Parking World

Around and Around They Go

Where they will end up parking, nobody knows.

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) is encouraging the reduction of parking availability. This is one way buildings in Australia can earn a “green” rating by the GBCA.

According to GBCA, “Credits reward the reduction of demand for individual cars by both discouraging car commuting and encouraging use of alternative transportation.”

As you can see, the wording is kept vague. Presumably the GBCA is attempting to reduce emissions, although they do not state that explicitly. The theory is that if there is not enough parking, people will choose public transportation. Or maybe they will ride a bike, change jobs or stay home?

Although I respect the overall efforts of the GBCA, I would suggest that the theory – reduced parking availability leads to reduced emissions – is not based on proven fact, however. The assumption is that the person who would have parked in the space will choose not to drive the vehicle to the destination once that particular space is no longer available. I challenge this assumption. Is it possible that reduced parking availability could actually increase emissions as people drive around and around looking for that elusive parking space?

Cristina Lynn of Parking Consultants, based near Sydney, Australia, says similar habits are already apparent, when it comes to the search for free parking.

“The issue of cruising to find available parking is a big problem on street, as often drivers would rather drive around the same block a few times looking for a free space on the street rather than paying for parking in a car park,” says Lynn.

We are talking about human nature. Even if spaces are limited, many drivers will still believe that they will be the one to find that last available parking space.

Cristina Lynn also agrees that availability of parking supply does not necessarily impact parking demand.

“I believe that the ratings relating to the minimization of parking supply are not actually addressing the issue of parking demand, which is affected, amongst other things, by what alternatives are available to people driving to work etc.,” Lynn points out.

The bottom line is that we need some concrete evidence that less available parking actually reduces the number of vehicles, with a resulting reduction in emissions, before we start asking urban areas or even particular buildings to reduce the number of available parking spaces.

The studies are there -- people cruise an average of five to seven minutes looking for a low cost or free parking space. It seems like that backs up the position that lowering the number of spaces doesn't really help.

Today’s Car Parks, Tomorrow’s Fuel Stations

The electric vehicle (EV) still seems like a vision of the future, but the future is coming sooner than you think. We are still a few years away from EVs becoming a major mode of transportation anywhere in the world – but it will happen, and car parks are poised to become the “fueling stations” of the future, with the potential to replace gas stations. Much like a garage in a home, a parking space is the perfect spot to recharge an EV.

Vancouver, Canada is taking the lead on this issue, with a mandate this summer to include EV charging ports in a minimum of 20% of the stalls in all new parking facilities for apartments and condominiums, as well as all city-owned parking lots. This is all part of Mayor Gregor Robertson’s “Greenest City” initiative which aims to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world by 2020.

 Some may question why a city would mandate the deployment of EV charging infrastructure for vehicles that are not even on the streets yet. I say this is the kind of progressive thinking we need to see. I applaud the Vancouver City Council, which actually voted to increase the percentage of EV-friendly stalls, originally proposed at 10%.

 “You need to create supply in order for there to be demand for EVs,” explains City of Vancouver Councillor Andrea Reimer, who believes it is a social responsibility for a municipality to provide this type of support for environmentally-friendly modes of transport.

 

“But there is also an economic argument,” says Reimer. “If we start now then we are ahead, which means we will attract more of the investment related to electric cars.”

 

Now is the time for parking lot operators to look to the future, and start considering how they can capitalize on this revolutionary change in the way vehicles operate. After all, EV recharging will be a competitive advantage and could even evolve into a highly profitable service, especially in cities like Vancouver where the cost of energy is relatively low.

 Now is also the time for national, regional and municipal governments to follow Vancouver’s lead.

 I think Councillor Reimer says it best: “We are going to go there one way or the other so why not be in control and do it in a way that costs the least amount of money.”

 

 

 

Enforcement Officer Under Stopwatch in Melbourne…

This is rich – Follow the link and check out the video – "rangers" in Melbourne are "Johnnie on the spot" when it comes to giving citations. This crack investigative reporter has a stop watch going. It begins when the meter goes into violation, and ends less than a minute later when the citation is issued.

More PR problems that could be solved if the city were willing to use the meter money for projects directly related to the neighborhood around where the meter was located. If people thought that parking fees, and citation revenue was going to rebuild parks, resurface sidewalks, clean the trash and the like, they would be much less likely to complain. As it stands now, it disappears into the "general fund" and everyone knows that goes to pay for the Mayor's limo.

JVH

Funny how that works

Extra, read all about it – Charging for parking creates parking space. The UK is embroiled in hospital parking issues. The National Health Service or whatever is getting it in the neck for charging a 'Sickness tax" read that "parking fee" to people who park at hospitals. Most of the time its noted as a fee necessary to raise money for the hospitals, and it does raise a lot.

However in this case, in Lancashire, the authorities have noticed that when charges were put in place, space was created. Up to 200 spaces a day. They only charge the £10 if you stay longer than four hours. What that did was push out all those folks who were parking in the hospital and then walking down the block to work.

See, creative thinking can solve the problem without creating another one. However just for the record, I believe everyone should pay something for parking, and they might do so at Lancashire hospitals. This is an excellent example of how parking fees can affect parking habits.

Good job.

JVH

SKIDATA Goes Dutch

Pete Goldin Reports:

Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is officially upgrading to the latest SKIDATA parking system for the airport's 40,000 parking spaces. The upgrade will replace Schiphol's previous SKIDATA and Scheidt & Bachmann installations, making SKIDATA the exclusive supplier of car park solutions to Schiphol.

The ten-year contract covers all parking facilities at Schiphol, including the P1 and P2 short-stay car parks, the P3 long-stay area, and staff parking.

The SKIDATA technology will enable Schiphol to introduce dedicated sections for valet parking, "Smart Parking" that can be booked over the Internet at low early-booking rates, and "Excellence Parking" with VIP-style premium services. Excellence Parking – scheduled to open in May 2010 and targeted for the high-yield business traveler – is directly connected to the Departures hall and close to the VIP Center. The upgrade will also help Schiphol integrate parking systems with other back-end systems such as CRM.

Roel Huinink, Senior Manager Parking & Mobility Services at Schiphol says the airport decided to go with SKIDATA as the sole parking equipment vendor "to reduce operational and technical complexity and enable faster product development such as Internet sales, to bring passenger parking throughout the entire airport up to the next level. We wanted to set new standards in airport parking convenience."

"In the European tender, SKIDATA came out the best of five," Huinink adds.

 

I completely understand the change, however about 10 years ago the then parking leaders at Schipol told me they had two vendors for a typical "Dutch" reason. They felt that if there were two companies constantly striving to take over the entire airport, both would excel and they would have great service and equipment from each. In other words, they placed each in a competitive position and were looking for perfection from both.

This approach worked for a decade or more. But as I suspected at the time, as the operation became more complex and new features were required, it became more difficult to maintain both systems side by side.

 

JVH

Toy Town Airport a Fairy Story

From the pointed pen of Peter Guest:

Many years ago a man spent most of his working life selling parking equipment. He was a good man and highly respected in the industry. Because he had worked for so long in one industry he was considered an expert although his expertise was really only in one aspect of the business. One day he visited the guys at Toy Town airport, who operated thousands of parking spaces and said "Hey, I know a better way of doing this. Instead of operating one coordinated service with staff, short, medium and long-term parking you should segment the parking to address every segment of the airport business with a distinct and different service. More than that you can then contract out each part of the service individually and maximise your return".

Now the people at Toy Town Airport knew about airplanes and knew that they could make a lot of money out of parking. This guy was an expert so he must know more than them so they started to disassemble the parking service and contracting out different parts to different contractors. At one stage this resulted in two car parks next door to each other serving the same people which caused more than a little confusion to the users. With the service fragmented efficiencies of scale started to go out of the window. The two car parks each sent a medium sized bus to the terminal every five minutes instead of one big one, doubling staff costs and increasing running cost. Indeed at the start one operator bought buses that were so small that at busy times their clients had to wait for two or three buses before they could get a ride. Operators that should have been running a coordinated service started to compete. "Why pay a premium rate for medium term parking when you can use our long-stay parking for less and the bus ride is only a few minutes longer?"

This carried on for some years, they even fragmented the service further to create premium business parking lots and then one day the guys at Toy Town woke up and smelled the coffee as they say. Instead of managing one contract for parking they were running dozens. The central terminal area which was a traffic nightmare was stuffed with buses and really it just wasn't working. So here's a bright idea; why not just have just one contract with an expert company that knows about airport parking (you know their name even originally included the word airport)? And that's just what they did. One operator, a coordinated service and with a new start fewer less environmentally damaging buses, well the old fleet was worn out anyway and we might as well get the environmental kudos from buying new buses.

The moral of this story is probably in two parts. One, if you're talking to an expert make sure that they are an expert in what you're talking about. Two, if it's broke fix it.

Note: There is absolutely no relationship between the above and what recently might have happened at a large airport on an Island to the east of Dublin. Any similarity is entirely coincidental.

Is Parking Causing a Traffic Crisis in India?

Admittedly, parking is not the only factor behind India’s substantial traffic challenges. Vehicle density – about 341 cars per km of narrow roads – is another factor, for example. However, the lack of alternatives to illegal street parking, the lack of parking authorities and enforcement of parking regulations, and the lack of regulations themselves is clearly contributing to a traffic crisis that must be dealt with.

 

“Motorists don’t take parking as a serious issue although there are terrible traffic jams all over cities in India - and one of the main causes is careless and illegal and extensive free single and double parking on roads,” says Ashok Datar, founder and chairman of Mumbai Environmental Social Network.

 

Datar says the demand for parking in India is way too high in relation to the supply of parking spaces on narrow roads with heavy round-the-clock traffic. Thousands of cars are parked illegally every day for hours in Mumbai, for example. It is common for cars and taxis to park just about anywhere – even blocking sidewalks, bus stops and the streets themselves.

 

“Poor driver training and lack of consideration to others in combination with absence of designated ‘on street’ parking spaces or ‘off street’ organized parking lots adds to chaos on Indian roads,” adds Dr Adhiraj Joglekar, founder of the website driving-india.blogspot.com.

 

“Due to lack of policies governing such issues, often it is unlikely to be deemed illegal to park recklessly,” he adds. “On the other hand, even in areas where parking is not allowed, illegal parking is common as law enforcement is poor.”

 

Indian government bodies, especially urban municipalities like the MCGM of Mumbai, must face the music: a cacophonous chorus of honking cars looking for a parking space.

 

 

We welcome Pete Goldin as a member of our Parking World blogging team.

Pete has been a professional writer since 1989 and a freelance writer since 1995. As a freelancer, he has worked for more than 85 technology and electronics companies, writing a variety of marketing and PR materials, and writing/editing/managing corporate publications. Prior to becoming a freelancer, he ran the corporate publications division of Sullivan Communications Group in Chicago from 1993-1995.  

As a PR consultant, he has  contributed articles which have been placed in a wide range of magazines in multiple industries and countries. As a journalist, he has written for Route One's ITS International and World Highways magazines since 2002, as well as the ITS Daily News on site at the ITS World Congress and ITS America shows. Pete has also written for Flight Global, Flight Daily News and Flight Evening News.

LIes, Damn LIes, and Statistics

 

 

From Peter Guest:

 

The Economist recently published a survey showing parking rates in different cities thus giving another airing to the old adage “lies, dam lies and statistics”.  The article refers to the daily and monthly charges in various cities across the world and notes that parking charges are holding firm despite the recession and that charges are higher in Europe and (wow) lowest in India.

Let’s look at this in a bit more depth. It costs about a thousand dollars a month to park in London according to the table.  However, this figure is dominated by municipal parking lots where the price mechanism has no reverse gear. So boom or bust the charges are only going one way.  It costs $26 a month to park in Mumbai but virtually all of that city’s parking is still free.  And do the figures actually mean what they say? Ok it costs 40 times more to park in London than Mumbai but since the average London parker is probably earning 50 times what the guy in Mumbai gets which is really cheaper?

The numbers are numbers and I think they tell us nothing about either the relative real cost of parking in the various cities or about parking charges and the state of the economy. What might tell us something is how parking costs have altered and how full the parking is and was two years ago.

Parking Problems in the Pines

In May, the Whistler, BC, Canada Council directed the parking office to double the parking rates and to implement pay parking in one of the local garages which had been free.  Here is the kicker, no consultation, just do it, we need the revenue.  Of course the garage was full but institute pay parking goes in it and the garage becomes a barren waste land.

The city had public outcry, a petition, a facebook group and 250 + letters to Council.  Last week the Council, decided to suspend the pay parking in the garage and commence a comprehensive parking study and community engagement.

This destination vacation location has become a hotbed of parking activists. The council wanted to balance its budget on the backs of the parking public, and the public reacted, as they should.

It's a classic object lesson to city councils. Arbitrarily raising parking rates to garner increased revenue doesn't work. It only makes people angry. However if you take a step back and address the rates situation, give your customers input, and then take a market approach to the process, success can be guaranteed.

OH, it also helps if the money raised by parking goes back into the neighborhoods from whence it came. You know, better lighting, sidewalk repair, more cops, whatever. Simply dumping it into the "general fund" is never a win and can guarantee substantial PR problems, and maybe even an election loss.

JVH

The city had public outcry, a petition, a facebook group and 250 + letters to Council.  Last week the Council, decided to suspend the pay parking in the garage and commence a comprehensive parking study and community engagement.

This destination vacation location has become a hotbed of parking activists. The council wanted to balance its budget on the backs of the parking public, and the public reacted, as they should.

It's a classic object lesson to city councils. Arbitrarily raising parking rates to garner increased revenue doesn't work. It only makes people angry. However if you take a step back and address the rates situation, give your customers input, and then take a market approach to the process, success can be guaranteed.

OH, it also helps if the money raised by parking goes back into the neighborhoods from whence it came. You know, better lighting, sidewalk repair, more cops, whatever. Simply dumping it into the "general fund" is never a win and can guarantee substantial PR problems, and maybe even an election loss.

JVH