Why engage a parking consultant?

Parking consultants have a specific set of skills and knowledge to evaluate parking scenarios and propose the best solution considering the resources and characteristics of each situation. The International Parking Institute (IPI) highlighted six ways that hiring a parking consultant can save you time and money: Understanding the big parking (and transportation) picture A parking […]

Adelaide Car Park Value Hits the Roof

As reported in the Financial Review, a six level car park close to one of Adelaide’s major entertainment and higher education areas has sold to a local private buyer for $27 million. Located close to Rundle Mall and the University of Adelaide, the car park enticed a high level of interest due to the potential […]

Parking Meters – where did all the coins go?

$210,000 US = 840,000 coins = 21,000 rolls = 10,500 lbs = 4,800 kgs If councils around the globe need any more evidence to support the upgrade to meters accepting non cash payments (credit card, phone, prepaid cards), this story might be it.  An employee of the city of Buffalo, NY has been arrested and […]

Parking meter privatisation deal renegotiated by Chicago Mayor

Chicago City Mayor Rahm Emanuel is attempting to make up for what he describes as the mistakes of a previous administration by renegotiating its 75 year deal with the private company now responsible for running the city’s parking meters. In 2008, the Chicago Parking Meters group paid $1.15 billion for the lease to monetize about 36,000 […]

Can road pricing really improve urban productivity

 The Grattan Institute has this month released a report entitled, Productive Cities: Opportunity in a changing economy offering solutions to help increase economic productivity and efficiency in Australian cities. The report analyses housing, income and transport data in Australia’s four largest cities to show that while highly paid and qualified workers are living close to city […]

Parking lot manager in conspiracy to steal over a million dollars

A former parking lot manager at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC has pleaded guilty to his involvement in a conspiracy to steal more than $1 million in visitors’ parking fees. For just over three years, Abeselom Hailemariam was the manager at the 2,000-vehicle parking lot servicing the renowned museum precinct. […]

Car parking fee slashed to encourage investment

Port Adelaide Einfield Council has voted to reduce the penalty on new developments to encourage commercial investment. Under current regulations, in lieu of providing their quota of car parks required for new proposals, developers may choose to make a financial contribution to the Port Adelaide Centre Car Parking fund. Revenue raised by this fund goes towards upgrading or building new car […]

Jakarta’s off-street parking tariff hike to “cover loss insurance for car owners”

The doubling of Jakarta’s off-street parking tariffs to Rp 4,000 per hour (AUD$0.41) prior to the last year’s gubernatorial (City Governor) elections will be challenged in an Indonesian court. Lawyer David Tobing has filed a lawsuit against the Jakarta Legislative Council over the higher parking tariffs, claiming the unannounced hike by the former regime led […]

New York City’s parking privatisation on hold

New York City has scrapped a controversial plan to privatise its street-parking management system. The concept was designed to help ease the financial position of the city by generating a steady revenue stream under a leasing arrangement with the private sector, according to the Wall Street Journal. However opposition to the plan was strong, citing […]

Update on Hong Kong parking prices

In November, we reported that the cost of property prices for car parks in Hong Kong was going through the roof, following the introduction of measures from the government to cool the cost of property prices. Car parking spaces are now selling for more than some homes, with AU$276,000 being paid for a space in […]

Sydney Convention centre to be upgraded

The NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell announced last month plans to refurbish the convention, exhibition and entertainment precinct in Darling Harbour. The upgrade will see the area boast Australia’s largest convention and exhibition facilities, Sydney’s largest red carpet entertainment venue and a hotel complex of up to 900 rooms. A new urban neighbourhood in Haymarket will […]

Paying for parking by Etag is a reality (in Santiago!)

During our recent visit to the South American capital, we were able to witness the operation of a payment by e-tag in a large shopping centre car park. The system has been recently installed and the owner is expecting that use will increase very fast from a currently low 2% to around 40% of transactions. […]

Parking levy in Adelaide

The South Australian State Government has proposed a car park levy for the Adelaide City Council region, at a rate of $750 per space. According to AdelaideNow.com.au, the council has defended the decision, pointing out that Adelaide will still have cheaper parking fees and the highest number of available parking spaces than any other Australian […]

Parking and Traffic Consultants – 2012 year in review

2012 has been another eventful year for PTC. Many new clients joined the prestigious names in our portfolio, including Perth Airport, Health Infrastructure, Adelaide University and Leichhardt Council. Many other previous clients engaged us to do new work. Just to give you an idea, during the year we worked for these airports: Adelaide, Gold Coast, […]

Minimum parking requirements in Sacramento

The City of Sacramento, California, has announced a reduction in the number of parking spaces that new commercial and urban housing projects will be required to build. According to the Sacramento Bee, city planners say existing parking rules cause some would-be business owners to back away. For some apartment complexes and residential buildings, parking requirements […]

Sydney light rail project to be green lit

The first stage of the extension of Sydney’s light rail appears to be moving ahead, with the staged construction of a  line from the University of NSW in Randwick to the CBD expected to be announced this week. NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell will announce that work will start at the university and go to Central […]

Sydney’s rush hour traffic grinds to a halt

The release last week of the Auditor-General’s performance report into peak hour travel on Sydney’s major roads revealed that traffic is getting slower in the afternoon. However, the report says that there has been a minor improvement in travel times in the city’s morning peak hour. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the average afternoon […]

A year of ‘Parking and Traffic’ blogs in review

Feel like the year has passed you by too? If you’ve been too busy to stay on top of the parking and traffic industry news every week – never fear! Here is our annual round-up of the highs and lows, and headline-making stories from 2012. Parking and policy in Australia This year saw Parking & […]

Sydney’s bike lane network set to be completed

NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s push to take control of Sydney’s CBD transport may see the completion of the network of bike lanes. The committee set up by the government to take control of the city’s transport planning has endorsed the completion of the bike lane network by May next year. The committee gave new impetus […]

Sydney’s smartcard technology already behind the times

With the roll out of Sydney’s new ticketing system, the Opal card, starting on December 7, some transport experts are claiming that the system is “old technology”, already being replaced around the world. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, one analyst claims that the Opal card is 10 years too late, due to the rise […]

The soaring cost of a car park in Hong Kong

Following last week’s article on Mumbai’s car parking prices, it would seem that Hong Kong is also experiencing a similar boom in car parking property prices. Soaring property prices have seen the Hong Kong government introduce measures to cool residential property prices (which jumped 20% in the first nine months of this year), seeing many […]

Sydney public transport mapping

Mapping of Sydney’s public transport network has revealed that huge pockets of the city are disadvantaged when it comes to convenient and frequent transport services. According to ABC News, a community group called the Sydney Alliance has commissioned maps revealing the proximity and frequency of public transport services throughout greater Sydney. Key findings of the […]

Interest in electric vehicles is declining In the US

A new study conducted by Pike Research indicates that the number of people ‘extremely’ or ‘very interested’ in electric cars has declined in the last year, from 40% to 36%. According to Torquenews.com, key findings from the survey include: Consumers often cite insufficient range as a primary reason for their lack of interest in plug-in […]

13th Australian Parking Convention is a resounding success

Following in the steps of the November 2010 Convention, the Parking Association of Australia held its 13th event at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre earlier this week. The event was characterised by a high level of local and international speakers that had the delegates particularly riveted to their seats. The exhibiton, in Hall 6 […]

Public transport use in Sydney on the rise

Results from the latest Sydney transport Census snapshot released yesterday have revealed that public transport use is increasing, but the car remains the dominant mode for people commuting to work. In the five years to 2011, Sydney’s total workforce increased from 1.9 million to 2.06 million, with the proportion of people using public transport growing […]

Free 15-minute parking in Sydney CBD

The newly elected council of the City of Sydney is considering introducing 15 minutes free parking throughout the CBD. The first meeting of the council voted unanimously to conduct a feasibility study on the idea. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, parking allocation, charging and restrictions were the subject of debate between many of the […]

NSW’s proposed Opal ticketing system

Sydney residents can expect the first release of an electronic ticketing system at the end of 2012 as a part of the NSW Transport Master plan and a commitment in the NSW Budget, released in June. The ticketing system, called Opal, will be rolled out on Sydney’s ferries by the end of this year, before […]

Plug-in vehicles, plugged in policy?

A report from the UK’s Transport Select Committee recently published in Britain has claimed that sales of electric vehicles (EV’s) are on forecast for growth but remain relatively small despite the introduction of a Government plug-in grant. Incentives offered by the government include financial subsidies for consumers as well as funding for publicly available vehicle […]

Can the bicycle save the high street?

Following an article we published in March, Why cyclists are better customers for local businesses, we recently came across another article that also found that cyclists and pedestrians tend to spend more money in local economies. According to TreeHugger, both Portland, Oregon and New York’s East Village have found that streets that promote cycling and […]

Seeing the back of the car

Following our article last week, ‘Population density puts the squeeze on cars’, we came across an in-depth article from The Economist this week, titled ‘Seeing the back of the car’. The article explores how in the developed world, people seem to be driving less than they used to, with both car ownership and distances driven […]


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