Saga City film on urban planning
This week we came across a film on the website of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute called Saga City. This short film is intended to show how our communities can tackle the challenges of urban planning and vehicle emissions, as well as learning more about the impacts of our current development patterns. The film is […]
Riders want footpath parking for motorcycles in Perth
In Perth, the Motorcycle Riders Association is calling on the government to allow motorcycles and scooters to be able to park on public walkways in Perth city. According to ABC online, they are calling for a trial policy similar to Melbourne, allowing motorcycles to park on footpaths and concrete public spaces, providing the vehicle is […]
Sustainability in parking
Sustainability and ‘green’ parking solutions have received a lot of attention in the media of late, with this blog in particular giving the cause solid support. And whilst sustainability has predominantly focused on the environmental aspects of maintenance and responsibility, it’s important to remember that long-term sustainability also encompasses other aspects: economic and social dimensions. […]
Citibank sponsors NYC’s bike sharing system
In New York, Citibank have announced that they are sponsoring and commercialising the bike share system. To be renamed Citi Bike, the system will be 100% privately funded with 600 stations and 10,000 bikes in Manhattan and Brooklyn. According to TreeHugger, Citi Bike’s pricing is listed as $95 for an annual pass, $25 for a […]
Is there a worldwide parking problem?
Following our recent post on Eran Ben-Joseph’s book, ‘Rethinking a Lot’, The BBC have also picked up on the story. They summarise some of Ben-Joseph’s key recommendations for improving parking lots to make them more ‘environmentally responsible’ and ‘aesthetically pleasing’ as follows: Better design. Citing Miami’s car park as a prime example, drawing on great design […]
Vacuum tube transport system
In one of the stranger articles we’ve come across this week, the concept of the Evacuated Tube Transport system, from design group et3.com, will see 16ft long capsules of humans traveling at around 6,500km/h and around the world in less than six hours. According to The Creators Project, the Evacuated Tube Transport features a range […]
Turning roads into solar panels
A US-based company has developed a concept prototype for a ‘solar roadway’ – a series of structurally engineered solar panels that can be driven on. < The concept sees roads literally replaced by the solar panels, which when linked together effectively serve as an energy grid itself. Any home or business connected to the Solar […]
Why cyclists are better customers for local businesses
A recent post on the DC Streets Blog examined the economic effects of cycling, and specifically exploring the notion that an investment in cycling infrastructure generally will limit car parking. The article quotes a few numbers, statistics and pieces of information around the economic benefits of the bicycle over the car. We’ve summarised some of the […]
How green are EVs in China?
A recent study by researchers at the University of Tennessee has explored the impact of electric vehicles on China’s air quality and particulate matter emissions (the most likely to result in health issues). According to the study published in TreeHugger, the particulate matter impacts per passenger-km in most Chinese cities are greater for e-cars than […]
France grants cyclists the right to run red lights
Following a nationwide pro-cycling campaign, the French government has issued a decree allowing cyclists in some cities to disregard red lights at certain intersections. Until now cyclists have been subject to the same rules of the road as other vehicles. According to TreeHugger, the newly relaxed road rules for cyclists are now being tested across […]
How are electric vehicle sales performing?
Figures released this week from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said that only 49 electric cars were sold in Australia last year, in a market that topped 1 million total vehicles for the first time. According to the SMH, the number of electric vehicles sold declined by 9.9 per cent on 2010. Whilst politicians […]
Dutch bicycle congestion
The Dutch are facing the consequences of their own cycling success, including congestion, lack of parking and infrastructure. In a country where bicycles outnumber people by 1.2 million, the Dutch have simply run out of space to accommodate the 5 million cyclists who take to the road every day. In Amsterdam alone, 490,000 cyclists travel […]
London’s bendy buses no more
London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, has made good another of his promises, seeing the large ‘bendy buses’ removed from the city’s public transport system. Whilst removing larger vehicles with greater capacity may seem counter-intuitive, an article on TreeHugger discusses the pros and cons of removing the buses: They are faster to board, having three sets of […]
Parking news review 2011
Another year, another summary. In what has become an annual tradition, we try and distil the key news and trends from the Wayfinding Forum blog. It’s no easy job, with just under 200 posts published every year… Parking rates and sentiment In 2011, Australian parking rates and the construction industry sentiment were inversely proportional. Sydney […]
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 […]
Fast electric car charging technology
Whilst it may be 10 years away from commercial production, technology has been developed in Japan that may solve one of the biggest challenges facing electric cars: long charging times. While current electric car models can take up to eight hours to be fully charged, the SMH reports that this new technology can replenish a car’s battery […]
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 […]
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 […]
Ride to work day
Yesterday, October 12, Australia held an annual ‘Ride to Work Day’. The initiative, organised by Bicycle Network Victoria, saw a big turnout across the country, with Fairfax media reporting an estimated 150,000 participants nationally (of which 40,000 in Victoria). An estimated 3.6 million Australians already ride their bikes at least once a week, with 1.1 […]
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’ – […]
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 […]
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 […]
Are helmet laws reducing Melbourne’s bike share usage?
We recently published an article entitled ‘Why is Melbourne’s bike sharing scheme underperforming’, which explored a range of possible reasons as to why the sharing scheme is seeing underutilisation and lower than projected rider numbers. One of the reasons suggested was the compulsory helmet laws. An article published on The Conversation on August 9 by […]
Does parking supply influence transport planning?
Sareco, a Paris-based firm, recently published a paper that explores car parking management and transport policies, and their influence on greenhouse gas emissions. Notably, the paper claims that most urban trips (both for commuting and pleasure) are influenced by the parking conditions at their origin and destination. Further, a research paper by UK-based academic Adrian […]
This is one way to enforce parking rules!
To show that he doesn’t like people parking in bicycle lanes in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius’ mayor has released a video showing him ‘taking matters into his own hands’. The infringement-fighting mayor is shown driving a tank and running over a parked Mercedes, sweeping up the debris and then riding off into the sunset […]
Canberra electric vehicle charging network rolls out
The construction of Australia’s first full service electric vehicle charging network is underway in Canberra, which is currently operating on a limited scale but due to offer a full service from the second quarter of next year. According to the Australian Financial Review, the nation’s capital has been targeted because the city’s households have 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 […]
Post-Carmageddon lessons
The Los Angeles Times published an opinion piece this week following Carmageddon, opening with a line that we think is great: ‘Now that we’ve finished freaking out about the weekend closure of 10 miles of the 405 Freeway, can we do something about the fact that it’s Carmageddon every single day in West Los Angeles?’ […]
Sydney car park to install solar panels on rooftop
Willoughby Council has announced plans to install the biggest council-owned solar farm on the rooftop of Chatswood’s Albert Avenue car park. The project, which will see 140 solar panels installed on the rooftop of the car park, is the first part of a three-year plan to build a 300-kilowatt energy system that will provide power […]
New York to create a pedestrian wayfinding system
This week, New York City’s Department of Transportation announced that they were planning to add signage to the streets to help pedestrians navigate the city more easily. The wayfinding system will provide clear signs that tell people their location, how long it takes to walk to key locations and gives a map of the area. […]