Pango Arrives in Phoenix and New York
The next wave of mobile phone based parking technology is being rolled out across two of America’s most populated cities, New York and Phoenix. Pango, an Israel based company, claims to be the world’s first provider of pay by mobile phone parking solutions, developing the technology to give consumers a convenient and easy way to […]
Free Weekend Parking Trial Halted for Gold Coast Light Rail
A trial to provide free weekend parking in Southport and Surfers Paradise has now been permanently quashed following a review which found that the cost to the city outweighed the benefit to retailers and shoppers. The parking trial was proposed early last year by Councillor Tom Tate as part of his Mayoral election campaign and […]
More parking required for rail project success: Springfield, Brisbane
The site of the Springfield railway station due to open this year. A new rail link south west of Brisbane, spanning The Darra to Springfield will reportedly deliver a major capacity upgrade for the Western Corridor’s transport needs. The project is on track to be delivered by Queensland’s transport Minister on or ahead of time […]
New York City’s parking privatisation on hold
New York City has scrapped a controversial plan to privatise its street-parking management system. The concept was designed to help ease the financial position of the city by generating a steady revenue stream under a leasing arrangement with the private sector, according to the Wall Street Journal. However opposition to the plan was strong, citing […]
Kunming, China, trials ‘no car day’
The city of Kunming in China (the home town of our analyst Sunny Huang) held its first ever ‘no car day’ recently, with private cars not allowed in the city centre. The event was the climax of Kunming’s ‘Urban Public Transport Week’, promoting the city’s bus system and other alternatives to driving private automobiles around […]
Update on Hong Kong parking prices
In November, we reported that the cost of property prices for car parks in Hong Kong was going through the roof, following the introduction of measures from the government to cool the cost of property prices. Car parking spaces are now selling for more than some homes, with AU$276,000 being paid for a space in […]
Avis to buy Zipcar car sharing service
Car sharing service Zipcar agreed last week to a sale to Avis Budget Group for about $500 million. The deal puts Avis ahead of its competition in the hourly rental market. According to the Boston Globe, the market for hourly rental in the US has grown to nearly $400 million and could reach $10 billion […]
NYC upgrades parking signs
The New York City Transportation Department announced last week the replacement of more than 6,000 parking signs with an easier-to-follow design. According to the NYTimes, key changes include “more breathing room” (white space), eliminating a colour (blue), and reducing the number of characters needed to explain the rules to a Twitter-friendly 140 (from 250). The […]
Sydney Convention centre to be upgraded
The NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell announced last month plans to refurbish the convention, exhibition and entertainment precinct in Darling Harbour. The upgrade will see the area boast Australia’s largest convention and exhibition facilities, Sydney’s largest red carpet entertainment venue and a hotel complex of up to 900 rooms. A new urban neighbourhood in Haymarket will […]
Paying for parking by Etag is a reality (in Santiago!)
During our recent visit to the South American capital, we were able to witness the operation of a payment by e-tag in a large shopping centre car park. The system has been recently installed and the owner is expecting that use will increase very fast from a currently low 2% to around 40% of transactions. […]
A wild roo chase at Melbourne Airport
Melbourne Airport is clearly in the midst of a kangaroo population explosion. Following the news of one getaway kangaroo in the Melbourne Airport car park in late October, another kangaroo was chased through the car park by police this week. As police hopped the rescue, the kangaroo skipped away, eventually being sedated with a tranquiliser […]
Denver holiday parking presents
A nice story from Denver in the lead up to the holiday season, where the Denver Public Works decided to hand out 250 vouchers for $5 worth of parking. In a nice twist, the parking officers, whose job is usually to dispense the fines, were tasked with handing out the vouchers.
Parking levy in Adelaide
The South Australian State Government has proposed a car park levy for the Adelaide City Council region, at a rate of $750 per space. According to AdelaideNow.com.au, the council has defended the decision, pointing out that Adelaide will still have cheaper parking fees and the highest number of available parking spaces than any other Australian […]
Parking and Traffic Consultants – 2012 year in review
2012 has been another eventful year for PTC. Many new clients joined the prestigious names in our portfolio, including Perth Airport, Health Infrastructure, Adelaide University and Leichhardt Council. Many other previous clients engaged us to do new work. Just to give you an idea, during the year we worked for these airports: Adelaide, Gold Coast, […]
Minimum parking requirements in Sacramento
The City of Sacramento, California, has announced a reduction in the number of parking spaces that new commercial and urban housing projects will be required to build. According to the Sacramento Bee, city planners say existing parking rules cause some would-be business owners to back away. For some apartment complexes and residential buildings, parking requirements […]
Sydney light rail project to be green lit
The first stage of the extension of Sydney’s light rail appears to be moving ahead, with the staged construction of a line from the University of NSW in Randwick to the CBD expected to be announced this week. NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell will announce that work will start at the university and go to Central […]
Sydney’s rush hour traffic grinds to a halt
The release last week of the Auditor-General’s performance report into peak hour travel on Sydney’s major roads revealed that traffic is getting slower in the afternoon. However, the report says that there has been a minor improvement in travel times in the city’s morning peak hour. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the average afternoon […]
Hola from Santiago
A guest post from Parking & Traffic Consultants’ Managing Partner, Cristina Lynn Hola to all our blog readers! George Burton, Grant McLean and I are in Santiago, Chile to kick start a project for a major shopping centre owner. The project will include design review, signage and wayfinding and external traffic issues. I thought you […]
A year of ‘Parking and Traffic’ blogs in review
Feel like the year has passed you by too? If you’ve been too busy to stay on top of the parking and traffic industry news every week – never fear! Here is our annual round-up of the highs and lows, and headline-making stories from 2012. Parking and policy in Australia This year saw Parking & […]
Highway house comes tumbling down
The Chinese ‘house in the highway’ we reported on last week has finally been bulldozed shortly after the owners accepted a settlement. The five-story house was demolished after its owners, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, agreed to accept compensation of 260,000 yuan ($40,000), according to the Xiayangzhang village chief, Chen Xuecai. According to […]
Weekend-long traffic jam in Russia
Last weekend saw a 125-mile long traffic jam along the main highway between Moscow and St Petersburg which lasted for three days. According to media reports cited by state-run RIA Novosti news, blame for the slow slog goes mainly to bad weather. The traffic headaches began Friday, when up to three feet of snow began […]
Sydney’s bike lane network set to be completed
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell’s push to take control of Sydney’s CBD transport may see the completion of the network of bike lanes. The committee set up by the government to take control of the city’s transport planning has endorsed the completion of the bike lane network by May next year. The committee gave new impetus […]
Sydney’s smartcard technology already behind the times
With the roll out of Sydney’s new ticketing system, the Opal card, starting on December 7, some transport experts are claiming that the system is “old technology”, already being replaced around the world. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, one analyst claims that the Opal card is 10 years too late, due to the rise […]
The soaring cost of a car park in Hong Kong
Following last week’s article on Mumbai’s car parking prices, it would seem that Hong Kong is also experiencing a similar boom in car parking property prices. Soaring property prices have seen the Hong Kong government introduce measures to cool residential property prices (which jumped 20% in the first nine months of this year), seeing many […]
Sydney public transport mapping
Mapping of Sydney’s public transport network has revealed that huge pockets of the city are disadvantaged when it comes to convenient and frequent transport services. According to ABC News, a community group called the Sydney Alliance has commissioned maps revealing the proximity and frequency of public transport services throughout greater Sydney. Key findings of the […]
Light rail is people’s choice for George Street
A forum at Sydney’s Town Hall on Monday night has endorsed plans for a light rail line down George Street (see our previous post about this here). The forum, attended by around 700 people including business owners and general public, tackled two competing plans before the O’Farrell government: a tram line versus an underground bus […]
Unofficial street photography gallery in Sydney
A ‘guerrilla gallery’ has been installed by photographers on Sydney’s Elizabeth Street, on the wall beneath Goulburn Street Parking station, with more than 40 works by six photographers. Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, has thrown her support behind the project, and will call on Monday night’s council meeting to take all necessary steps to ensure […]
The market for charging stations for electric vehicles
Meanwhile, and somewhat in contradiction to our previous post, research released by Lux Research recently indicates that the market for delivering electricity to Electric Vehicles will rise to be a $1.2 billion market in 2020. Lux Research developed a forecast using vehicle sales to project the global electric-vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) market. According to a […]
Interest in electric vehicles is declining In the US
A new study conducted by Pike Research indicates that the number of people ‘extremely’ or ‘very interested’ in electric cars has declined in the last year, from 40% to 36%. According to Torquenews.com, key findings from the survey include: Consumers often cite insufficient range as a primary reason for their lack of interest in plug-in […]
13th Australian Parking Convention is a resounding success
Following in the steps of the November 2010 Convention, the Parking Association of Australia held its 13th event at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre earlier this week. The event was characterised by a high level of local and international speakers that had the delegates particularly riveted to their seats. The exhibiton, in Hall 6 […]