CBD parking tax win for New Zealand businesses
New Zealand PM, Mr John Key Meanwhile in New Zealand, business organisations and unions have claimed victory after the Prime Minister backed away from a government proposal to introduce a fringe benefit tax on car parks provided to employees as part of their remuneration. The tax on inner-city car parks in Auckland and Wellington drew […]
Compact automated parking garage launched in LA
AutoParkiT has just been launched in the Van Nuys district of Los Angeles. The system is designed to automatically park, store and retrieve vehicles in a compact parking structure, using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology containing details of the user to ensure the swift identification and retrieval of vehicles. Whilst automated mechanical parking is not new, this […]
Car park design – an interesting beast
In any development, there is a fine line between the interests of the engineer, the developer, the investor and the end user. Ultimately all are after a solution which works, but it can be the age-old battle between cost and benefit which dictates terms. In a previous post entitled Why Simple Design is Often […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Can the bicycle save the high street?
Following an article we published in March, Why cyclists are better customers for local businesses, we recently came across another article that also found that cyclists and pedestrians tend to spend more money in local economies. According to TreeHugger, both Portland, Oregon and New York’s East Village have found that streets that promote cycling and […]
West Hollywood automated parking garage
The City of West Hollywood (LA) engaged technology company Unitronics to design, engineer, fabricate, install and maintain a 200-car automated vehicle storage and retrieval system for the City Hall. This is a $2.6 million project, according to the City’s website. The automated parking system is indeed impressive, with the automated garage able to hold as […]
Sydney’s George Street : what does it look like with light rail?
The City of Sydney has put forward a proposal to contribute to the NSW State Government’s light rail project, transforming George Street into a world-class main street. Council has offered to work with the NSW Government by committing $180 million to the light rail project, including funding new pedestrian spaces, new information signage, upgraded public […]
Sydney Airport connects retail and parking to improve customer service
Sydney Airport has recently announced a car parking promotion designed to boost passenger traffic across a number of food, beverage and retail outlets in the terminal. According to a Moodie Report, the airport is offering two free cups of coffee, a copy of the Daily Telegraph from Newslink and a A$10 duty free voucher to […]
Car sharing: data shows it may be working
The city of Hoboken, New Jersey, introduced a car sharing scheme over two years ago; based on the assumption that they would create parking spaces by taking them away. According to the New York Times, 42 of the city’s roughly 9,000 on-street spaces were allocated to the car sharing program upon inception. Survey data shows […]
Britain’s parking demand
Following the recent publishing of the RAC report into UK parking policy and practice, the UK’s Telegraph has distilled many of the key findings of the report, including: The current number of cars on UK roads is 28.5 million. In 1950 there were two million cars on the roads, and the projection is to reach […]
Victorian car park congestion levy to stay
A study published by Monash University has found that the congestion charge on city car parks in Melbourne has not eased congestion. The levy, introduced in 2006, applies to 50,000 car spaces in Melbourne and was designed to stop people driving into the city. According to Yahoo, The Victorian Treasurer Kim Wells claims that the […]
Los Angeles may reduce parking requirements for businesses
Los Angeles councillors have backed an ordinance that would allow real estate developers, landlords and business owners to reduce the number of parking spaces to be supplied their buildings and projects. According to the Los Angeles Times, the action represents an effort to breathe new life into tanking business districts and drive new housing construction […]
Around the country: Australian parking news wrap
A number of short stories we’ve collated in parking and transportation from around Australia over the past few weeks. Adelaide Airport has opened a new multi-level short term car park, providing customers with more efficient parking and a weather-proof link to the terminal. According to Impact Pub, the new short term car park is more […]
Parking policy and practice – a UK report
A report released in July by the UK’s Royal Automobile Club (RAC) has detailed British parking policy and practice. Called “Spaced Out: Perspectives on parking policy”, the 113 page report offers a huge depth of data on the industry. The report focuses on the demand and supply of parking, with a particular emphasis on the […]
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 […]
Mary Portas is almost correct about UK town city centre parking
There’s been a lot of exposure in the UK on Mary Portas, the spokesperson and champion of reinvigorating local high streets (see our past article ). This week we came across commentary by UK parking consultant Chris Wortley on the likelihood of councils abolishing paid parking on their high streets. Acknowledging that this is highly […]
Car Park Façades are making design news!
It seems that some of the more aspirational car park exterior designs around the world are starting to see recognition in the mainstream commercial design world. An article recently published in Commercial Design Trends magazine (see their website at trendsideas.com) explores how car park façades are being used to disguise and shelter car park buildings […]
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 […]
Residents taking advantage of car park squeeze
With Brisbane’s CBD parking prices rapidly catching up to those in Sydney and Melboune, The Brisbane Times claims that a large number of inner city residents are leasing their garages and driveways to motorists, keen to avoid the off-street parking fees and on-street parking meters. Figures supplied from RentMyCarPark.com.au show that the average weekly rent […]
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 […]
Canberra Airport plans to build high-speed rail station
Canberra Airport has unveiled plans to build a A$140 million high-speed rail facility next to its new airport terminal, in a bid to transform the gateway into a multi-modal hub and eliminate the need for a second Sydney airport. According to a federal government study, a high speed rail link between the two cities would […]