NHS hospitals generating millions from parking charges
In the UK, there has been considerable public and bureaucratic movement of late to reduce the cost of car parking charges for hospital patients, in the face of growing debate about profiting from the health system customers. Consumer body ‘Which?’ recently conducted research via 126 freedom of information requests, rating hospital car parks according to […]
Car sharing is big business
Following on from our article posted last week on car sharing, we came across the news this week that US based car sharing operation Zipcar has just filed for a $75 million initial public offering. With a fleet of 7,000 vehicles, more than 400,000 members (who can rent the car by the hour or day), […]
Parking on the small screen
‘Parking Wars’ is a documentary developed in the US about the Philadelphia Parking Authority. At last month’s IPI conference in Las Vegas , attendees were given a behind-the-scenes look at the show, how it came about, what to look for in subjects to follow and what have been the most interesting things they have learned […]
How many more car parks do you need than cars?
A new regional survey released in the US has found that the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin combined have 1,260 square kilometers of paved parking lots, or 5% of urban land use. That’s about 2.5 parking spaces per car, not even counting street parking, private car parks, and parking structures. If you add […]
New Zealand asks FBI to help nail hackers
PCI recently wrote about the theft of credit card details from payment machines at the Downtown Car Park in central Auckland in November (see previous blog posts ‘Auckland Downtown credit card scam and PCI compliance ’ and ‘Another reason to be PCI compliant’). The victims of the scam, which had gone undetected for some time, […]
Parking matters
As the International Parking Institute (IPI) International Parking Conference & Expo begins in Las Vegas, the official kick-off of a major new initiative for advancing the parking profession will commence. Called ‘Parking Matters’, the program is a focused public relations drive to educate and increase awareness of the value of parking professionals amongst target audiences […]
Ash cloud airport parking refunds
Last week, as the first flights from Europe started taking off, both Brisbane and Sydney Airports announced that they would refund any parking charges incurred by passengers and air crew delayed overseas by the volcanic ash cloud crisis. Sydney Airport also announced that they will refund or allow free rescheduling of the pre-paid long term […]
Cost of owning a car in the UK goes through the roof
Over the past month, car owners in the UK have been hit with a ‘double-whammy’ on the cost of running their cars. Petrol prices have hit a new record high in April, with drivers in many parts of the country paying more than the previous peak of 119.7 pence a litre, set in July 2008. […]
Electric charging infrastructure and roll-out in Adelaide
Adelaide City Council officially opened the first electric car charging station in the CBD’s Grote Street UPark. Adelaide Lord Mayor Michael Harbison said that if the infrastructure were in place, demand for electric cars would grow. “With these new charging points, we’re encouraging residents and City commuters to take a fresh look at their travel […]
So long suburbia
A new study published by the Environmental Protection Agency in the US has indicated that construction in urban cores and older suburbs of US cities is beginning to catch up with the pace of home construction in the outer suburbs – meaning that the ‘suburban sprawl’ may be beginning to slow. In a study of […]
San Francisco parking sensors
The San Francisco trial of a wireless smart-parking sensor system is now underway, allowing users to tap into a centralised network with either a computer or smart phone to find available parking spaces. For the driver, the benefit of the smart parking system is not just the increased efficiency in finding free parking spaces. If […]
The biggest winner
Some say England’s permanently jammed M25 (“The London Orbital Car Park”) is the biggest car park in the world. However, Canada’s West Edmonton Shopping Mall, with 20,000 spaces, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest parking lot. Can you tell us which is the biggest free-standing car park in Australia?
Electric cars are coming to Australia
Over the past month, electric car promoter Better Place has announced that it expects to start rolling out infrastructure to support electric cars in Australia late next year. As PCI reported in August ’09, Canberra has been earmarked as the first Australian city to receive the infrastructure, with a national rollout to follow in 2012. […]
City of Victoria implements Pay by Space on-street parking system
This week, Parking Consultants International spoke with Ismo Husu, from the Parking Services department of the City of Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada. The City of Victoria has recently installed a new on-street parking system, based on a pay-by-space principle. Ismo explained to us: “The users can keep their receipt that gives the expiry time. […]
Australian Parking Convention update
The Parking Association of Australia announced recently the key note speaker for its 2010 convention – Donald Shoup, Professor of Urban Planning at the University of California, and author of the landmark book titled ‘The High Cost of Free Parking’. As supporters of the ‘Shoupian’ theories of parking pricing (increasing the cost of on-street parking, […]
The cost of congestion
The State of Australian Cities Report released on Friday March 12 concludes that the cost of congestion in our cities will rise to around $20.4 billion by 2020, impacting adversely on Australian productivity. The report is not, however, just concerned with the economic impacts of congestion, but with the social impacts including, for example, the […]
Council admits heavy reliance on parking income
Swindon Borough Council’s chief executive, Gavin Jones, said this week that despite the Council’s desire to reduce its dependency on parking income, at this stage the money generated from parking underpins vital services in the town. Jones claims that “It is the common aim of a number of local authorities to reduce the amount they […]
On-street parking sensors in Port Macquarie and San Francisco
The Port Macquarie-Hastings Council has recently announced the introduction of on-street parking sensors, which electronically monitor how long the vehicles are parked in the bays and alert rangers when they over-stay time limits. The sensors are planned to be introduced for a 12-week trial under 50 parking spaces in the Port Central Shopping Centre area, […]
Car park planning
Cristina Lynn, Managing Partner of PCI, recently delivered the above presentation on the benefits of good planning to the car park development process. Particularly relevant to urban planners and councils, the presentation provides an overview of car park planning processes, including optimal space calculation, design, ‘green’ parking and other initiatives for consideration in optimising the […]
What do your car and your steak have in common?
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies published the results of a study into the earth’s climate on February 18, analysing the impact of different industry sectors on it. They have discovered and described certain airborne chemicals that can trap incoming sunlight and warm the climate, while others cool the planet by blocking the Sun’s rays. […]
Preserving historical architecture
This building is a 17th century condominium in Crema, Northern Italy – the Palazzo Compostella già Dolfin. At first glance it seems perfectly normal, but in fact it hides an underground car park by the brilliant use of hydraulic stacking technology. The end result is a garage that stores 18 cars invisibly underground, with the […]
Karma for bicycle road rager
Our favourite Green website, TreeHugger, has delivered one of the best (or rather worst) stories we’ve read thus far in 2010. A driver in the UK recently had an attack of cyclist road rage. And attack he did! The teenage driver pulled up alongside the cyclist, sounded his horn and yelled “Get off the road. […]
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 […]
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 […]