No Parking Meters Party in NSW state elections
Speaking of elections, we noted the advent of a new party on the NSW State election ballot forms – the No Parking Meters Party. Our investigation into the party has shown that whilst they were originally conceived as a single-policy party, a ‘groundswell of support’ led them to put forward 18 candidates for the NSW […]
Research finds Adelaide to be car friendliest city, Sydney the least….
Research into Australia’s car friendliest cities released last week by Virgin Car Insurance has found that Adelaide has emerged as the best city in which to own a car. The research looked at a number of variables, such as the cost of car insurance, petrol prices, parking fines, theft and tolls. Adelaide leapfrogged Hobart, Darwin […]
Perth Car Parking Levy not yet spent on public transport
According to a recent news article, parking levies in the Perth CBD area have not (yet) been fully spent on the Perth CAT buses. Of the nearly $60 million collected from Perth car park owners in parking levies since 2009, only $22 million have been spent on the service thus far. The Property Council of […]
New York’s bike lanes generate heated debate
New York’s current bicycle lane installation program is receiving a significant amount of press. A post to the New Yorker blog by economist writer John Cassidy provides the drivers’ perspective: ‘when the city introduces a bike lane on a given street, it removes dozens of parking places’. His concern is that that elimination of on […]
Parking mobile technology takes off
This week we have come across three new mobile phone applications, all designed to assist with parking in some form or another. Help2Park is an Android smart phone app that allows users to locate nearby parking stations. The user can set the radius within which to search from their current location, and they receive a […]
Parking consultant tells council that parking is not being used efficiently
A parking consultant has told Havre de Grace City Council in Maryland, US, that their parking problem is not a shortage of spaces, but that too many short-term spaces are being used by long-term parkers. The study essentially concludes that the city does not enforce appropriately its parking ordinances, and suggests that the city commence […]
Traffic Management Plan proposed for Parramatta Road
The NSW road lobby group presented a plan this week with the aim of turning Parramatta Road – one of Sydney’s most congested roads – into a public transport corridor. The plan, developed by the NRMA and one of Australia’s leading urban planners, Ed Blakely, wants to remove most of the traffic and put it […]
ACCC report targets Australian airports
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s annual airport monitoring report was released last week again focusing on car parking fees. Sydney Airport commissioned two independent reports which put into question the methodology adopted by the regulator in reporting customer service levels. A Productivity Commission has been appointed to carry out an independent review of the […]
Electric storm on the way
An opinion piece published in the Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Drive’ section (written by Top Gear’s former ‘Stig’) explores and reports on test drives carried out on electric vehicles and sports cars. The article contains interesting comments on the technology and supporting infrastructure of the electric car, but we were mostly struck by the apparently inevitable […]
Car-dependent suburbs may be the slums of the future
A report released in the journal Australian Planner warns that our nation’s current transport and urban policies need a radical overhaul, with the prospect of increasing reliance on oil resulting in a spiralling trade deficit. One of the authors of the report, Peter Newman of Curtin University, said that: “Urban sprawl is finished. If we […]
Carpooling has declined 50 per cent since 1980 in the USA
The US Census Bureau has recently released data showing that the percentage of workers who car pool has dropped by almost half since 1980. Factors contributing to the decline in car pooling are thought to be a greater number of people driving, companies being more spread out, Americans being wealthier across the board, and cars […]
China’s 3D fast bus update
In August last year we reported on a planned traffic and transportation system from China: a ‘fast bus’ that straddles the street, allowing it to run over cars and under underpasses at up to 40kmph. Last week, TreeHugger reported an update on the fast bus – which doesn’t appear to be progressing very fast at […]
The environmental impact of parking spaces
We have come across two articles over the past week on the environmental impact of parking spaces, based on calculations on the number of vehicles and parking facilities in the US. One study, “Parking infrastructure: energy, emissions, and automobile life-cycle environmental accounting” by Mikhail Chester, Arpad Horvath and Samer Madanat, calculated that there could […]
Wollongong parking meters follow up
Following the installation of parking meters in Wollongong’s CBD in March 2010, Council experienced significant backlash from the community which resulted in the review of parking rates and pricing schemes, and the placement of the meters and parking zones in conjunction with community consultation. According to data provided by Council, and an interview with the […]
Urban planner Jan Gehl discusses Sydney’s potential
The City of Sydney recently hosted a series of ‘City Talks’ at the Sydney Town Hall, exploring how the city can become a better place to live in for all residents. This included a presentation by Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner of New York City’s Transport Department; as well as a panel discussion and debate on how […]
Study on parking space management finds Europe leads the way
A study released late last year by the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy in New York has found that ‘parking management is a critical and often overlooked tool for achieving a variety of social goals.’ The study, titled ‘Europe’s Parking U-Turn: From Accommodation to Regulation’, cited improved air quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced […]
Parking Consultants: 2010 in review
2010 was an exciting year for us and, although it seems to have flown by, when we look at what we have achieved it looks like at least we were not idle! Working back, we close the year with a new name “Parking & Traffic Consultants” to reflect our additional service offering. As you may […]
China looks for solutions to growing traffic problems
Following our recent report on the ten-day traffic jam in Huailai, China, we note that the country has started to attempt tackling the rapidly increasing issue of car traffic and congestion. With around 2,000 new cars coming onto the roads of Beijing every day, short term measures to try and control the traffic include higher […]
Monetising bicycle sharing schemes
Whilst there has been growing attention paid to bicycle sharing schemes around the world, one of the biggest challenges they face is that they rely exclusively on the self-motivation of the users, reassuring themselves as to the health and mental outlook benefits of biking as an alternative to driving. An innovation from a New York […]
Perth Airport set for $500m upgrade
A $500m program is being deployed at Perth Airport over the next three years to meet growth in demand, giving the airport new and expanded passenger terminals, expanded aircraft parking areas, and greater public access to the terminal. The resources boom in Western Australia has contributed to a 7.5 per cent increase in the 2009-10 […]
Car park is not ‘in the vicinity of’ for FBT purposes
In July this year we reported on a ruling from the ATO requiring Virgin Blue to pay additional Fringe Benefits Tax on a subsidised employee car park located 2km away from Melbourne Airport’s terminal. The car park was ruled to be ‘in the vicinity’ of the airport, and thus liable for additional tax. Read more […]
China’s record jam and examining traffic math
In China last August, a massive traffic jam on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou highway in Huailai, caused by road construction in Beijing, stretched for dozens of miles and lasted for over ten days. The stretch of highway has been frequently congested, especially since large coalfields were discovered in Inner Mongolia. It prompted the Wall Street Journal to […]
Criticism against Sydney Council’s car share program
We have recently focused on the emergence of Car Sharing, both in Australia and across the world, from a planning, development and parking perspective. For the most part, our coverage of car sharing programs has concentrated on the benefits of car sharing programs, and how the City of Sydney in particular has enthusiastically embraced them. […]
Where will the cars and the parking spaces go?
A guest post from PCI’s Managing Partner Cristina Lynn A couple of days after the conclusion of the 12th Australian Parking Convention, a lively debate took place at the Sydney Town Hall as part of the City Talks 2010 series. Hosted by the Lord Mayor Clover Moore, the talk on Thursday 11th November was titled […]
Dallas Fort Worth Airport – Parking Consultant recommendations
With the NPA’s survey showing that parking operations in the US, and particularly at airports, are reporting decreasing revenues, we thought that recently published recommendations of a parking consultant at Dallas Fort Worth Airport would be interesting to our readers. According to the Dallas News, the highlights of the consultant’s recommendations are: D/FW should launch […]
Australian Parking Convention day one photo gallery
With day one of the Australian Parking Convention 2010 complete, Parking Consultants have sourced some photographs of the event and activities of day one. In the below slideshow, you can see several of the keynote speakers from day one, the opening address from Larry Schneider, the presentation of the Awards For Excellence at the Convention […]
Drivers ‘spend a year looking for spaces’
A UK survey released this week claims that drivers lose a year of their lives searching for a parking space – the equivalent of more than six days a year circling streets and car parks looking for a spot. Based on a motorists’ driving ‘life’ of around 50 years, the lost time adds up to […]
The fairness of parking fines
For those of our readers unfamiliar with the work of APC keynote speaker Donald Shoup, he published this week an article in the Los Angeles Times entitled ‘Parking-fine fairness’. The article talks about a proposed ‘graduated’ system of parking fines – charting higher fines for repeated parking offenses. Shoup states that most cities use parking […]
Australian Parking Convention starts in a few days!
The 2010 Australian Parking Convention is due to commence at the end of this week, and Parking Consultants would strongly encourage members of the parking community across Australia to attend and make the most of the global knowledge that will be shared at the event. Running from Sunday November 7 – Tuesday November 9, the […]
Cycling movement gathers momentum… expect perhaps in Rome
We have noticed a significant increase in the number of articles about cycling, and the infrastructure being installed around the world to support this mode of transport making it a more attractive form of commuting and transportation. We’ve come across a debate In the US on building standards, with one critic claiming that giving building […]