In Perth, the Motorcycle Riders Association is calling on the government to allow motorcycles and scooters to be able to park on public walkways in Perth city.

According to ABC online, they are calling for a trial policy similar to Melbourne, allowing motorcycles to park on footpaths and concrete public spaces, providing the vehicle is walked there, the vehicle is parked at least a motorcycle length away from buildings and the vehicle doesn't inhibit pedestrian access.

The MRAWA claims that the system would encourage motorcyclists to commute, which will ease traffic congestion especially at peak hour. In addition to this, they want extra free, all day parking locations to be scattered throughout the city.

Proposals are also under development for motorcycles and scooters to be permitted to use the emergency and bus lanes on Perth’s roads during peak periods.

The City of Perth, meanwhile, has ruled out any plans for footpath parking in the CBD, citing that 75,000 people walk into and around Perth’s CBD everyday; and that motorcycles parked in public spaces would cause obstruction to this free movement. Currently there is a report recommending an expansion and an additional 30 bays at the Mounts Bay Road parking lot due to go to council. If the report is approved, the Mounts Bay Road park will accommodate 102 motorcycles. 

A council committee in Washington DC has approved a plan to allow city officials to manage the demand for parking spaces by adjusting parking prices, taking inspiration from San Francisco’s SFpark program.

Under the plan, city officials would be able to adjust parking meter rates, length and times of operations, parking fines and residential parking regulations. Called ‘performance parking,’ the program has been tested throughout the city in recent years. The Washington Post reports that the parking plan also directs that money raised by the program be used locally to improve bus services and to foster the use of alternative transportation.

According to the DCdot site, performance-based parking manages the demand for parking to achieve three key elements:

1. Protect resident parking: Higher kerbside parking meter rates combined with more stringent parking restrictions in residential neighbourhoods in the pilot areas help preserve kerbside parking for residents in areas where business or entertainment uses draw lots of visitors.

2. Protect businesses: Performance based meter rates and time limits are designed to encourage brief kerbside parking with high turnover while discouraging long-term parking that would deprive businesses of customers. Visitors with long-term parking requirements are encouraged by the higher meter rates to utilize off-street parking facilities.

3. Promote non-automotive transportation and reduce congestion: Higher kerbside meter rates encourage walking, biking and transit use in lieu of auto travel in congested places.

Colliers International, in conjunction with Parking & Traffic Consultants, have released a white paper into CBD car parks in Australia.

The paper, entitled Australian CBD Car Parking – The Next Decade, examines the current trends and the expected future of car parks in Australia. With the number of car spaces in Australian CBDs increasing only marginally from 141,690 in 2006 to 153,400 in 2011, car parking is a finite product, with the supply of car parking expected to moderate over the next decade.

A key finding of the report was that the ratio of car parking to CBD workers is declining, along with the importance of parking relative to other forms of transport. Since 2005, proximity to public transport has remained the most important driver in attracting and retaining staff by tenants when choosing an office location and has steadily increased in importance over time.

Real estate and property yields for well-established commercial car parks are generally slightly above commercial buildings in the same price range in comparable locations, with a slight risk premium factored in to allow for increased uncertainty surrounding changes to Government legislation, casual parking as a discretionary spend which generally diminished in times of economic uncertainty, and a smaller market for car parking assets.

Parking & Traffic Consultants' own Managing Partner, Cristina Lynn, was a co-author to the report. Cristina said that with changes to technology and the cost of car parking on the rise, owners had to become more innovative in the services they provide. The benefits of new technology coupled with greater awareness of customer’s needs should ensure on going profitability and value maximisation for car park owners.

Click here to view the full white paper.

Former New York City traffic commissioner Sam Schwartz is proposing a plan that would toll the East River Bridges of New York, while lowering tolls on other, non-Manhattan bound spans in an effort to both reduce congestion and give the city’s transit system a funding boost.

According to Transport Nation, these tolls and other fees (like ending a parking tax rebate for residents of Manhattan, and adding a taxi surcharge on cab rides south of 86th Street) could raise as much as $1.2 billion annually, Schwartz argues  — money that would then be spent on improving transit and roads.

The money raised would then be used to reduce transit fares and to launch new transit lines — particularly bus rapid transit — in the outer boroughs where transit service is poor. He’s also proposed a number of pedestrian and bicycle bridges leading onto the island.

New York’s politicians are not enthusiastic about the plan, however, claiming that they will not have the political support to pass a congestion tax program. But with New York Times’ opinion editorial page getting behind the congestion plan, perhaps this may have a strong influence on public perception of the tax – particularly if the benefit goes to public transport and mass transit. 

A US-based company has developed a concept prototype for a ‘solar roadway’ – a series of structurally engineered solar panels that can be driven on.

The concept sees roads literally replaced by the solar panels, which when linked together effectively serve as an energy grid itself. Any home or business connected to the Solar Roadway receives the power and data signals that the Solar Roadway provides, with the aim of becoming an intelligent, self-healing, decentralized, secure power grid.

An electric road allows electric vehicles to recharge anywhere: rest stops, parking lots, businesses and homes. Furthermore, it will reduce a significant usage of asphalt – a product made from petroleum itself, further reducing dependency on oil.

As you can see in the video below, the biggest challenge that the solar roadway faces is driving on glass – however from our interpretation of the video it seems the challenge will be more shifting our attitudes towards driving on glass than the supporting science behind it.

It’s a simple overview of how the technology behind the SFPark variable pricing system is working, and how it connects the theory of market pricing with reality. 

In and around Atlanta, a new scheme putting a price on convenience is being introduced as a way to manage traffic congestion. According to the New York Times, transit lanes are now able to be accessed by solitary motorists, on a user-pays model.

In addition to the usual occupants (car pools of three or more, eligible alternative-fuel vehicles, motorcycles and an expanded fleet of buses), the lanes now also accommodate private single drivers who pay through an electronic transponder. According to the Georgia Transportation Department the ‘value pricing’, which varies according to the amount of traffic in the restricted lane, is between 1 cent and 90 cents per mile.  

It appears that the system has not achieved the intended effect of improving commuting time, with some local users claiming that commuting time in buses using the free lane have doubled since the introduction of the scheme.

According to the New York Times, a number of states who have introduced the ‘High Occupancy Toll’ lanes (HOT lanes) are considering a range of criteria for which vehicles are able to access the lanes. In both California and soon-to-be in Virginia, air-quality regulators ended single-occupant privileges for many types of hybrid vehicles, excluding older hybrids like the Toyota Prius in favour of plug-in hybrids and battery-electric cars.

It’s certainly an interesting concept, but as the author points out, reward is given for two different (and opposing?) methods of controlling congestion: free-market and economic-based methods against desirable behaviours such as car-pooling or driving a less polluted car. And is it really proving to be effective? Should governments be encouraging anyone to drive alone?

In South Australia, a bid to overturn a government decision to charge staff for car parking at some Adelaide metropolitan hospitals has been dismissed by the full bench of the Industrial Relations Court.

The Public Service Association made the application, arguing the parking fees were a breach of enterprise agreements for staff at the public hospitals.

According to an ABC News bulletin, the parking charges for some public hospitals were introduced as a 2010 state budget measure, but partly overturned when Jay Weatherill took over from Mike Rann as premier. This change allowed two hours of free parking for hospital visitors, but not for staff who have to pay for parking for their entire stay.

Meanwhile in Wollongong, plans for the $86 million expansion of Wollongong Hospital have attracted concerns over parking issues, with planning documents showing that additional staff and patient numbers after the expansion will generate the need for almost double the number of parking spaces now available on site. According to the Illawarra Mercury, there are no short or medium-term plans to include more on-site parking. 

Instead, patients, visitors and staff will have to park on nearby residential streets, which consultants claim have ‘‘high’’ spare capacity. NSW Health is currently reviewing the submissions. We consider the supply of adequate parking to be an essential component of Hospital planning, given the potential mobility issues of many of the people attending the hospital, not to speak of the stress levels of visitors to patients. Penalising the nearby residents by adding congestion to the surrounding street network would not seem to be a good idea in principle considering that those streets were not built to cater for high levels of traffic activity. And don’t let’s forget pedestrians, which is what all drivers are at the end of the journey!

Here is an update on Melbourne’s underground street art project we wrote about recently, as the project has started to take shape. Around 90 artists from New York, Paris, Amsterdam and Melbourne came together to paint over 8,600 square feet of wall space over the 3 levels of Emerald House in South Melbourne.

Reminds us a little of the recent project in Perth’s Condor Towers. If you have an interest in street art and car park refurbishments you can see our post about Condor Towers here.

Below you can see some images of the Melbourne project thanks to the 12oz prophet site, as well as a short video below on the car park’s artistic progress. Amazing stuff!

Melbourne Airport has introduced a new ‘Ring and Ride’ waiting area in its long term car park, where drivers can wait for arriving passengers to phone to say that they are ready to be picked up from the airport’s terminal.

According to the Australian Business Traveller, Airport CEO Chris Woodruff explained that the Ring & Ride area was created in response to "growing concern about drivers parking illegally on the Tullamarine Freeway or other roadways while they waited to pick up arriving passengers." Melbourne Airport is also hoping that this will reduce congestion in front of the terminal.

The first twenty minutes in the Ring & Ride zone will be free, while a 20-40 minute wait will cost $2 and up to an hour, $4. After the hour, regular long term parking charges will apply.

Ten extra pick-up bays will also come into play at the terminals this week, following the extensive forecourt reconstruction works that have taken place over the past few months.