The people vs the parking police
There have been a lot of articles that have come to our attention this week about conflicts between parking inspectors, doing their job by the rule book, and affected and perturbed residents and car parkers, saying that ruling by the ‘letter of the law’ without any consideration for circumstance is unreasonable. We’ve found three interesting […]
Finding your car made easy by colour
This art project, ‘Color Coordinated Parking’ conducted at California’s Southwestern College in 1994, sorted over 3,000 cars into parking lots determined by the colour of the vehicle. It’s a brilliant conceptual idea as well as a potentially useful marketing tool… but would it help you find where you parked your white Toyota Corolla in a […]
What are the key things investors look for in a car park?
Sourced from Parking World’s blog, the article ‘Parking remains attractive for investors’ explores some of the key things that make a car park an attractive investment. According to the article, authored by Macquarie Group, three characteristics have a meaningful impact on the attractiveness to potential investors: Demonstrated ability to retain locations and grow the portfolio […]
Revenue control
We have spent a lot of time over the past few months talking about the maximisation of revenue from car parks. As everyone is all too aware, these times call for improved systems and monitoring to ensure that all assets are performing as well as they can be. ‘Is Revenue Control An Oxymoron’ is an […]
Retail shopping experiences start in the car park
We came across an article this week, written by Kevin Moore, CEO of Crossmark Australia, which talks about the experience of retail shopping. It draws upon Paco Underhill’s latest book, The Call of the Mall, which presents the concept of “retail theatre”. In the article, ‘Shopping should start in the carpark’, Moore discusses car manufacturer […]
London on-street parking permits study
London, as one of the most urbanised and populated cities in the world, continues to face an increasing number of cars in use on the roads, with relatively little or no additional availability of parking. The number of registered cars in the city has increased by 10% to 2.6 million vehicles in just the last […]
World Parking Symposium
The World Parking Symposium commenced on Wednesday (24 June 2009) in Breda, the Netherlands. Our Managing Partner, Cristina Lynn will be attending several events at the conference and also delivering a presentation on the benefits of parking guidance systems. We will be publishing her presentation for our blog subscribers in due course, so watch this […]
NSW budget and implications on the parking and property industry
The NSW mini-budget was released on Monday June 15, with some interesting and relevant implications for the industry. Of course, the most notable feature of the mini-budget was a fiscal stimulus which will provide a temporary 50% cut to the stamp duty for people buying newly constructed dwellings, valued up to $600,000, until December 2009. […]
Station(ary) Parking
We read an article in the June 2009 edition of the British Parking Institute’s magazine titled “Is rail parking on track?” which addresses the issue of commuter parking at railway stations. Interestingly the article states that passengers leaving their cars at train stations is second only in the environmental stakes to getting there by public […]
The car park of the future? Part 2.
We wish we knew where this image came from, other than as we saw it on the Cool Hunter website, on a post entitled ‘Is that really a car park?’
Are car parks just there to park cars in?
When was the last time you saw a movie that did not at least have one scene in a car park? And now, car parks have become sought after venues for parties and special events ….. Saint Laurent and Givenchy would turn in their graves! With Sydney abuzz recently with the stylish designers and chic […]
A metered debate?
With our offices based in Mosman, it has been impossible for us not to notice the debate currently underway between residents and the Council, following their proposal to install parking meters at Balmoral Beach. Leaving aside the obvious dilemma of who pays for parking, we did come across an interesting article published this week detailing […]
European trends for road user charging and congestion charging
Based on a report by Frost & Sullivan, ‘Key Growth Trends in the European Markets for Road User Charging, Congestion Charging, Public Transport & Ticketing and Parking’, several notable trends appear to be emerging from the European (particularly Western European) market. As the usage of road tolls increases, the technology for the automatic tolling becomes […]
Sydney braces for impact of parking levy on July 1
With the NSW State’s increased parking levy due to come into effect from July 1, parking operators in Sydney claim that they will begin closing parking bays from next month, with the 110% tax increase rendering some parking spots economically unsustainable. Published in the Sydney Morning Herald on June 6, Bay Watch: parking operators’ fury […]
Car park values remain strong
With the Aquavista Car Park in Melbourne’s Docklands up for sale with an asking price of around $5 million for 109 bays, this article in The Age examines the state of the market for this “special” category of property. Read the full article online. ‘Car park values remain strong’.
A three-hundred point turn
Sometimes, near enough IS good enough. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irYHMDBf4t0
Don’t exit a parking garage like this
How not to exit a parking garage (view on YouTube).
Green car parks – It’s win-win
We recently published Cristina Lynn’s article which appeared in the Parking World Magazine “Green Car Parks – An Oxymoron” in which she explored the means of ‘greening’ car parks, and the benefits to the owner/operator. Donald R Morgan has published an article “Lower Your Parking Facility Operational Costs and Save the Planet” which reinforces the […]
Six steps to add value to your car park
We have recently published a presentation called ‘Six steps to add value to your car park’ on the presentation sharing site SlideShare. We are happy to provide this information to our clients and other interested parties as part of our contribution to the development of the parking industry. You can view the presentation online here: […]
Davis Langdon Consumer Sentiment Monitor, May 2009
Kindly provided to us courtesy of Davis Langdon, their research report into Consumer Sentiment in the construction industry is a valuable research tool in understanding current industry attitudes. Their findings indicate that their Sentiment Index has improved over the past three months, indicating that the industry may have begun to turn the corner. The other […]
Truck v Bollard
A retractable bollard, one metre high, 35cm across. It’s makers claim it is strong enough to stop a truck at full steam. See for yourself
It’s still a service industry
Given that much of the content we write about relates to how technology can assist in improving the functionalities resulting from automating, it’s sometimes easy to forget that in most cases, the parking industry still relies on person-to-person interactions. Mark Morris from Lanier Parking Solutions in Atlanta is Director of Organisational Development, and has published […]
The car park of the future? Part 1.
Aptera Motors are a designer and manufacturer of efficient commuter vehicles – based on principles of aerodynamics and lightweight material innovation. They recently committed to producing 100,000 of their three-wheeled electric cars on the road over the next 5 years. One of their design team took a little bit of initiative to see what it […]
Txt-a-park
Simple. You pay for parking with your mobile phone by sending a text message to the code that the parking machine tells you. You get billed to your phone bill. This is a world-first in offering pay-by-phone parking services that don’t require pre-registration.The kiwis seem to be on to something. Auckland City Council announced a […]
No parking
A great picture taken on the site ‘New York City Daily Photo’. Even funnier are some of the gems you can read in the comments section underneath the image. http://nyc2dailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-parking.html
Street view fun
Google Street View has been launched in several countries around the world. You’ve probably heard about the town in the UK where residents are making news at the moment by protesting and blocking access to the town by the Street View car. Well, it’s not all sinister. Seen on the web this week are […]
Are you maximising your car park earnings?
In view of the current economic climate we know you will be looking for even more ways to generate maximum revenue from your existing assets. Your car parks are no different! An easy way to check the financial and operational health of your car park is to undertake an independent performance review. By way of […]
Could your car park benefit from a face lift?
Property owners and managers are always looking for opportunities to increase the value of – and earnings from – their existing portfolios. As a result of the current economic climate we are noticing a larger number of refurbishment projects being undertaken. Faced with increasing population and growth in vehicle usage, many retail centres with […]
Green Car Parks – An Oxymoron?
On the subject of improving the bottom line of your car parking assets, you may be interested to read the article published in two parts by Parking World Magazine (September and November 2008) written by Cristina Lynn. In the article, she outlines several initiatives that can be undertaken to improve the environmental footprint of your […]
Darwin International Airport case study
Darwin International Airport (DIA) requested PCI’s assistance with regards to the development of a parking strategy for the airport (passenger terminal, commercial and general aviation) over the next 20 – 25 years. This entailed identification of issues relating to the parking “offer”, both quantitative (size, product mix, pricing, location) and qualitative (look and feel). […]