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 […]
Should new freeways be tolled?
In a follow up to last week’s article on the recommendations of a government taskforce that users should pay for all new toll roads and infrastructure financing, Alan Davies of Crikey.com also explored whether new freeways should be tolled. Davies claims that the argument for tolls is straightforward – they provide the ultimate test of […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
Riders want footpath parking for motorcycles in Perth
In Perth, the Motorcycle Riders Association is calling on the government to allow motorcycles and scooters to be able to park on public walkways in Perth city. According to ABC online, they are calling for a trial policy similar to Melbourne, allowing motorcycles to park on footpaths and concrete public spaces, providing the vehicle is […]
Sustainability in parking
Sustainability and ‘green’ parking solutions have received a lot of attention in the media of late, with this blog in particular giving the cause solid support. And whilst sustainability has predominantly focused on the environmental aspects of maintenance and responsibility, it’s important to remember that long-term sustainability also encompasses other aspects: economic and social dimensions. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Sydney’s Darling Harbour to be rebuilt..
The NSW government announced last week that the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Convention Centre and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour will be closed for three years while they are expanded or replaced under a $1 billion upgrade approved by NSW cabinet. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the precinct will be expanded with a view to […]
Music video with amazing intersection animations
Thanks to Andrew Morse, our resident Senior Traffic Engineer, we came across this fantastic music clip, called ‘Got More’, by a band called Eskmo. It’s a stunning animation totally created from footage filmed at a New York intersection. We highly recommend watching through as the animation becomes ever more Escher-like.
Why cyclists are better customers for local businesses
A recent post on the DC Streets Blog examined the economic effects of cycling, and specifically exploring the notion that an investment in cycling infrastructure generally will limit car parking. The article quotes a few numbers, statistics and pieces of information around the economic benefits of the bicycle over the car. We’ve summarised some of the […]
Perth CBD cycling terminus to cater for bike boom
Perth’s bike boom has led to the proposal from the state government to provide a cycling facility featuring showers, lockers and parking for 500 bikes in the Perth CBD. The ten-year bicycle network plan, released by Transport Minister Troy Buswell, proposes to spend up to $10million in expanding existing bike paths and creating new paths […]
Dynamic on-street pricing overview
We came across a video on the Parking Today site this week that explains how dynamic pricing for on-street meters works. Created by IPS Smart Meters, the company responsible for San Francisco’s SFPark project, the video features contributions from Donald Shoup, John Van Horn and many more. It’s a simple overview of how the technology […]
London 2012 sets out venue parking plans
The world’s biggest transportation and parking challenge (the Olympics) has seen the London 2012 Organising Committee publish proposals for parking management and parking plans around all Olympic and Paralympic venues in London. According to the Organising Committee’s press release, the proposed plans would see a number of traffic alterations and parking restrictions in the vicinity […]
City of Sydney releases transport strategy
The City of Sydney released its ‘Connecting the City’ Transport Strategy document this week. It includes a wide compilation of figures and statistics associated with traffic and transport movements in and around the city. These statistics underscore the growing impacts on amenity, lifestyles and costs and reinforce why Sydney needs an integrated transport network. Naturally, […]
San Fran parking plan undergoing reappraisal
After a strong pushback from the residents and business owners in neighbourhoods planned for parking meter expansion, San Francisco transportation officials have said that they will gather more data and work more closely with each neighbourhood to refine the parking management proposals. According to SFGate.com, the plan to add about 5,000 new meters across a […]
Townsville introduces greater minimum parking requirements
Meanwhile, in Townsville, the City Council has won a battle with the State Government to force developers to allocate more car parking spaces for multi-unit developments. According to the Townsville Bulletin, the council has approved amendments to the city’s planning scheme to require new developments to provide two car spaces for units of two bedrooms […]
Should car sharing be required in developments?
Fairfax media published an article this week exploring the range of benefits that a car share scheme is able to provide to residents, developers and councils of a city. The car-sharing model is one that’s growing rapidly in many countries, and reflects a shift in the way that people are using their cars. In recent […]
Hospital parking charges to stay
In South Australia, a bid to overturn a government decision to charge staff for car parking at some Adelaide metropolitan hospitals has been dismissed by the full bench of the Industrial Relations Court. The Public Service Association made the application, arguing the parking fees were a breach of enterprise agreements for staff at the public […]
Canberra’s public servants to lose parking
The parking privileges of Canberra’s senior bureaucrats are to be further reduced as the National Capital Authority (NCA) attempts to end free parking in Canberra’s parliamentary triangle. According to The Canberra Times, the NCA says that moves are being made to try and prevent public servants from using short-term car parks meant for visitors to […]
What is ‘fair’ in the provision of parking?
Two weeks ago, the Boston Globe wrote an article about San Francisco’s SFPark, a pilot program of applying variable parking prices and putting Don Shoup’s market-based parking theories to trial. Whilst the article presents a good view of the program in general, the waters get very muddy when it introduces the concept of what it […]
Dutch bicycle congestion
The Dutch are facing the consequences of their own cycling success, including congestion, lack of parking and infrastructure. In a country where bicycles outnumber people by 1.2 million, the Dutch have simply run out of space to accommodate the 5 million cyclists who take to the road every day. In Amsterdam alone, 490,000 cyclists travel […]
London’s bendy buses no more
London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, has made good another of his promises, seeing the large ‘bendy buses’ removed from the city’s public transport system. Whilst removing larger vehicles with greater capacity may seem counter-intuitive, an article on TreeHugger discusses the pros and cons of removing the buses: They are faster to board, having three sets of […]
Avoiding storefront crashes
We came across an incredible video this week caught on the CCTV of a car crashing through the front window of a store. Amazingly, no one was hurt other than a few scratches and bruises. Watch the video above and here. The International Parking Institute has recently published an article written by Mark Wright on […]
Argentinian airports and Brazilian parking
The First National Airports Congress, “Airport Show Argentina”, has drawn to a close, with Parking & Traffic Consultants’ Managing Partner Cristina Lynn one of the speakers at the inaugural show. Over 800 registrants were presided over by the Argentine Transport Secretary and the Tourism Minister, and included representatives from all major Argentine airlines, government bodies […]
Darwin council increases parking fine revenue
Darwin City Council increased its revenue from fees and fines by around $500,000 year on year, according to the NTnews.com.au site. This included an increase in fines from $917,000 to $1,193,000, and an increase in fees from $3,597,000 to $4,042,000 from the previous year. The Lord Mayor Graeme Sawyer said that this could be attributed […]
Cristina is on the move (again)…
The next couple of weeks will be very interesting for Cristina Lynn. She is bound for South America to attend a couple of challenging conferences. First stop is Brazil where a former organiser of the Intertraffic event in The Netherlands started a series of trade events in Sao Paulo, called TranspoQuip. This year, in addition […]
Adelaide premier rolls back hospital parking fees
Both WA and SA have seen heated public debates over the past few months over the cost of parking at hospitals, with state government parking fee rate rises in WA in particular receiving significant negative backlash from the general public as well as the opposition party. You can read more about the Health Department’s proposed […]