Parking World

The Great Parking Scandal

In a blog yesterday I cited the potential for abuse of parking regulations by local authorities to generate revenue. Just as I was wondering whether "abuse" was too strong a word, I saw an astonishing story that came out of the Sunday Telegraph in the UK on September 26.

The story claims that Civil Enforcement Officers (CEOs), traffic wardens working for the council of the City of Exeter, were encouraged to write parking tickets even when the CEOs themselves believed the parking signs were unclear or misleading. Amazingly, the council would only allow the tickets to be cancelled if challenged by the motorist.

Part of the problem is that some of the parking signs are variable message signs that would change at different times of day to reveal conflicting rules. A car would park under one sign, and be ticketed when the sign changed.

Read the full story here.

 

Pete Goldin

 

Keep Me Posted

Right now I am preparing my first issue of Parking World as Managing Editor. And I was thinking, if there was only some way I could communicate to the industry out there, to let everybody know that I want to hear all your news. Then I remembered that I have this blog.

To the vendors: I want to hear about all the new products you are introducing to the parking industry. Put me on your PR distribution lists.

To the designers, consultants and contractors: I want to hear about your new projects and your successes.

To the parking authorities: I want to hear about your new laws, policies and programs.

To the entire industry: I want to hear your opinions about what is happening in the world of parking.

You know where to reach me:

Pete Goldin

Managing Editor of Parking World

pete@parkingworld.com

In Space Sensors in use in New Zealand

JVH Reports from the New Zealand Parking Association:

The folks in New Zealand and Australia have been working on in street sensors for ages and have a number of systems installed. They are popular here because a majority of the parking is time lilmited (one hour free, then you must move your car, etc). So necessity being the mother of invention, the Aussies and Kiwis have come up with systems that monitor cars when they are in on street spaces and report back to headquarters and to a PDA carried by an enforcement officer the status of the car in the space. The sensor looks like this:

I noticed the sensor when driving around looking for the hotel where the New Zealand Parking Association was holding its convention. When I walked into the exhibit hall, the first booth had a large flat screen display with a representation of the surrounding city and green and red squares denoting spaces that were in violation. I was looking at exactly what I was driving in a few minutes earlier.

The manufacturer, Metereye, was on site and Steve Hall explained everything in detail. Parking wardens get information sent to their hand held and can then know which cars are in violation. The hand held is also a ticket writer and the citation is printed and the evil parker is doomed.

I was also informed that particularly in Australia these systems are important because parking wardens have to be focused on their prey and kept out of the blazing sun as much as possible to prevent sun stroke and the resulting law suits against the local councils. I was told that this is a serious problem. No, sunscreen doesn't help.

Works for me.

JVH

New Zealand and Parking

Parking Today Editor JVH, reporting from New Zealand:

I'm always amazed at the turn out when countries like New Zealand, Australia, the UK, and Canada hold parking association meetings. Here in New Zealand, over 100 people came to a resort on Lake Taupo to be regaled about all things parking. Considering that New Zealand's population is about the same as South Carolina or Louisiana and there are only five cities over 100,000 population, having this number in the turnout is, I think, telling.

AND – these attendees are basically the onstreet parking folks – the IPI of New Zealand – since virtually all are public sector and deal with enforcement and parking policies in the cities. It is exciting to see the enthusiasm of the group and the professional way they go about their jobs.

They network, listen to people who can help them with their jobs, and generally talk parking. The picture above shows the group listening to Andrea Heazlewood from the NZ version of the DMV, discussing how they can use a new database program her group has set up to research vehicles caught in their respective nets. From the discussion afterwards I can tell you this was a topic near and dear to many hearts in the room.

JVH

 

Pay Per Use

I agree with our magazine’s founder JVH in most cases when he states that parking should be paid by the user, our recent debate about UK hospital parking notwithstanding.

The news coming out of Edinburgh, Scotland, on September 21, however, makes me think about the concept of pay per use. What constitutes use? Of course, parking charges are usually based on time, but we are starting to see charges vary for the size and even weight of the vehicle. Now Edinburgh’s councillors have passed a law basing the cost of parking permits on carbon dioxide emissions. Starting in November, the more a car pollutes, the more the owner will have to pay for a city parking permit.

While the biggest gas-guzzling vehicles will see permit prices double, environmentally friendly cars will actually pay less for parking.

The drive behind the new sliding scale permit costs is to encourage residents to purchase “greener” vehicles, and Councillors expect the measures to reduce pollution from vehicles by 15%.

It seems to me that government authorities have every right to determine what constitutes use, in terms of parking, and charge accordingly.

On the other hand, I can see how this privilege is often abused to generate revenue.

Jennifer Dunn, Policy Analyst at London’s TaxPayers' Alliance emailed me with a similar opinion.

“It is simply unfair for Edinburgh council to heap yet more charges on motorists who choose a larger family car,” says Dunn. “This is another policy that will place a greater burden on motorists, who already pay huge amounts in Vehicle Excise Duty and Fuel Duty, which already mean those driving larger cars pay more.”

“There is no need for this measure, which is an unnecessary complication and demonstrates that parking charges are being used as a tax rather than a legitimate payment for a service,” she adds. “The new charges should be scrapped.”

 

Pete Goldin

Impressive Roster at Australian Parking Convention

An international roster of experts will be speaking at the 12^th Annual Australian Parking Convention (APC) in Sydney, Australia on November 7-9, 2010.

Donald Shoup, the Godfather of Parking, is Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA and author of The High Cost of Free Parking. His internationally acclaimed research has revealed how parking policies can help or harm cities, the economy, and the environment.

Barbara J. Chance, President and CEO of CHANCE Management Advisors in Philadelphia, PA, USA, has served as the consultant member of the Board of Directors for the International Parking Institute, and is currently serving on the Board of Advisors. An expert in the areas of parking, transit and transportation, sustainable solutions, and transportation demand management, Barbara asks the question: is the meter running out on people in parking?

Muriel Beser Hugosson, Head of the Department of Transport Sciences for the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, discusses development of the Swedish National Transport Modelling System (called SAMPERS).

Michael Julian, General Manager, Security for Westfield Australia and former Chief of Personnel in the New York City Police Department, talks about how to manage security in car parks.

John Lee, Fellow of the Institute of Public Works Australia and Director Major Projects with Lane Cove Council, outlines use of license plate recognition technology in car park management.

Colin J. Chodos, a Partner of Corporate Connection Strategies, advises on developing a customer service culture to help drive increased profits.

Meteor Parking Sold

French operator VINCI Park has acquired Meteor Parking from the Go-Ahead Group for £11m. Meteor operates over 40,000 spaces and this move doubles the size of the French company’s business in the UK. The Go-Ahead group is perhaps better known for its bus and train operations.

The move will see Vinci take an early move into Valet parking as it has acquired Meteor’s Meet and Greet service which operates at Heathrow, Gatwick and five other airports in the UK. Meteor has recently failed to renew a number of on airport parking contracts and follows the Go-Ahead Groups rationalisation of a number of its airport-related operations.

Meteor had been going through a lean time since it lost its Heathrow contracts in September 2009 with revenues falling by a third to just under £28m returning a £1m profit.

At the same time Go-Ahead also sold Meteor subsidiary Nikaro to Securitas Mobile.

Speaking of the sale Keith Ludeman, Group Chief Executive of Go-Ahead said: “I would like to thank all of our employees for their hard work and contribution to Go-Ahead, and I wish them well for the future. We are delighted that Meteor Parking and Nikaro will form part of the future business of Vinci and Securitas. These are strong new owners, who will further develop each business.”

Peter Guest

Collapsed Bridge, Collapsing Confidence

The recent parking lot bridge collapse at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog once again exposes India’s infrastructure difficulties at a time when the country should be impressing the world as China did during the 2008 Summer Olympics.

“The chaos surrounding the Commonwealth Games exposes how far India still needs to go in executing on big-ticket projects and building infrastructure of the kind that helps make China an economic powerhouse,” says Mumbai-based journalist Tony Munroe in a Reuters article today.

“India ranks 51st overall in the World Economic Forum competitiveness index, but for infrastructure it fell 10 places to 86th this year,” Munroe continues. “Inadequate supply of infrastructure ranked as the most problematic factor for doing business in the country.”

Munroe also cites specifics related to parking infrastructure, stating, “Visitors to Delhi's new Terminal 3 this summer had to wade through virtual rivers running through its parking lot caused by heavy rains and poor drainage.”

Not only is there an issue about infrastructure performance and safety, but simply the need for parking spaces as well.

“India’s vehicular production is growing at over 15 per cent annually and urban population is increasing as more and more people shift to cities seeking opportunities,” explains Manish Motwani, Director, Kinetic Hyundai Elevator & Movement Technologies Ltd, in an interview posted on projectsmonitor.com on September 6.

“As most of our cars are moving on roads 20 per cent of the time and remain parked for the remaining 80 per cent, we already have a parking crisis at hand,” Motwani continues. “It will need government intent to find a solution for this now and gear up for situations 20 years hence. We seriously need legislations and bylaws that stipulate number of car spaces for every built-up area or household.”

“Automated parking is the only solution to help us decongest our roads and reduce air and noise pollution, but these systems are not very popular in India,” he adds.  “Current demand is confined to large cities and is slowly percolating to mini metros. The fact remains that most of the promoters and builders do not provide for actual demand for car parking and government has not proactively worked on enhancing public parking facilities.”

I wrote an article for Parking World on the challenges of India’s growing parking industry last September. A year later, it appears the country still has a long way to go.

Pete Goldin

Safety First

With the Commonwealth Games scheduled to open in less than two weeks in Delhi, India, the collapse of a footbridge connecting the parking lot to the main stadium is not a good sign. 

Obviously the games are on a very tight schedule, but the need for speed should never become a higher priority than the safety of the patrons using a parking facility.

Photo from guardian.co.uk.

Pete Goldin

Safer Parking – Not Quite

Some time ago we had a  major problem in the UK – too many cars were being stolen or broken into in car parks, often in buildings that were poorly designed and poorly looked after and simply acted as a crime magnet. The Police and the government took an initiative to promote car parks that were designed to inhibit crime and criminal behaviour, better lighting, no dark corners and so on. The Police launched an initiative called “Secured by Design” which was basically a design template for a safe car park. The intention was good but the scheme had a fatal flaw. No matter how little crime there was in a car park, if it didn’t comply with the design template it couldn’t join the scheme. The entry level was too high and not surprisingly numbers in the scheme were small.

Some time ago the British Parking Association took over the running of this scheme and decided, with the Police’s agreement, to redesign the scheme. The old prescriptive design led assessment was replaced with a new evaluation based on a risk assessment.  If there was no crime and nothing which suggested that there was a risk of crime then the car park could get an award.  Regular re-assessments ensured that if circumstances changed; then the status of the site could be reconsidered. This addressed the issues surrounding car crime but over the last few years it has become increasingly obvious that this is not the only crime in car parks. 

Car parks have started to fall down and although none have been in the Safer Parking Scheme it seems increasingly irrational to award a car park the Safer Parking appellation when customers and their cars could be at risk from crumbling structures, leaking water or inadequate fire protection. A recent check in a city which shall remain nameless showed missing test records for safety equipment, no fire evacuation plans, and crumbling asbestos in public areas.  In some of the car parks the leaks were so bad that areas were cordoned off and cars had lime scale deposits from leaking water. All of the car parks had Safer Parking Awards and yet in a real sense none of them were safe and some of the shortcomings could result in criminal prosecutions.  The scheme is in urgent need of a re-think and I hope that the BPA will understand the problem before it’s too late.

Peter Guest