dedicated to recreation. Improvements to Central Park and Prospect Park will make the majority of each park car-free. These changes will restore major sections […]
Creepy car parks – no thanks!
In terms of parking structures, it is likely that every person who drives will have at least three ready examples of “really bad car parks”, because unfortunately, they are commonplace. Whether they are “bad” in terms of design, signage, ease of use, traffic flow, safety or amenity (sometimes all of the above), these are the […]
New York: Parking Grand Central style
So you’re spending a lazy Sunday in New York browsing through the options for an apartment upgrade and you come across 443 Greenwich in Tribeca, New York offering (among the “amenities”) a car park inspired by Grand Central Station complete with valet parking, convenient bike racks and a dedicated entry ramp for cyclists. The following […]
Welcome to Parking Australia’s new president – Cristina Lynn
Photo credit: Parking Australia We would like to welcome the new President of Parking Australia, Cristina Lynn. At the Parking Australia event in Sydney on Wednesday 10th December, long standing President Larry Schneider announced his retirement from the role. Cristina is the Managing Partner at Parking and Traffic Consultants and has been actively involved in […]
Turning New York City’s parking lots into affordable housing
Photo Credit: Stefan Georgi/Flickr With New York City facing increasing pressure on housing affordability, the NYC based Institute for Public Architecture called for creative ideas and solutions for affordable housing. One of the most intriguing ideas came from fellows of the Institute Sagi Golan, Miriam Peterson and Nathan Rich, which targets the abundance of parking […]
Rise of the elevator car park
The evolution and adoption of the automobile as an everyday necessity is one of the most impacting of the 20th Century. In 1886 the ‘modern car’ was developed by Karl Benz and only 22 years later in 1908 the first Model T became available to the mass population. Move ahead only 20 years and the […]
Adelaide embraces Park(ing) Day 2014
Hats off to the City of Adelaide, putting Australia on the map as one of the southern hemisphere’s most enthusiastic supporters of World Park(ing) Day, set for September 19th. With its origins in 2005 in San Francisco, Park(ing) day is an annual event held on the third Friday of September, which sees parking spaces converted […]
2013 from the rear-vision mirror
Hard as it is to accept it, another year is about to end. When we ask ourselves “Where did it go?”, we realise that we have been too busy working to notice the passing of time! Appreciating Our Regular and New Clients 2013 has been a very successful year for us at Parking & Traffic Consultants. […]
Reclaiming your city – lessons from the transformation of NYC
Here’s an inspiring and interesting TED talk from Janette Sadik-Khan, the Transportation Commissioner of New York City, sharing her strategy for transforming urban areas into a place for people. In the space of five years, New York has been reclaimed by the people thanks to some bold moves in the area of transport and planning. […]
Putting the “Park” back in Parking
Mark your diaries – World Park(ing) Day will be celebrated around the globe on Friday, September 20th. This annual, worldwide “open-source” event gives people the opportunity to demonstrate their creativity and have some fun while “greening” our cities for the day. The concept is credited to the Rebar Group, a San Francisco design studio who […]
Car parks – the perfect solar opportunity
It’s a match made in heaven — car parks and the sun above. Why wouldn’t one take advantage of a free supply of energy will that could conceivably make a multi-story structure carbon-neutral? The beachside haven of Coffs Harbour has taken another step towards its goal of becoming a “solar city”. Councilmembers voted unanimously to […]
Auckland tolls to fund infrastructure crisis
Auckland is easily New Zealand’s largest city, and like many big cities it is suffering from a dearth of roads and transport infrastructure. Conservatively, traffic congestion is costing the city more than $1B in productivity per annum, a figure that is growing. In a high level report released recently “Funding Auckland’s Transport Future”, we’re told […]
The impact of driverless cars on our cities
As we posted in last week’s Wayfinding Forum, auto companies are now striving beyond the development of self-parking cars. They are building self-DRIVING cars. Whilst the technology has advanced rapidly in recent years, public acceptance and understanding is still in its infancy. This week, an interesting perspective was offered by The New York Times. The […]
Remember the Jetsons?
We complain about traffic snarls. We complain about transport links. We complain about airport processing queues. Well, it seems the creators of the imagined “Horizon System” had all this in mind when they submitted their winning entry to the Glasgow School of Art creative competition, offering a vision of the future of aviation. Watch their […]
Driving and parking – where have the people gone?
We’re told there would be fewer accidents and traffic snarls, and time spent looking for parking could be spent doing…..well, anything else. Thanks to Volvo, the fully automated, driverless car is now closer than ever. But are we ready for it? Volvo will become the first car manufacturer in the world to release a self-parking […]
Parking technology – the alternative option?
We often comment on Wayfinding Forum about the development of technology in our industry and how it is apparently streamlining the way we live. The previous article is a case in point. Subscribers may also recall articles we have written on fully automated parking garages, folding cars, underground bike parking and car park guidance systems […]
Japan’s underground bike parking solution
Tokyo is a metropolis of over 13 million people, all trying to get around by the best means possible. Overwhelming congestion means that car travel is sluggish and we’ve all seen images of “train pushers” (or oshiya) cramming passengers onto Japan’s subway system. As a result, cycling is trending as a preference for many commuters. […]
Cyclists take over the streets of Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia is the second most populous city in South America and one of the highest capitals in the world at a lofty 2625m above sea level. From Monday to Friday it is not unusual to hear ‘Bogotanos’ complaining about heavy traffic, pot-holed roads and an overburdened public transport network. However each Sunday and most […]
Commercial parking minimums in Latin America
Still in Colombia, take a look at this commentary from Reinventing Parking on a new parking policy guide that was launched last week in Bogotá. From the data provided, it is evident that there is a distinct split across South American countries in parking space provisions for new commercial buildings. The graph shows Mexico, Brazil […]
Opal expands to Sydney’s rail network
The NSW Government will extend the trial of its Opal smartcard ticketing system to some of Sydney’s trains from the end of this week. The trial, which has previously been introduced on two of Sydney’s ferry routes, will now include train stations on the City Circle and Bondi Junction lines. The rollout brings Sydney closer […]
Melbourne’s parking squeeze to tighten
As with many of the world’s big cities, Melbourne’s CBD is experiencing a chronic shortage of parking spaces, an issue that is likely to worsen in the coming years. According to The Age, over the past 13 years only 9551 car spaces have been added to the CBD’s supply of 38,085 commercial places while the […]
Quest to improve cycling safety in Otago NZ
Two recent deaths of cyclists on the streets of Dunedin have prompted councillors to investigate options for rejigging parking and traffic management protocols on some of the city’s busiest thoroughfares. The Otago Daily Times reported requests have been made to council and the NZ Transport Agency to investigate the option of increasing parking limits for […]
Tackling abuse of disabled parking spaces
Around the world, parking enforcement agencies battle with illegal use of disabled parking spaces by unauthorised drivers. On the Gold Coast, along with increasing fines, the city council hopes to ratify a proposal for photo IDs to be displayed with disabled parking permits. According to the Gold Coast News website, Councillor Bob La Castra admitted […]
Park-and-Ride: Not as helpful as you may think
A new study published in the Journal of Transport Geography, by Dutch researcher Giuliano Mingardo has revealed more unintended consequences of Park-and-Ride facilities in metro areas. The result of the study confirms earlier research that it can actually generate greater traffic as a result of its implementation. Research from the early 1990s found that park-and-ride […]
Is paid parking the solution for Canberra?
Following our post on Wayfinding Forum in January, the parking landscape in the ACT’s Parliamentary Triangle is about to change forever, but it may not be to everyone’s liking. In last week’s budget, Federal Treasurer, Wayne Swan announced 9,000 pay-parking spaces will be introduced in Parkes, Barton, Russel and Acton from July next year. At […]
Plans to arrest the parking crisis in Mumbai
India is the world’s second most populous nation and traffic on the streets of Mumbai reflects this. In fact, the number of cars in Mumbai has increased by 51% in the last six years, meaning not only is pollution and congestion on the rise, but the fight for parking spaces is too. As a result, […]