Parking World

Should Bikes Pay for Parking?

As a motorcyclist myself, I couldn't help but be amused at this article, in which it described a protest held in London over fees for motorcycle parking. The protest consisted of about 100 bikes 'jamming' the streets of London! It's laughable, and I'm afraid so is their complaint.

I can not see any good reason why motorcyclists shouldn't pay for occupying a parking space in a high density city such as London. Space there is a premium, wether its occupied by a car, truck or scooter. Granted, m/c's don't take up the same amount of space, so, there should be some sort of fair play here in regards the rate they pay. Whether $3 a day is fair is definitely arguable, but I don't think it should necessarily be gratis.

As for jamming the streets, they are stretching that a very long way. The annual Toy Run here in Adelaide had some 12,000 bikers involved in this charity event. Now if the Londoners had that support, then I would call it a protest!

JP

A Potted History.

I was having a chat with a member of the PAA the other day and he told me a bit about its history. He said that it had a similar birth to the ANPSG, a group of Councils with common interests and concerns in the parking industry getting together to discuss these matters.

After the body was set up, they invited commercial operators and industry suppliers to join them. Over time it moved more and more to a commercial industry based organisation with the councils losing control over the direction it was taking.

The introduction of the Australian Road Rules became the catalyst for the formation of the ANPSG some years later, so we now have two organisations with similar interests competing for a limited sponsorship dollar.

His suggestion was that the two bodies should consider pooling their resources to eliminate this competition in the market place. Whilst some aspects of their focus are quite divergent, they do have some significant common ground.

As a number of a number of councils run off-street parking facilities, the suppliers of equipment are generally the same as those that are members of PAA and attend its Conference.

This year, the PAA and ANPSG had their two events only weeks apart, so perhaps they should consider getting together to cut costs to both organisations. 

Whilst there are differences in focus, surely these are not insurmountable. A common exhibition hall with separate break-out rooms for presentations is one work around.

Worth a thought or two?

Busy Times! And Merry Christmas to All.

Wow, what a busy last few weeks I have had - and the blog has suffered. 

The deadline for the second issue of Parking World, followed by the ANPSG Workshop and its associated epic flight home, then it was off to LA for meetings, and now the deadline for issue three is coming at me at a hundred miles and hour. All this combined with pressing family matters has meant my life is probably just like yours. Too busy! Where does all the time go?

Anyway, there has been a lot of news around so I will try to make comment over the next few days.

If you are lucky you will be on a break over the Christmas/New Year season. If not, you are like me and working hard, but in either case on behalf of the staff here at Parking World, I wish you all the best for a safe and enjoyable holiday period.

May 2009 get off to a better than 2008 finished.

JP