Singapore’s success in managing congestion
Following our recent post on congestion charging in New York City, we’ve updated one of our most popular posts to continue the discussion on strategies to reduce traffic congestion. Let’s explore Singapore’s recent advancements in their “two-prong” carrot and stick strategy to tackle congestion: implementing a harsher and more advanced “user pay” strategy alongside premium […]
How much parking is enough?
An article about Union Station in Washington, DC caught our attention this week. We are so used to hearing about complaints of the lack of parking in developments that it is surprising to see the opposite reaction. The Station was designed in 1908 and is in need of an upgrade to meet current accessibility standards […]
Cycle lanes do not harm local businesses
As the restrictions are gradually eased in Australia, cities prepare for more people returning to their workplace. Sydney is implementing pop-up cycle lanes and Melbourne is fast-tracking the delivery of 40km of new lanes. Both initiatives aim to provide a safe alternative for people to move around whilst, hopefully, removing cars from the road and […]
Parking – present and future
Special Report: Managing the impact of covid-19 on your car park performance Our team has been proactively thinking about how landlords can deal with impacts on car park performance as a result of recent lockdowns. Since mid-March, we have been keeping track of changes taking place in Australia and abroad, collecting relevant information and undertaking […]
Change staff travel mode and save tonnes of carbon emissions per year
In September 2019, the ptc. family moved into a new home at 1 James Place, North Sydney. Located just 1.3kms from our previous address in Cammeray, the new office, with its stunning wraparound views, has been a hit with both staff and clients. Interestingly, despite the short distance of the move (admittedly closer to […]
The hospital parking paradigm
As part of their election campaign, the Conservative Party in the UK is proposing to provide free hospital parking for a range of people including disabled drivers and passengers, frequent outpatients, gravely ill patients, visitors to relatives in hospital for extended periods and staff on night shifts who cannot use public transport. According to The […]
The case for congestion charging in Australia
A couple of weeks ago NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said: “there will be no congestion tax in Sydney”. At the same time, a report from the Grattan Institute documented the potential benefits of the adoption of this type of charge in Sydney and Melbourne. The Institute estimates that congestion pricing would decrease the number […]
MLC School, Burwood – redesigning the pick-up and drop-off scheme
Background MLC School is a Uniting Church independent girls’ school. Founded in 1886, the school has been a pioneer in girls’ education by valuing academic and co-curricular activities equally and has a tradition of academic excellence. Located approximately 12 kilometres west of Sydney CBD in Burwood, MLC serves 1,200 students from pre-kindergarten to Year 12. […]
The future of transport
Andrew Morse, ptc.‘s Partner and Senior Traffic Engineer, was invited by Compass IoT to participate in their Byte Size video series, which focuses on the role of AI, IoT and Big Data in engineering the future of cities. During the interview, Andrew talked about topics such as customer journey, the application of AI and disruptive […]
What makes a great commuter car park
The Federal Government plans to invest $500m in commuter car parks across Australia. As we have posted in the past, the first step is to understand if a commuter car park is the best alternative for each location. Assuming that this is the case the next step is to ensure that the facilities will serve […]
The sound of the future
One of the main concerns with the advent of EVs on our roads is the fact that they are substantially silent. Pedestrians are already having trouble dealing with traffic as they are distracted by phones, etc. and these risks to become a bigger problem with cars that cannot be heard at all. Apart from the […]
Lane Cove Council’s $2.9 million cycling infrastructure plan
Lane Cove Council plans to invest $2.9 million in new cycling facilities in an effort to encourage cycling uptake and improve the experience of current cyclists. In particular, the plan aims to attract two types of cyclists, the Enthused and Confident and the Interested but Concerned[1]. The four categories of cyclists are: Strong and Fearless: […]
Car sharing in residential developments
The availability of car sharing services in or near residential developments provides an alternative for residents who are willing to forego the cost of paying for a parking space if they do not own a car. A change in car ownership creates the opportunity for developers to reduce the car park space per unit ratio […]
How do you feel about losing 5.7 days per year due to congestion?
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are amongst the 25 most congested cities in the world, according to Inrix 2018 Global Traffic Scorecard. On average, Australian drivers commuting on those cities lost 137.6 hours (or 5.7 days) in congestion last year[1]. If you drive to work, perhaps this can make you think of alternative ways to […]
Supporting The Shepherd Centre
Our team of consultants recently prepared parking and traffic studies to accompany the Development Application of the new Shepherd Centre in Campbelltown. The proposed centre will include five therapy rooms with the capacity of conducting 20 one-on-one sessions per day. We are proud to support this worthwhile charity organisation. The Shepherd Centre assists children with […]
Barcelona’s Superblocks – two years later
Have you heard about Barcelona’s “Superblocks”? We posted in the past about Barcelona’s initiative to encourage active transport by creating “Superblocks”, areas where vehicular traffic is limited creating more space for pedestrians and cyclists. The Superblocks are polygon grids measuring 400 by 400 metres where non-resident traffic and on-street parking are not allowed. Inside the […]
Creating great Australian cities
In this article, we discuss the recently published study, Creating Great Australian Cities[i] , commissioned by The Property Council of Australia. Australian cities benchmark When comparing major Australian cities to the world’s top 100, what would you say Australia’s overall average position is? If you guessed that on average Australia would figure amongst…...
“A Smarter City” is a winning presentation (and a great initiative by Wollongong Council)
We are pleased to announce that “A Smarter City – Wollongong City Integrated Parking Guidance System” was awarded the best presentation within the Traffic Engineering and Road Management stream at the 2018 AITPM Conference. We congratulate Andrew Morse, partner and Senior Traffic Engineer, who presented the case study at the conference and Grant Mclean, Senior…...
A Smarter Town Centre
Andrew Morse, Partner and Senior Traffic Engineer, will be presenting the case study “A Smarter Town Centre – Wollongong City Integrated Parking Guidance System” at the 2018 AITPM National Conference in Perth. Our team, led by Grant McLean, Senior Consultant, designed an integrated Parking Guidance System (PGS) combining 10 car parks within the CBD with […]
Who owns the city?
What is the current space allocated to cars in your city? And to bikes and rail? What is the fairest way to share the public space between different mode shares? We have touched on this topic in a previous article Cities are for people. In this article, we detailed the US National Association of City […]
Walking and cycling to work may feel longer than it is
A recently published study, conducted with students and staff members of Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), found that people tend to overestimate the time it takes to walk or cycle to their destination. The issue is that the perceived travel time is often pointed out as one of the barriers to choosing these types of […]
Park and ride trials in NSW
The NSW Government recently announced the Opal Park & Ride trial at the Ashfield commuter car park. In the same way as the trial occurring in Dee Why, the scheme is designed to offer free parking for users who combine private vehicle and public transport use in their commute. How that works is that commuters […]
Road signs and the way we process information
Road signs should convey the maximum amount of information with the minimum amount of content, as it is not possible for drivers to stop their vehicle and carefully read the instructions presented. Therefore, images, typeface, colours and shapes of road signage are designed, or at least should be, in a way that their meaning […]
Looking into the future, that’s how you win!
Eric Ye, Junior Traffic Engineer at ptc., received, on the 27th February 2018, the GHD Undergraduate Student Award promoted by the Institute of Transportation Engineers Australia New Zealand (ITEANZ). Eric was awarded for his thesis: Lane Distribution Optimisation of Autonomous Vehicles for Highway Congestion Control, which he authored as part of his studies in […]
Sydney Trains disruptions – poll results
Last week, we conducted a quick poll via Twitter and email to get a feel for the potential impacts of the train disruptions on commuters. We asked a simple question: Are you going to avoid public transport? We received 170 responses, 48 on Twitter and 122 via email. Compared to 2016 Census data regarding travel […]
The future-proof car park
What will your car park be useful for if parking demand drops? Nobody can predict the impact of the changing landscape with regard to parking over the next 30 years. Mode shift, high density cities and autonomous vehicles will all impact in some way; it’s just a matter of when, how and by how much…....
Sydney is not full yet
A recent poll conducted for Fairfax Media indicated that 66.4% of the 1,647 respondents believe that Sydney is full and that property development should be pushed out of the Sydney metro area. Although the local population may feel that the city is crowded, there are 103 cities in the world with a larger population than […]
Future Melbourne
Melbourne is growing at a fast pace and is expected to surpass Sydney by 2030. A Time Out article identified 7 developments designed to accommodate the city’s fast expansion. Here are our favourites: Metro Tunnel The $10.9 billion underground tunnel will enable more trains to pass through the City Loop. The project, which is planned […]
Car sharing at its best
One of the most interesting things about travelling overseas is to see how different cities address congestion in a practical sense. Whilst in Milan we discovered ENJOY, a car sharing business providing one-way rides within the metropolitan area in suitably branded Fiat 500s (red of course). According to its website there are currently 564 vehicles […]
Growing driverless car fleet in the US
Waymo, the company created to commercialise Google’s self-driving car research, was launched last December and is moving fast forward to set its position in the autonomous vehicles sector. The company used 100 self-driving vehicles to conduct public tests in Arizona; in comparison, Uber had 43 active self-driving vehicles being tested in March 2017. Now, Waymo […]