Manly on-street parking limit under review
In Manly, Sydney’s busiest Northern Beaches traffic centre, the local council has attempted to manage their growing demands for parking with a reduction in the time limit for on-street parking to 30 minutes, with the intention of providing more ‘drop-in, drop-out’ spaces, and uniformity across the entire area. The limit, however, seems to be too […]
Auckland Downtown credit card scam and PCI compliance
Parking Today’s technology editor, Pete Goldin, posted this week about PCI compliance – the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.The PCI Data Security Standard is a multifaceted security standard that includes requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures. You can read more about the twelve core requirements […]
Christie Report on Sydney’s Transportation Development
On Saturday February 13, the Sydney Morning Herald published the first synopsis of the recommendations of the ‘Christie Report’, an independent inquiry headed by the State’s former rail and roads boss Ron Christie, and backed by the Herald. PCI has previously reported on several of the interim recommendations of the report (see Sydney’s Traffic Solutions? […]
Australian Parking Convention – guess who is coming to town?
A guest post from PCI Managing Partner Cristina Lynn Dear Subscribers, The Parking Association of Australia is organising its next biennial convention which will be held in Sydney (at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre) between 7th and 9th November 2010. As the chair of the Organising Committee and Treasurer of the PAA I would […]
The cost of building car parks in Belgium and California
Following on from our recent blog posts on the cost of building car parks in various cities (see our blog post How much does it cost to build a car park around the world), PCI published this data to the parking community via business networking communities. We received a good response to the information and […]
Preferential parking for hybrids
The Sydney Morning Herald reported on February 6 that parking operators are introducing preferential parking for owners of hybrid vehicles. According to the report, “three Sydney Westfield shopping centres now have hybrid-only parking spots, while councils such as Randwick offer priority places for hybrids and Mosman waves its $55 residential parking permit fee for the […]
New technology helps protect islands parking machines
After a run of thefts on their parking meters, the Isle of Wight Council has deployed a new technology designed to deter and assist with the apprehension of would-be vandals. The technology sprays a uniquely coded substance on anyone who illegally tampers with the machines. The harmless substance remains on the person for months and […]
Is New Zealand ready for a parking levy?
Following many blogs relating to the issue of parking levies in some cities of Australia, we came across a post on the Auckland Transport Blog, discussing the Auckland CBD Rail Tunnel, and what means might be implemented to fund this massive infrastructure project. The author proposes that Auckland should consider a flat rate parking tax […]
Apple and Yahoo working on parking technology
Over the past two weeks, we have noticed that first Yahoo, and then Apple, have filed patents for technology to track the availability of parking spaces. The Yahoo patent is based on a design that attaches sensors to individual parking lots, transmitting data that is tracked in real-time on Yahoo Maps. Interestingly, Apple also filed […]
Macquarie pulls out of parking operations in the US
Macquarie Infrastructure Company announced that its airport parking business, Parking Corporation of America Airports (“PCAA”), has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Bainbridge ZKS – Corinthian Holdings, LLC. The sale of the assets is the first step in a bankruptcy court-led sale. Bainbridge KZS – Corinthian Holdings, LLC look set to acquire $111.5 million […]
Brisbane’s Albert St Car Park gets a makeover
We came across a great example of the impact of improving the aesthetic appearance of a car park’s exterior at the recently completed property at 53 Albert Street, Brisbane. The major art installation on the façade of the multi-storey car park, completed by Urban Art Projects, has led to a ‘highly sustainable, visually compelling art […]
LAX reduces supply, increases prices
Los Angeles International Airport, the first port of call for almost every Australian travelling to the US, announced on December 31 that they would be closing the cheapest of their three parking lots (Parking Lot B) and converting it to employee parking only. Management claims that this change represents an effort to consolidate their parking […]
Parking fines determined by your income
Following on from previous posts on increases in parking fine revenues for Brisbane City Council and the ongoing battles at Balmoral, we have come across a very interesting development in Europe. Everything-Green website TreeHugger has drawn to our attention to the concept of tying speeding fines (and parking fines!) to the offending driver’s income. This […]
The most dangerous profession on Earth
If you thought that going to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan was dangerous, think again. The Courier Mail reported on January 6 of yet another incident of “parking ticket” rage, when a man was charged with assault, accused of trying to run down two Brisbane City Council parking inspectors in the CBD after they gave […]
A philosopher’s point of view
A guest article from the desk of PCI’s Managing Partner Cristina Lynn. During the Christmas break I was browsing in a bookshop and came across a small book titled “A week at the Airport – A Heathrow Diary” written by the controversial philosopher Alain de Botton. Having spent a significant part of my working days […]
How much does it cost to build a car park around the world?
Davis Langdon has published the twelfth edition of its Blue Book, a comprehensive document covering a wide range of topics related to the property and construction industry including the very important issue of sustainability in new and refurbished buildings. We found in it an interesting comparative table showing the cost of building multi storey car […]
Airport “mobile phone waiting lots”
The Age recently published an article drawing attention to an innovation being introduced at US airports: the mobile phone waiting lot. Since 2004, an increasing number of US airports have incorporated a free of charge area where family and friends picking up arriving passengers can wait in the relative safety and comfort of their cars. […]
2009 Wrap Up
This is our last blog update for 2009, and as such I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you, on behalf of the whole PCI team, a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2010. It’s been quite a year, I am sure you will all agree. We have seen significant consolidation in […]
Middle East Parking Conference videos
Parking World magazine have now published the first three of several video interviews captured during the Middle East Parking Conference held in Abu Dhabi last month. Declan Ryan, CEO of Database Consultants, Australia, spoke on vehicle detection technology, focusing on the quality of the information into a working practice in a city development. Tim Haahs […]
Davis Langdon Construction Sentiment Monitor December 2009
Davis Langton have just released their December 2009 Construction Sentiment Monitor report. The 2009 reports have seen growing positive attitudes and the December issue continues this trend. The report illustrates the following key findings: Costs return to top three problems Planning pressures easing Finance – greatest problem Sentiment continues to improve You can view the […]
Singapore’s green mall car parks
We’ve been reading up on the ‘Green Mark’ awards in Singapore, launched by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) in January 2005 to promote environmental awareness in the construction and real estate sectors. It is a benchmarking scheme that aims to achieve a sustainable built environment by incorporating best practices in environmental design and construction, […]
Black Friday: shopping responsibly
Last week, PCI blogged about Parking ‘Black Friday’ – Thanksgiving Friday in the US, and one of the busiest parking days of the year due to the number of shoppers looking to pick up holiday bargains. An initiative called ‘Buy Nothing Day’ has recently emerged in the US to coincide with one of the busiest […]
Parking ‘Black Friday’
As thanksgiving approaches in the US, parking operators are bracing for ‘Black Friday’ – one of the busiest parking days of the year. As shoppers venture out to do their holiday shopping, filling their vehicles with turkey and holiday festive stuffings, and families fly around the country to reunite with loved ones, airport and shopping […]
Car sharing as an example of post-capitalist cultural change
This week we came across an excerpt from an essay written by Catherine Marie Simpson on car sharing – Cars, Climates and Subjectivity: Car Sharing and Resisting Hegemonic Automobile Culture? – exploring the concept of a group of people owning one vehicle and sharing the usage collectively. We briefly touched on some of the digital […]
China will be the world’s largest car buyer in 2009
This article is republished in full from the Parking World (magazine) newsletter with the kind permission of Parking World. So where will these cars park? Monthly sales jumped nearly 80% year-on-year to 923,154 units in October 2009. China Passenger Association reported that in the first 10 months of 2009, sales of cars, sports-utility vehicles, minivans […]
Parking Guidance Systems
Cristina Lynn recently attended the 2nd Middle East Parking Conference held in Abu Dhabi where she delivered a paper on Parking Guidance Systems. Sensor-ship, why individual bay sensors provide the ultimate in car park management, explores the underlying customer service expectations, the technology driving the systems, and illustrates the benefits of a Parking Guidance System […]
Tertiary Parking Management Workshop
The first Tertiary Parking Management Workshop was held on 28 and 29 October in Perth at Curtin University’s Graduate School of Business. The event, organized and hosted by the Parking Association of Australia, provided a forum for parking professionals from a number of tertiary institutions around Australia to exchange ideas and experiences with regard to […]
The Price of Parking at Airports
Cristina Lynn recently attended the 2009 Australasian Airports Landside Transport Conference (AALTC) in Townsville, Queensland, where she spoke on the topic of airport parking charges. Her presentation explores the economics of parking at airports, both in Australia and internationally, with data and examples of how pricing should be determined as well as a global comparison […]
Cars being rude to pedestrians in New York City
New York City at the moment is undergoing an urban planning evolution project, called ‘livable streets’. However, just because there’s an evolution underway doesn’t mean that drivers have gotten the message. Cars blocking crosswalks, drivers failing to yield to pedestrians, unnecessary honking and a slew of other quality-of-walking violations are still a routine occurrence on […]
The people vs the parking police – part two
In Logan City (USA) a recent council decision to replace the on-street parking strips with park-strips (small strips of park and greenery to improve aesthetics) has resulted in… a lawsuit. Residents of the area argue that the City initiated the park-strip project too quickly, and feel that the actions are outside their authority, invoking the […]