Canberra Airport plans to build high-speed rail station
Canberra Airport has unveiled plans to build a A$140 million high-speed rail facility next to its new airport terminal, in a bid to transform the gateway into a multi-modal hub and eliminate the need for a second Sydney airport. According to a federal government study, a high speed rail link between the two cities would […]
Transport blueprint recommends user-pays roads
A report published by the Infrastructure Finance Working Group, a Gillard government taskforce comprising of Treasury officials and experts from ANZ, KPMG, Royal Bank of Scotland, Alinta Energy and industry associations, has recommended a stronger push towards the user-pays approach to infrastructure financing used in toll roads. According to the Australian Financial Review, charges such […]
UK pilots electric-only car share scheme
A car sharing group in the UK will be the first in the country to exclusively use electric vehicles. The scheme, run by Sustainable Venture Development, will be piloted in north Oxfordshire. According to BBC.co.uk, the cars will have dedicated bays on the street, beside which there will be specific fast-charging infrastructure installed, ensuring that […]
Parking news from around Australia
In a quick summary of other news from around the parking and traffic world this week, the press is once again taking aim at airports, this time comparing the cost of parking a car to the cost of parking a plane. The article compares the base rates for parking against each other (finding that it […]
The 250km traffic jam
Following the ten-day traffic jam in China in 2010, Brazil recently notched up an ignominious record of their own: a traffic jam that stretched for 250km. A strike by workers on Sao Paulo’s subway and commuter train system in late May forced 20 million commuters into cars, creating a traffic jam that authorities estimate covered […]
Should new freeways be tolled?
In a follow up to last week’s article on the recommendations of a government taskforce that users should pay for all new toll roads and infrastructure financing, Alan Davies of Crikey.com also explored whether new freeways should be tolled. Davies claims that the argument for tolls is straightforward – they provide the ultimate test of […]
Nurses protest over parking charges
In the UK, nurses and health workers protested over a proposed increase in car parking charges to £40 a month for staff and patients’ relatives. Over five hundred nurses and staff have signed a petition opposing the imposition of the increased parking charges. According to The Guardian, those against the plan claim that staff will […]
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 […]
Private parking operators ordered to stop misleading
The Victorian Supreme Court has ordered private car park operators who issue unlawful parking ‘fines’ to stop using misleading tactics. The court’s decision confirms that private parking operators cannot levy fines or prosecute motorists who stay overtime or do not display a ticket. It was alleged that a number of car park operators had breached […]
Executives value their car parks
An article published in the Sydney Morning Herald this week rated and ranked the top ‘extras’ in demand by senior business executives. A car park ranked as the third most in-demand perk; following money and holidays. (The fourth and fifth most important factors were flexibility and relocation). Given the scarcity of CBD car parks, the […]
New York car space expected to sell for $1m
An undercover car parking space in Manhattan is expected to sell for over $1 million, according to the New York Post. The garage is twice the height of an average space at 4.5m high, meaning that the owner could install a car elevator and allow two cars to be parked at the one time. The […]
New York explores private deal for parking meters
New York City is exploring the possibility of privatising the running of its 39,000 parking meters, currently researching mistakes made by other cities and exploring potential bidders. According to the Wall Street Journal, NYC officials are motivated in part by a belief that a private company could help alleviate some of the well-known frustrations of […]
Washington DC approves plan to expand ‘performance parking’
A council committee in Washington DC has approved a plan to allow city officials to manage the demand for parking spaces by adjusting parking prices, taking inspiration from San Francisco’s SFpark program. Under the plan, city officials would be able to adjust parking meter rates, length and times of operations, parking fines and residential parking […]
Minimum parking to blame for LA’s commercial inefficiency
Thanks to Paul Barter’s Reinventing Parking blog, we came across an article this week that explored how the minimum parking requirements in Los Angeles have had a negative impact on street life and force property owners to use their blocks of land highly inefficiently. For us the clearest representation of how the minimum parking requirements […]
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 […]
…as Monorail’s planned demolition calls for higher line
Due to be demolished to make way for the redevelopment of Darling Harbour, Sydney’s monorail has seen significant debate over what should happen to the structure once dismantled. Landscape architect David Vago has drawn up a plan to take inspiration from New York’s famous High Line (see our blog post about the High Line here!), […]
Sydney’s Darling Harbour to be rebuilt..
The NSW government announced last week that the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Convention Centre and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour will be closed for three years while they are expanded or replaced under a $1 billion upgrade approved by NSW cabinet. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the precinct will be expanded with a view to […]
Display garages
A new type of garage is on sale from architects EcoSpace which turns the once humble and hidden away parking garage into the centrepiece of your back garden. The modular garage is designed to be a showroom for your car, with features like ambient lighting, floor-to-ceiling glazing and even modular storage systems available. Security is […]
Pre-booking parking at airports
We came across an interesting article which explores the pre-booked parking phenomenon and why it is commonplace in the UK – accounting for around 20% of airport parking – but almost non-existent around the rest of the world. The article’s author, Chris Wortley, asserts that the practice came about from two factors: high prices at […]
NFC payments in parking
Near field communication (NFC) technology allows secure data to be transmitted from a device or object to exchange information or even conduct electronic transactions with a tap. The technology is already embedded in many chip credit cards, and mobile phone providers are moving to roll out handsets which are NFC enabled, allowing users to pay […]
Turning parking lots into better public spaces
The New York Times recently carried an article by Eran Ben-Joseph, a professor of urban planning at MIT and author of ‘Rethinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking’. In it, Ben-Joseph shares his vision for transforming the parking lot into a space beyond simply providing parking availability and convenience. He believes that the […]
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 […]
Melbourne Airport’s Southern Precinct project
The Southern Precinct project and expansion of Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport is part of a proposed program of investment by Melbourne Airport over the next five years. The expansion project is budgeted to cost in excess of A$1 billion. According to MICEBTN magazine, Stage 1 of the project is focused on the area south of the […]
Mercedes pushing digital innovation
We have come across two technological innovations this week from auto manufacturer Mercedes that are pushing the boundaries in parking and driving. The first sees the integration of Apple’s voice recognition technology (called ‘Siri’) into their vehicles, allowing users to access their iPhone and applications through voice commands. According to Discovery.com, the system will transfer […]
Volvo pedestrian air bags a hit
Volvo has recently announced a world first in the introduction of a new safety technology it calls Pedestrian Detection. According to ZDNet, it’s part of Volvo’s IntelliSafe system that, in the first instance, will brake sharply if someone steps in the way. If the car goes on to hit someone, an external airbag on the […]
Pay by phone may now become a reality
The NSW government has recently changed legislation for on-street parking, paving the way for the introduction of ‘phone parking’. After registering their details with a third party operator, drivers would then either use a smartphone application or call a toll-free number to send their car registration details to the system, advising of their arrival in […]
Shrinkable cars are all the rage
Following last week’s post about MIT’s ‘folding’ Hiriko City Car, scientists have unveiled a similar 2.1m ‘pod’ car that can shrink to fit into tight parking spaces. The car’s length can be reduced by 50 centimetres by the driver for those tight parking spots, and like the Hiriko, it also features wheels that can turn […]
Dynamic on-street pricing overview
We came across a video on the Parking Today site this week that explains how dynamic pricing for on-street meters works. Created by IPS Smart Meters, the company responsible for San Francisco’s SFPark project, the video features contributions from Donald Shoup, John Van Horn and many more. It’s a simple overview of how the technology […]
London 2012 sets out venue parking plans
The world’s biggest transportation and parking challenge (the Olympics) has seen the London 2012 Organising Committee publish proposals for parking management and parking plans around all Olympic and Paralympic venues in London. According to the Organising Committee’s press release, the proposed plans would see a number of traffic alterations and parking restrictions in the vicinity […]