National Parking Association launches parking industry Peer Networks
Last week, the US based National Parking Association (NPA) officially launched an industry program called Peer Networks, an international series of peer topic and trend discussions on leading parking and transportation industry issues. The Peer Networks have been created to provide an opportunity for parking and transportation professionals to build industry connections, learn best practices […]
New York’s bike lanes generate heated debate
New York’s current bicycle lane installation program is receiving a significant amount of press. A post to the New Yorker blog by economist writer John Cassidy provides the drivers’ perspective: ‘when the city introduces a bike lane on a given street, it removes dozens of parking places’. His concern is that that elimination of on […]
Parking mobile technology takes off
This week we have come across three new mobile phone applications, all designed to assist with parking in some form or another. Help2Park is an Android smart phone app that allows users to locate nearby parking stations. The user can set the radius within which to search from their current location, and they receive a […]
Shopping centres in the US debate charging station legislation
In the US, the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) is debating measures before the New Jersey Assembly that would require developers to provide electric vehicle charging stations at new shopping centres. According to the news article on the ICSC website: This legislation passed the Appropriations Committee this month and now goes to the full […]
iPhone app targets misuse of handicap parking spaces
A new iPhone app has been developed by a Canadian non-profit company, designed to both help handicapped people find accessible parking spaces – as well as report inappropriate use of the reserved spaces by drivers without a proper permit. Called Parking Mobility, it was developed by Vancouver resident Campbell MacDonald and his Calgary business partner […]
Electric storm on the way
An opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Drive’ section (written by Top Gear’s former ‘Stig’) explores and reports on test drives carried out on electric vehicles and sports cars. The article contains interesting comments on the technology and supporting infrastructure of the electric car, but we were mostly struck by the apparently inevitable […]
Melbourne City announces new automated parking monitoring system
This week, the Melbourne City Council announced the introduction of an electronic parking detection system throughout Melbourne’s CBD and Southbank. Utilising sensors installed in the ground beneath the parking spaces, and in conjunction with technology able to automatically read license plate numbers, the system monitors the length of time a car spends in a space. […]
Find Your Car system launched in LA
A camera-based ‘Find You Car’ system has been launched In Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Place. Shoppers can simply type in their registration number into a kiosk touch screen, which then displays a photo of their car and its location. According to system developers, consumers are more likely to return to shopping centres if they don’t […]
Goulburn St Car Park upgrades to LED lighting
Sydney’s Goulburn Street Car Park has converted its 850 fluorescent lights to light emitting diodes (LEDs). The lighting upgrade is forecast to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 220 tonnes per year and save 206 mWh of electricity per year (the equivalent energy used by 28 typical Sydney households annually) equivalent to approximately $26,000 pa. A […]
China’s 3D fast bus update
In August last year we reported on a planned traffic and transportation system from China: a ‘fast bus’ that straddles the street, allowing it to run over cars and under underpasses at up to 40kmph. Last week, TreeHugger reported an update on the fast bus – which doesn’t appear to be progressing very fast at […]
Urban planner Jan Gehl discusses Sydney’s potential
The City of Sydney recently hosted a series of ‘City Talks’ at the Sydney Town Hall, exploring how the city can become a better place to live in for all residents. This included a presentation by Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of New York City’s Transport Department; as well as a panel discussion and debate on how […]
An environmentally advanced parking lot
A new parking lot constructed at Denver airport claims to be the most environmentally advanced open-air parking lot in North America. The parking lot includes 4,200-spaces and it incorporates virtually every green construction innovation available, including water-permeable pavement, contaminated water treatment, solar-electric energy, wind turbines, geothermal heating systems, state of-the-art LED lighting and electric vehicle […]
Westfield launches virtual shopping mall
Over the past few weeks the Australian media has been following closely over the past weeks the push from prominent goods retailers to lobby the government to ban tax-free online shopping in Australia, which has seen a significant public backlash against the retailers. This week, Westfield announced the launch of a new ‘virtual mall’, grouping its […]
Parking Consultants: 2010 in review
2010 was an exciting year for us and, although it seems to have flown by, when we look at what we have achieved it looks like at least we were not idle! Working back, we close the year with a new name “Parking & Traffic Consultants” to reflect our additional service offering. As you may […]
Monetising bicycle sharing schemes
Whilst there has been growing attention paid to bicycle sharing schemes around the world, one of the biggest challenges they face is that they rely exclusively on the self-motivation of the users, reassuring themselves as to the health and mental outlook benefits of biking as an alternative to driving. An innovation from a New York […]
China’s record jam and examining traffic math
In China last August, a massive traffic jam on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway in Huailai, caused by road construction in Beijing, stretched for dozens of miles and lasted for over ten days. The stretch of highway has been frequently congested, especially since large coalfields were discovered in Inner Mongolia. It prompted the Wall Street Journal to […]
Criticism against Sydney Council’s car share program
We have recently focused on the emergence of Car Sharing, both in Australia and across the world, from a planning, development and parking perspective. For the most part, our coverage of car sharing programs has concentrated on the benefits of car sharing programs, and how the City of Sydney in particular has enthusiastically embraced them. […]
VicRoads launch SmarkPark application
We have posted several articles recently about a range of new mobile technologies and location-based applications for parking. For the most part, these have been built as open software, from consumers, for consumers, to aggregate parking information – either by pricing or by availability. Until now, at least in Australia, we were not aware of […]
Debate continues over high-rise Barangaroo developments
In contrast to the residential sprawl of Sydney’s west, the development of Sydney’s urban precinct Barangaroo is only going up and up. Last week, developers Lend Lease released the plans for the first of three giant office towers for the East Darling Harbour development, known as ‘C4’. According to developers, C4 will be the ‘greenest business address in the […]
Australian Parking Convention day two photo gallery
Following the successful second day of the Australian Parking Convention 2010, Parking and Traffic Consultants’ resident photographer Grant MacLean has supplied additional photographs capturing all of the action from the Convention. In the below slideshow, you can see several of the keynote speakers from day two, including shots from the conference floor and exhibitors stands, […]
Australian Parking Convention day one photo gallery
With day one of the Australian Parking Convention 2010 complete, Parking Consultants have sourced some photographs of the event and activities of day one. In the below slideshow, you can see several of the keynote speakers from day one, the opening address from Larry Schneider, the presentation of the Awards For Excellence at the Convention […]
The fairness of parking fines
For those of our readers unfamiliar with the work of APC keynote speaker Donald Shoup, he published this week an article in the Los Angeles Times entitled ‘Parking-fine fairness’. The article talks about a proposed ‘graduated’ system of parking fines – charting higher fines for repeated parking offenses. Shoup states that most cities use parking […]
Understanding more about electric cars
The approaching Australian Parking Convention will address, amongst other topics, issues relating to the advent of the electric motor vehicle and its repercussions for car park owners, operators and drivers in general. Dr. Andrew Simpson of Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy Institute will make a presentation titled “Planning for Renewable Electric Transport”. The title of the […]
Parking Consultants employs Traffic Engineer Andrew Morse
As part of our long-term growth strategy, we are pleased to announce that we have engaged a qualified and experienced traffic engineer. Andrew Morse is a qualified Traffic Engineer and is a member of the Australian Institute of Traffic Planning & Management (AITPM). He will be leading the traffic planning division of Parking Consultants, drawing […]
Automated car park in Birmingham
A new car park in Birmingham has been made possible by the installation of a sophisticated £2m robotic system that enables cars to park themselves. The car park is situated 20 metres (65ft) below ‘The Cube’, a canal-side office and apartment development, access to which is hampered by nearby shops and bars. The use of […]
The world’s 10 most beautiful parking garages
We came across a fantastic gallery this week of ten of the most beautiful car park designs around the world. Whilst there are some well known sites in the list, there are others which we did not know about. Our favourites include the Greenway Self Park, Chicago designed by HOK, the Michigan Theatre Parking Garage, […]
Parking Consultants interview APC speaker Colin Chodos
This week, we came across an article in the Australian Financial Review, called ‘Create a hook factor to keep staff motivated and thriving’. The article discusses the deeper reasons why people can engage with their employer and their roles. You can read the article in full here. Inspiring us to pursue the matter further within […]
Traffic lights that think for themselves
The ways in which traffic signals handle oncoming vehicles is a complicated science, and how well engineers manage that science impacts on how much traffic congestion we experience while driving. A new patent on self-organising traffic signals, which aim to manage the flow of vehicles to minimise waiting at intersections by doing the ‘thinking’ for […]
City of Sydney trials electric vehicle within fleet
Last week (Tuesday Sept 7), the City of Sydney announced that it is trialing a new electric car as a potential component of its council fleet. Whilst Council currently has 43 hybrids in its fleet of 150, this is the first fully electric car. Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore sees the car trial as ‘a […]
Launch of ‘Reinventing Parking’ blog
Singapore-based academic Paul Barter (Assistant Professor of LKY School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore), has launched in the past two weeks a new parking resource – a blog called ‘Reinventing Parking’. Paul has been running a blog on the wider topic of ‘Urban Transport’ for some time now, but as his interest and […]