China looks for solutions to growing traffic problems
Following our recent report on the ten-day traffic jam in Huailai, China, we note that the country has started to attempt tackling the rapidly increasing issue of car traffic and congestion. With around 2,000 new cars coming onto the roads of Beijing every day, short term measures to try and control the traffic include higher […]
Don’t try this in your car park!
One of our European bloggers sent us information on an installation by Swedish artist Gustav Hellberg, who has created an accessible and interactive work of art made up of 24 automatic ABACUS barriers. The barrier arms are raised and lowered randomly by a central control unit, thus constantly opening up and closing down sections within […]
Where will the cars and the parking spaces go?
A guest post from PCI’s Managing Partner Cristina Lynn A couple of days after the conclusion of the 12th Australian Parking Convention, a lively debate took place at the Sydney Town Hall as part of the City Talks 2010 series. Hosted by the Lord Mayor Clover Moore, the talk on Thursday 11th November was titled […]
Dallas Fort Worth Airport – Parking Consultant recommendations
With the NPA’s survey showing that parking operations in the US, and particularly at airports, are reporting decreasing revenues, we thought that recently published recommendations of a parking consultant at Dallas Fort Worth Airport would be interesting to our readers. According to the Dallas News, the highlights of the consultant’s recommendations are: D/FW should launch […]
NPA Third Annual Parking Survey
The National Parking Association (USA) released their Third Annual Review of Parking Rates in North America this month. Key findings of this year’s study include: Parking facilities in and near airports were hit hardest, with 56 percent of on-airport and 44 percent of off-airport facilities reporting a decrease in 2009 revenues. Municipal operators and facilities […]
Is Perth the new Melbourne?
On a recent trip to Perth we took the opportunity of visiting the car park under the newly refurbished Condor Tower. Rather than painting the multi level underground car park in the usual regulation grey (or the more unusual bright white) the developer of the site was keen to do something different. And to that […]
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 […]
Drivers ‘spend a year looking for spaces’
A UK survey released this week claims that drivers lose a year of their lives searching for a parking space – the equivalent of more than six days a year circling streets and car parks looking for a spot. Based on a motorists’ driving ‘life’ of around 50 years, the lost time adds up to […]
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 […]
Australian Parking Convention starts in a few days!
The 2010 Australian Parking Convention is due to commence at the end of this week, and Parking Consultants would strongly encourage members of the parking community across Australia to attend and make the most of the global knowledge that will be shared at the event. Running from Sunday November 7 – Tuesday November 9, the […]
The Parking Lot Movie
The trailer for ‘The Parking Lot Movie’ has just come online, following screenings at a number of film festivals around the world. It certainly looks like an interesting take on parking and the ‘American Dream’. From the Parking Lot Movie website; a synopsis of the film: Hailed as the “most feel-good film” of the South […]
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 Convention Update – register to win a prize!
With the 2010 Australian Parking Convention fast approaching (only 38 days to go!), the APC has published additional information about the conference. The Convention website contains a detailed program, with abstracts on the following presentations: Barbara J. Chance: Is the meter running out on people in parking? Michael Julian: How to manage security in car […]
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 […]
Shoup vs O’Toole on the market for (free) parking
Throughout September, we have been following a (very public) discussion between Donald Shoup and Randal O’Toole (a Cato Institute Senior Fellow working on urban growth, public land, and transportation issues, read full bio here). The discussion started when O’Toole responded to an article in the New York Times, penned by Tyler Cowan, which explained some […]
British Parking Association publishes Hospital Parking Charter
Last weekend I was catching up on a backlog of industry publications and read an interesting article by Peter Guest in the June 2010 edition of Parking World which reminded me of a related article we recently posted in our blog. The subject of Peter’s article was Hospital Parking and the on-going discussions about whether […]
Card security breached in Queenstown
Last week, a number of credit card scams hit Queenstown (New Zealand), with the Man Street car park the focus of the breach of security. Customers who had used their credit cards for payments at the car park were phoned by their card companies and notified that fraudulent transactions had taken place later in the […]
A wall of bicycles
For our longer-term subscribers of the PCI blog, you may remember the ‘wall of cars’ we reported in Adelaide (see our post ‘Vertical car park’ here). We think we’ve come across its equal this week – a wall of bicycles in Germany! Over time, the number of bikes has increase as people trade their old […]
APC2010 Early Bird Deadline closes on Friday 3rd September
With the Australian Parking Conference approaching quickly (only 66 days to go!), a number of delegate and exhibitor opportunities are approaching their limits. The ‘Early Bird’ delegate ticket purchase deadline is this coming Friday September 3, saving $150 off a full delegate registration price and $100 off a day registration. To register now before this […]
The bus system that runs over traffic in China
The above picture illustrates a concept drawing of a revolutionary bus system being proposed in China: the 3D Fast Bus. The giant hybrid bus/train straddles the street allowing cars to drive right underneath it – meaning it is not slowed down by traffic, and doesn’t contribute further to it. The bus is designed to run […]
Bike share scheme in London launched as pedal power grows
On Friday, July 30, London’s Mayor Boris Johnson launched a major cycle hire scheme, aiming to make the city greener ahead of the 2012 Olympics. A total of 5,000 bicycles are available from 315 docking stations across the capital, many of them near landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and the Tower […]
Colliers Parking Rates Survey – North America
Global real estate firm Colliers has just released their North America Parking Rate Survey 2010. Midtown New York City has the region’s highest garage parking rates, according to Colliers: a median of $20 an hour, $40 a day and $538 a month. The survey includes central business districts in 44 U.S. urban areas and 12 […]
Highlights and comparisons of parking in Asian cities
Paul Barter, a Singapore-based academic researching urban transport policy, runs a blog and resource that PCI follows regularly, called ‘Reinventing Urban Transport’. He specialises in the urban cities of South East Asia in particular; and recently published a presentation summarising the results of an Asian Cities Parking Study, and key governing policies in these cities. […]
PARK(ing) Day 2010
PARK(ing) Day is coming again! This year, PARK(ing) Day is happening on Friday September 17th – all around the world. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, Park(ing) Day is “an annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places”. “The […]
More than half of British drivers don’t expect a red light
PCI’s UK correspondent, Kelvin Worthington, spied this week a somewhat alarming article in the Telegraph, stating that 52% of British drivers cannot see red traffic lights coming at signals at junctions and pedestrian crossings. The problem stems from the differing sequence of traffic lights. Whilst in Australia, the ‘amber’ (orange) light is used only before […]
Australian Parking Convention – only 128 days to go!
The Australian Parking Convention is fast approaching with the event, scheduled for November 7-9, shaping up to be the biggest event hosted by the Parking Association of Australia. The program of local and international speakers is almost finalised, with the Keynote Speaker none other than Professor Donald Shoup of UCLA, author of the best seller […]
Car sharing feedback and information
We recently posted our blog article on Car Sharing to a few LinkedIn discussion groups in order to obtain feedback on what is going on in other parts of the world in terms of car sharing. We received strong response and a lot of interesting information was provided by professionals in various parts of the […]
Parking and customer service?
A guest post by PCI Managing Partner Cristina Lynn A large number of publications come through our door on a daily basis. Keeping up with everything is not always easy, but one article really struck a chord so I requested permission to reproduce it in our blog. Titled “Compassionate Service Integral to Superior Parking Experience” […]