The World Parking Symposium began Sunday with about 60 delegates attending from around the world. The parking puzzle this year is working on the IPI’s “parking matters” topic. Teams will discuss how to support the effort to establish a peer reviewed, academically supported system for gathering and sharing case studies on parking? What are the broad categories by which we index the case studies ? What questions need to be asked ? What does a matrix for a case study include ? How do we build in a system for peer review and for reevaluations over time? How would the case studies be utilized ?
On Monday, the group heard presentations by Chuck Reedstrom – Horn and Associates The importance and relevance of the parking industry – a snap shot of the parking industry; Sjoerd Stienstra – presented on The Effects of Parking Facilities on Urban Structures in the Netherlands; and George Hazel Ph.D from Edinburgh, Scotland – The Future of Mobility.
George talked about mobility trends in cities around the world. An interesting approach is that we should look at parking from a retail perspective. Pricing elasticity in parking rates: for every 1 % you raise parking prices, usage drops by .6%. He describes what makes some cities more mobile than others and describes what changes can be made to cities that have mobility issues.
The highlight of Monday afternoon was a presentation by Donald Shoup, the rock star of parking who is considering changing his name to Shoup-dog. Shoup shared his philosophy on the principles of land use and parking. 1- set the right price for curb parking 2- return the parking revenue to pay for local public services and 3- remove or reform minimum parking requirements. We just can’t hear this enough !
Christina Lynn from Sydney, Australia – How do Australian Cities Manage Parking -She gave an overview of the parking situation in Australia. Parking levies have been implemented in several major cities in Australia. There has been some success in reduction of traffic, revenues generated have been used to improve public transit and support modal shifts. Cities have been working on allocating maximum number of parking stalls permitted for development, a new approach to reducing parking stalls required for development and redevelopment projects. Reductions are permitted based on proximity to other methods of transportation. Christina touched on the workplace travel plans. Recently a large company Optus moved their head office. Part of their relocation planning included how to reduce single occupant vehicle travel by employees. They implemented user pay parking for all employees with reduced rates for ride sharing. A private bus service ran from the nearest train station to their office daily, on – site child care, bike lockers and showers were some of the initiatives that contributed to their success.
More information can be had at the conference’s web site —
…From Sandra Smith, Executive Director of the Canadian Parking Association.
