Parking World

Amiss Saigon

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in Vietnam had 370,000 cars and 3.7 million motorbikes in 2008, and the number of registered vehicles in the city increases by 12% each year with about 120 new cars and 1,200 new motorbikes added every day. Meanwhile, parking availability in HCMC's downtown districts is inadequate to meet this demand.

Last year, Tran Quang Phuong, Director of the Municipal Department of Transport for HCMC, said that because parking lots are so few in number and small in area, vehicles mainly park on the roadway. He added that the demand for multi-storey underground parking lots is urgent.

So why has the municipal government still not approved the construction license for HCMC's first underground public parking facility?

This $100-million-plus project for a car park at Le Van Tam Park has been in the planning stages for the last 7 years. The government approved the car park in 2005, and originally it was supposed to be completed in 2007. Finally, in December, the project investor Underground Space Development and Investment Company (IUS) announced that the car park would break ground after Tet, the Lunar New Year, in mid February of this year.

The parking lot is expected to include 5 floors with 72,000 square meters of parking space, which could meet 40% of the parking demand in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.

But last week, Le Tuan, chairman of IUS announced that they had not obtained the construction license yet for the car park. No new date for construction has been set.

I understand that the city may be delaying the project due to concerns over the impact to trees and plants in the adjacent Le Van Tam Park, however, that doesn't seem to be an excuse to delay this much needed infrastructure for 7 years. We all understand about red tape, but Ho Chi Minh City needs to come up with a solution fast.

As a reference point, it only took 6 years to build the Chunnel under the English Channel.

 

Parkex and Goody Bags

A trade show is as we all know a serious matter. Companies spend thousands of pounds to exhibit and promote their products and services and we who attend really want to get the low-down on the latest trends. So what was the talk of Parkex this year? A rubber duck.

Forget the above, people go to shows for the hand-outs and the one that got the most attention this year was a shiny yellow duck like the one you had in your bath when you were a kid. This was a very politically incorrect duck. The company handing them out was English but they bought the ducks from a German supplier who in turn had them made in China. Sustainability PAH! But everyone wanted one. Although these were great fun the prize for the best goody bag must go the Bailiff Company that was handing out grapevines. Very green, very sustainable and which will last for many years.

Parking vs. Public Transit

Can cars and public transit coexist peacefully within one city, or is expanded public transit essentially meant to replace cars? The question is one that goes to the heart of a controversy over a new parking tax in Montreal, Canada.

The recently announced tax is based on the surface area of parking lots in downtown Montreal and the central business district, and it is included in the car park owner's property tax bill. The CA$20 million expected from the tax will be used to expand Montreal's public transit system, in accordance with the province of Quebec's goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the use of public transportation.

Opponents of the tax include the Coalition pour une véritable métropole, comprised of six associations with a stake in Montreal's economic development. Gerry Girard, President of the Montreal Parking Association, has been a vocal opponent of the tax, saying that the costs will be passed down to parking patrons, making it too costly to park downtown, and ultimately having a significant negative impact on downtown Montreal.

Girard's argument is that less people will go to downtown Montreal to conduct commercial, recreational and cultural activities. But the tax may simply deter people from driving downtown, and instead utilize the public transportation system – which ironically is being improved via the funds from the very same parking tax that has deterred them from driving downtown.

"People will be given choices," explains Alan Desousa, Vice Chair of the Executive Committee for Ville de Montreal. "They could bring their cars downtown, but in doing so they might have to pay a little bit more. There are also other inconveniences that they might wish to consider such as traffic congestion. Alternatively, if there is a public transit option offered that is available, efficient, reliable, and saves them time and stress, that may be their preference. My feeling is that if the public transit option is a viable one, more and more people would choose to leave their car at home, and make a public transit choice."

"We have no problem with people coming downtown," DeSousa adds. "We just want to make sure they get to downtown in a manner that is not going to lead to increased congestion and emissions of greenhouse gases."

DeSousa admits that public transportation will not be convenient in every case, and people may sometimes choose to use their cars, but by making it more costly to park downtown, and by funding an improved transit system with the parking tax, Montreal clearly seems to be attempting to reduce the number of cars in that area of the city.

"If you want a viable downtown you have to have both parking and public transportation," Girard contends. "We in the parking industry are not against public transportation. We support it. But I think the way they are imposing the taxes is a mistake."

It seems to me that a good public transportation system would help keep the downtown alive, especially an urban downtown as dynamic, vibrant and appealing as Montreal. I do not agree that this tax will definitely hurt downtown Montreal, but on the other hand the idea of the tax doesn't sit well with me. The tax could be seen as an attack on the parking industry in Montreal, because it targets this one industry.

"In the overall scope of a CA$4.3 billion budget, CA$20 million is small potatoes," DeSousa says, questioning the legitimacy of the backlash against the tax. "If we were asking them to make a contribution of CA$80 million that would drive parking rates up in a significant manner, I could understand that reaction. But when you look at CA$1 to CA$2 a day, the amounts are relatively miniscule, and I am a bit underwhelmed by the reaction. "

Everything DeSousa says makes sense, but when you compare a total daily parking rate of CA$5 before the tax vs. CA$7 today, the tax is forcing parking lot owners to raise their rates by 40%. While the tax may not hinder people from coming to downtown Montreal, because they have the public transit alternative, it may seriously reduce parking revenue in Montreal and eventually put some car parks out of business. Maybe that's the price a city must pay for good public transit, but it just doesn't seem fair.

 

Parkex, a Curate’s Egg

Parkex has been and gone. According to some it's the biggest parking Show in the World, it's certainly the biggest one in Europe. And like the curate's egg (See Punch Magazine 8 November 1985 if you don't understand) there were good bits and bad bits. Someone suggested that every year is too much but every year there are first time exhibitors so you see something new and learn something. Touch and go debit cards were launched here last year and it looks like parking is an ideal target meaning that the manufacturers of parking payment systems have to move yet again to respond to the banks' latest bright idea. Trouble is in London they are everyday in Yorkshire they are as common as a nine pound note.

The bad bits, a major part of the UK Parking industry is the big 5 operators NCP, APCOA, Vinci Euro and Q Park. They are usually a major part of the show and Euro usually steals the show with something like a race car simulator to draw the crowds in. This year they all stayed away, although APCOA had a small presence on a stand with one of their clients. It's an old saying that nobody sells anything at a show but if you're not there people ask why and certainly I heard more than one rumour about impending bankruptcies over the two days.