Now we know what to do with those old meter posts!
An interesting article appeared in July’s edition of The Parking Professional (official publication of the International Parking Institute) which follows the results of a 2008 competition set up by New York City’s Department of Transportation (DOT) in partnership with the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum for a unique NYC bicycle rack. The objective of the […]
Cycling in London: an entirely different sort of pursuit event
You may be accustomed to reading Lionel Shriver fiction and even seeing some of her more renowned work on the big screen (We need to talk about Kevin). However, she has recently taken up her pen for The Atlantic Magazine to express her personal disappointment with London’s cyclists. She offers an interesting view point, as […]
Can this decision by a UK Car Park operator be considered un-Olympic?
Britain’s biggest car park operator NCP was accused of taking advantage of the Olympics as charges at its central London sites increased by up to three-fold since the beginning of the games. According to the UK’s Daily Mail, visitors to the capital are being hit with parking prices ramped up by an ‘average’ of 40 […]
Australian Parking Convention 2012 – registrations now open
A message from Cristina Lynn, Parking & Traffic Consultants’ Managing Partner.< As you may be aware the biennial convention organised by the Parking Association of Australia will be held on 11 – 13 November 2012 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. Similarly to the event held in 2010 the Exhibition will be occupying Hall […]
Parking spots for women introduced in Germany
(Yes, you may have heard about this already…!) The mayor of the German town of Triberg has courted controversy by introducing parking spaces for women only, which are wider and have better lighting. Explaining the policy, Mayor Gallus Strobel said it was a “natural” decision because men are better at parking than women. He then […]
How much does it cost to design and build a car park?
The most popular article on the Wayfinding Forum we’ve published (in terms of traffic to the article) was regarding the costs of building a car park (view the article, ‘How much does it cost to build a car park‘, here). This week, we came across data on the construction and design of car parks, with […]
Technology and innovation key trends in IPI survey
The 2012 Emerging Trends in Parking Survey from the International Parking Institute (IPI) has seen increased demand for technology-related innovations account for half of the top ten trends in today’s $30 billion parking industry. Among these trends include, cashless, electronic, and automatic payment systems; real-time information about parking rates and availability via mobile apps; and […]
Electric Vehicle charging in Europe
A report released by Pike Research (now stored in web archives) into the deployment of Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure across Europe has forecasted that by 2020 there will be more than 2.9 million plug-in electric vehicles on Europe’s roadways, and the region will have more than 4.1 million electric vehicle charging stations installed. The EV […]
Andrew Morse joins Parking and Traffic Consultants partnership
A message from Parking & Traffic Consultants’ Managing Partner, Cristina Lynn I would like to officially welcome Andrew Morse to the Parking & Traffic Consultants partnership. Andrew has cemented his commitment to the business by becoming a partner, demonstrating the success of the implementation of a traffic division within our long established parking consultancy. We […]
Pango mobile parking service launches in US
The Israeli-founded app “Pango”, designed to help with city parking and cruising, has launched in the US, together with their first so-called ‘smart garage’ in New York. Once users install the app and create their account using their license plate number and credit car details, they are able to search for participating parking stations. On […]
Urbanized: A must see for all Urban Designers (real or otherwise!)
Urbanizedis a feature-length documentary about the design and development of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers. According to the film’s press release, over half the world’s population now lives in an urban area, and 75% will call […]
Ohio State University leases parking operations to QIC
Ohio State University has moved ahead with leasing their parking operations to Australian company QIC and US partner LAZ Parking, in a 50 year contract deal worth US $483 million. According to the Star Tribune, the university pushed the plan as a way of providing cash flow at a time of declining public funding, with […]
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 […]
Leicester opens bicycle park
A secure cycle parking facility in the centre of Leicester has been reopened under new management after a year-long refurbishment programme. The Bike Park, which is located beneath Leicester Town Hall, incorporates showers, lockers and a bike shop as well as parking spaces for 110 bikes. According to the BBC, the premises were refurbished at […]
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 […]
Car park signage – the good, the bad and the ugly
One of the areas that is often overlooked or taken for granted in car parks is signage. From exterior signage that attracts customers, to interior signage that helps drivers and pedestrians navigate quickly and easily through a car park, the importance of good signage to a positive customer experience is crucial. We would like to […]
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 […]
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 […]
Russian newspaper uses social shaming to stop bad park
An online Russian newspaper ‘The Village’ has launched an app and a media campaign designed to try and stop illegal and inconsiderate parking. Using the app on a mobile phone, the public take photos of the parking offenders, capturing photos of the car and the number plates. Image recognition technology then reads the number plates […]
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 […]
Turning roads into solar panels
A US-based company has developed a concept prototype for a ‘solar roadway’ – a series of structurally engineered solar panels that can be driven on. < The concept sees roads literally replaced by the solar panels, which when linked together effectively serve as an energy grid itself. Any home or business connected to the Solar […]
Congestion pricing in New York in consideration
Former New York City traffic commissioner Sam Schwartz is proposing a plan that would toll the East River Bridges of New York, while lowering tolls on other, non-Manhattan bound spans in an effort to both reduce congestion and give the city’s transit system a funding boost. According to Transport Nation, these tolls and other fees […]
The cost of parking in America
During the 2012 Intertraffic conference, the American based National Parking Association released their fourth annual Parking in America report. The study measures monthly, daily and hourly rates in cities throughout the United States and Canada, including parking facilities in hospitals, hotels, educational institutions and airports. It also documents rate trends in downtown parking areas and […]
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 […]
Shared spaces put squeeze on Auckland parking
Car parking faces a continuing squeeze in downtown Auckland streets, following a 20 per cent reduction in spaces over the last five years. Auckland Transport says 843 street parking spaces have gone since 2007, leaving 3417 bays compared with 4260 previously. According to the NZ Herald, the trend is set to continue as more CBD […]