Should car sharing be required in developments?
Fairfax media published an article this week exploring the range of benefits that a car share scheme is able to provide to residents, developers and councils of a city. The car-sharing model is one that’s growing rapidly in many countries, and reflects a shift in the way that people are using their cars. In recent […]
Ok, I’m selling the Porsche!
A guest blog post from Parking & Traffic Consultants’ Senior Traffic Engineer and resident bicycle enthusiast, Andrew Morse. Well, I would if I owned one and here are two reasons why I would sell mine. Firstly, people who buy exotic cars will justify their purchase because they claim to want exquisite quality and exhilarating […]
Are Consultants useless and a waste of money?
An article recently contributed to Parking Today by Andrew Hill caught our eye. The article was called ‘Consultants are… “Useless,” “A Waste of Money”’, and in it, Andrew asks about one of the greatest challenges that consultants face: responding to accusations of over-charging for services or under-delivering on common sense solutions. He goes on to […]
Meanwhile on the Gold Coast
At the risk of sounding like all we do at Parking & Traffic Consultants is attend conferences, Kelvin Worthington will be presenting a paper at next week’s Campus Parking Workshop organised by the Parking Association of Australia on the topic of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) as they apply to hospitals and universities. He is presenting […]
Madame Parking follow up: Parking Hotel Puerta America
As a follow up to our post last week about Madrid’s ‘Madame Parking’, Teresa Sapey, we came across a great video which shows her talking about her recent project for Hotel Puerta America. Teresa talks about how the project came to be, as well as her inspiration for the design of the car park that […]
Tokyo cyclists get smartphone bike sharing
Whilst bike-sharing schemes are relatively commonplace in Europe, in Tokyo they are still a rarity, despite the fact that the Japanese are bike-crazy. The launch of a new bicycle-sharing service aims to change that, adding another layer of technological innovation to the existing model. The program, called Cosoado Cycles, not only places ‘cycle ports’ in […]
Australian airport regulations once again in focus
Australian Airports are again in conflict with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), with the incoming ACCC chairman making a speech singling out the airports as a particular focus of attention. Press reports from SMH.com.au quote Rod Sims, the ACCC chairman, as proposing greater regulation over the services provided by the privately owned airports, […]
Cycling in China and Australia
An article published last week on The Conversation drew comparisons between cycling in China and Australia, ultimately with the aim of applying learnings from the high bicycle usage in China to the growing but still infant usage in our country. The author, Matthew Burke, a research fellow at Griffith University, believes firstly that infrastructure is […]
Which lane today?
A guest post by Andrew Morse, our senior traffic engineer. A question was posted on a Linkedin group recently asking “does the ‘Keep Right Unless Overtaking’ rule still apply in the US?”. This got me thinking about the situation in Australia, where like other countries that drive on the sensible side of the road, the […]
For heaven’s sake can we stop queuing through intersections?
A guest post by Andrew Morse, our senior traffic engineering consultant There, I’ve said it and I feel much better. Well not really because every day I am astounded by the number of drivers who think it’s perfectly acceptable to enter an intersection (typically on amber) knowing full well that they can’t clear the intersection […]
Are new parking charges illegal?
According to the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, the Cotswold District Council (UK) recently voted to extend weekday parking charges to Sundays and apply a flat rate £1.50 fee for overnight parking between 6pm and 8am, in a bid to raise £55,000 extra revenue. In the newspaper article it is claimed that a UK parking consultant […]
Technology enabling greater vehicle utilisation
We have posted in the past a number of articles about car sharing, with companies such as GoGet operating in Australia and Zipcar in the US. Robin Chase, the founder Zipcar, talked at TED in 2007 about a range of other technology-enabled ways of reducing car usage, the first being technology to enable ‘ridesharing’ – […]
Melbourne CBD park values continue to rise
Fairfax reported this week that the value of individual car park bays in the Melbourne CBD are now selling up to $100,000, due to population growth and Melbourne City Council’s discouragement of long-term commercial parking. According to data from Savills Australia, state-titled single car parking bays, such as the Paramount complex in Bourke Street, are […]
Parking Today interviews university parking professionals
Following our post two weeks ago interviewing parking professional Barbara Chance on automated car parks, this week Parking Today magazine have published a summation of an interview with two parking professionals from the University of Texas, Austin, exploring the issues facing university campus parking. The two interviewees are Bob Harkins, Associate VP for Campus Safety […]
SA Transport Chief calls for reduced CBD car parking
The Advertiser reported this week that the chief executive of Adelaide City Council’s Transport Department has called for a reduction in the number of car spaces in the CBD, and an increase in parking pricing. Rod Hook, Transport Department chief executive, was reported by The Advertiser as saying that Adelaide commuters had become too used […]
Airport car parking prices and performance
According to a recently released Productivity Commission draft report, Australia’s five major airports have been found not to be misusing their market power in setting car parking and land access rates. The report, entitled ‘Economic Regulation of Airport Services’, differed from the findings of the report into airport parking prices by the Australian Competition and […]
An interview with Dr Barbara Chance on automated car parks
Following on from the World Parking Symposium at the end of June 2011, Cristina Lynn, Parking & Traffic Consultants Managing Partner, made a detour to Philadelphia to meet up with Dr. Barbara Chance of Chance Management Advisors. You would have met Barbara at the PAA’s biennial convention and exhibition held in Sydney in November 2010. […]
Canberra developers call for review of parking requirements
Following our recent post on the establishment of the Car Parking Advisory Committee to review changes to the car parking provisions (refer to our previous article here), Canberra is the latest Australian city to be reconsidering their minimum parking requirements. Developers are offering lower priced residential units and less traffic congestion in return for fewer […]
The future of the LA meter plan?
Following from our previous post, the LA Times Cartoonist Ted Rall has provided his projection of what the future of the dynamic pricing system could have in store. The full cartoon is published below, or you can view on the LA Times site here. Thank you to Donald Shoup for sending this to us this […]
Barcelona’s bike sharing program health benefits
Last week, we published excerpts from an article written by Chris Rissel, Professor of Public Health at University of Sydney, about the Melbourne bike sharing scheme. One of Rissel’s arguments was that the low uptake of the bike sharing schemes in Australia was in part due to the mandatory helmet laws, going on to suggest […]
How’s this for a value add service
While recently working on a project in Broken Hill one of our consultants, Kelvin Worthington, spotted this great example of a value add service. While getting your car washed you can have your pooch washed at the same time!
Pods from the car park at Heathrow Airport
London’s Heathrow Airport has recently launched a commercial personal rapid transit system, with 22 electric autopilot pods now shuttling 800 passengers a day back and forth from parking lots to the British Airways terminal. Called ULTra, or Urban Light Transport, the pods are a self-driving, electric-powered pods which can carry four to six passengers plus […]
Car park advertising firsts
We have recently come across two (self-claimed) ‘world firsts’ in car park advertising and media placements that may be of inspiration for car park owners or operators in an additional revenue stream for their businesses. The first is an advertising campaign in Sydney and Melbourne for car insurance client Allianz. The campaign has seen a […]
Sydney Tweed Cycle
The number of cyclists on Sydney roads is increasing every day, but this was taken to a new level on the morning of Sunday 30th July when over 150 dapper cyclists took to the CBD streets for the Sydney Tweed Cycle. The event was organised through the Sydney Cyclist website, following the success of similar […]
Newcastle considers variable car parking pricing
Newcastle City Council is currently considering a number of new on-street paid parking measures, including the possible introduction of a flexible pricing strategy, similar to the SFPark system currently being trialled in San Francisco. The new parking strategy is being driven by increased congestion in the city, and includes an extension of paid parking until […]
Proposed revised public transport model for Sydney
A report released by the Tourism Transport Forum has recommended that Sydney’s complex and unreliable public transport timetables should be scrapped and replaced by frequent peak-period bus, train and ferry services. According to the Daily Telegraph, the report recommends a major investment in technology to provide real-time information for commuters, with simple SMS texts and […]
Europe moves towards reducing cars in cities
Cristina Lynn, Parking & Traffic Consultants’ Managing Partner, is currently attending the World Parking Symposium in Canada, presenting a research paper on ‘How do Australian cities manage parking?’ Her research and presentation is in part based on a comparison with research developed by the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy in New York. You can […]
Brisbane’s Westfield Chermside introduces paid parking
Last week, Brisbane’s Westfield Chermside shopping centre announced plans to introduce paid parking. The shopping centre, previously providing free, unlimited parking, will now introduce paid parking for parking durations of over three hours, in a bid to stop commuters taking up spaces meant for shoppers. According to the Courier Mail, this will be the first […]
Barangaroo – errata corrige
During the week, we were contacted by Lend Lease in regards to our blog post last week about Barangaroo, titled ‘Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct faces transportation challenges‘. As a result, we would like to take the time to publish several points conveyed to us by Lend Lease’s communications team in relation to our post. First of all, […]
Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct faces transportation challenges
According to NSW’s Auditor-General, Peter Achterstraat, Sydney’s $6 billion Barangaroo development is at ‘considerable risk’, due to inadequate transport and lower-than-expected developer contributions. Wynyard Railway Station, which is expected to handle up to 63% of the commuters to the waterfront development is likely to reach capacity by 2017. The additional 14,300 predicted commuters won’t be […]