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 […]
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 […]
Road pricing may be the answer to transportation funding
In an article published on the Australian Financial Review recently, transport consultant John Cox claims that the potential introduction of road pricing is much needed with discussions going on under the surface. One of the biggest driving factors in the examination of road pricing has been the realisation that the congestion issue in Australian cities […]
Airport Operations 2012 Conference
The second annual Airport Operations Conference will be held in Canberra in September this year. The conference is the only event addressing operational challenges and opportunities in airport development, and will take a close look at current trends, as well as offering a site tour of Canberra Airport. The key issues to be covered at […]
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 […]
Bicycle infrastructure funding far from priority
An article published in The Conversation this week provides a comprehensive assessment of the benefits and costs associated with state governments’ transport policies. They claim that governments across Australia have been slow in investing in the areas that deliver maximum benefit for least cost. A recent example of this mismatch is the Victorian Government’s decision […]
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 […]
Transport blueprint recommends user-pays roads
A report published by the Infrastructure Finance Working Group, a Gillard government taskforce comprising of Treasury officials and experts from ANZ, KPMG, Royal Bank of Scotland, Alinta Energy and industry associations, has recommended a stronger push towards the user-pays approach to infrastructure financing used in toll roads. According to the Australian Financial Review, charges such […]
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 […]
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 […]
Executives value their car parks
An article published in the Sydney Morning Herald this week rated and ranked the top ‘extras’ in demand by senior business executives. A car park ranked as the third most in-demand perk; following money and holidays. (The fourth and fifth most important factors were flexibility and relocation). Given the scarcity of CBD car parks, the […]
Car usage in Sydney on the decline
A recent paper published by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics has quantified an ongoing trend in Sydney – that drivers are driving less every year than the year before. Since 2005, the average number of kilometres driver per year has been on the decline. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, in 1965, […]
…as Monorail’s planned demolition calls for higher line
Due to be demolished to make way for the redevelopment of Darling Harbour, Sydney’s monorail has seen significant debate over what should happen to the structure once dismantled. Landscape architect David Vago has drawn up a plan to take inspiration from New York’s famous High Line (see our blog post about the High Line here!), […]
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 […]
Turning parking lots into better public spaces
The New York Times recently carried an article by Eran Ben-Joseph, a professor of urban planning at MIT and author of ‘Rethinking a Lot: The Design and Culture of Parking’. In it, Ben-Joseph shares his vision for transforming the parking lot into a space beyond simply providing parking availability and convenience. He believes that the […]
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, […]
How are electric vehicle sales performing?
Figures released this week from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said that only 49 electric cars were sold in Australia last year, in a market that topped 1 million total vehicles for the first time. According to the SMH, the number of electric vehicles sold declined by 9.9 per cent on 2010. Whilst politicians […]
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 […]
Parking news review 2011
Another year, another summary. In what has become an annual tradition, we try and distil the key news and trends from the Wayfinding Forum blog. It’s no easy job, with just under 200 posts published every year… Parking rates and sentiment In 2011, Australian parking rates and the construction industry sentiment were inversely proportional. Sydney […]
Ok, I’m selling the Porsche!
A guest blog post from Parking & Traffic Consultants’ Senior Traffic Engineer and resident bicycle enthusiast, Andrew Morse. Well, I would if I owned one and here are two reasons why I would sell mine. Firstly, people who buy exotic cars will justify their purchase because they claim to want exquisite quality and exhilarating […]
Sydney traffic getting slower
Sydney’s traffic has got worse on six of the seven major roads in the past year, according to the finds of the recently released NSW Auditor-General’s report into transport and ports. The report comes as the NSW Government announced that a transport masterplan deadline has been set for November 2012. Of the seven arterial routes […]
Davis Langdon Construction Sentiment Survey, Q3 2011
The September release of the Davis Langdon Sentiment Survey has seen the key sentiment indicator drop considerably from the April results, now down to -11 percent. According to Davis Langdon, this reflects a growing and ongoing uncertainty that has marked the industry through much of 2011. Optimism has declined in most states, which is reflected […]
Australian Parking Convention 2012
The Parking Association of Australia has announced the 13th Australian Parking Convention to be held once again at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, on November 11 – 13, 2012. The program will be designed to appeal to a broad range of individuals working within the parking industry, as well as providing a number of […]
Australian airport regulations once again in focus
Australian Airports are again in conflict with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), with the incoming ACCC chairman making a speech singling out the airports as a particular focus of attention. Press reports from SMH.com.au quote Rod Sims, the ACCC chairman, as proposing greater regulation over the services provided by the privately owned airports, […]
Ride to work day
Yesterday, October 12, Australia held an annual ‘Ride to Work Day’. The initiative, organised by Bicycle Network Victoria, saw a big turnout across the country, with Fairfax media reporting an estimated 150,000 participants nationally (of which 40,000 in Victoria). An estimated 3.6 million Australians already ride their bikes at least once a week, with 1.1 […]
Which lane today?
A guest post by Andrew Morse, our senior traffic engineer. A question was posted on a Linkedin group recently asking “does the ‘Keep Right Unless Overtaking’ rule still apply in the US?”. This got me thinking about the situation in Australia, where like other countries that drive on the sensible side of the road, the […]
For heaven’s sake can we stop queuing through intersections?
A guest post by Andrew Morse, our senior traffic engineering consultant There, I’ve said it and I feel much better. Well not really because every day I am astounded by the number of drivers who think it’s perfectly acceptable to enter an intersection (typically on amber) knowing full well that they can’t clear the intersection […]
Airport car parking prices and performance
According to a recently released Productivity Commission draft report, Australia’s five major airports have been found not to be misusing their market power in setting car parking and land access rates. The report, entitled ‘Economic Regulation of Airport Services’, differed from the findings of the report into airport parking prices by the Australian Competition and […]
Davis Langdon construction sentiment survey report
The latest results from Davis Langdon’s construction sentiment survey suggest that a strong resurgence in the property and construction industry is unlikely over the course of the next year; an effect that will likely be compounded by recent global market shocks adding to the sense of investor unease. Davis Langdon’s projections show sustainability ranked number […]
Sydney bus study finds no end to the congestion
The Sydney Morning Herald published results from a report on Sydney’s bus terminus at Wynyard and the resulting congestion across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. According to the paper, released to the Herald, the report shows that the York Street bus stops, used by thousands of commuters from the northern areas of Sydney, were already operating […]