The NSW government announced last week that the Sydney Entertainment Centre, Convention Centre and Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour will be closed for three years while they are expanded or replaced under a $1 billion upgrade approved by NSW cabinet.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the precinct will be expanded with a view to having facilities that are equal or better than those in other Australian capitals.

New facilities are expected to include:

• An upmarket replacement for the Entertainment Centre with seating for at least 8000 people
• An increase in size of the Exhibition Centre from 25,000 square metres to 40,000 square metres making it Australia's largest exhibition space;
• A convention hall with capacity for more than 10,000 people which can host multiple events simultaneously making it the biggest such facility in the country.
• Dedicated banqueting facilities for 2000 people, almost double the current capacity.
• A hotel with at least 300 rooms

Meanwhile, the government has opened the door for residential apartments, shops and restaurants to be built on Darling Harbour parkland as part of the overhaul. State cabinet has approved a 66 per cent increase in the area of Darling Harbour where developers will relocate and rebuild exhibition facilities and public areas as part of an upgrade expected to cost about $1 billion.

We love examples of thinking that’s different and brings a new perspective to planning and transportation. We came across an article on Slate.com this week that discussed British consultant Charles Leadbeater’s matrix for re-thinking city design and management.

Based on the psychologist Simon Baron-Choen’s work with Asperger’s patients, Leadbeater divided city transportation and management on two axes: ‘system’ (organisation, patterns, attention to detail) and ‘empathy’ (an understanding of the human relationships of a situation). For cities, “system” implied things like infrastructure and institutions, while empathy implied the cultural texture of a place. His underlying question: how can cities be designed and optimised to be high on both measures?

The author of the article on Slate.com, Tom Vanderbilt, explores both options (transport running frequently and on time, versus the pleasure of the ride, and offering a superior ‘ride experience’ to the car - such as free wi-fi), before settling his opinion in favour of ‘systems’, in favour of the quantity over the quality of the experience, on factors such as ease of use, wayfinding, ticketing, connections, price and parking.

It’s certainly an interesting way to look at transport options, and one likely to offer an alternative viewpoint to mainstream transportation planning. We’re of the opinion that getting it right involves equal amounts of both efficiency and empathy. What do you think?

If you’re interested in Charles Leadbeater’s thinking, you may also be interested in a recent talk he delivered at TED on innovation. Watch and enjoy!

Another year, another summary. In what has become an annual tradition, we try and distil the key news and trends from the Wayfinding Forum blog. It’s no easy job, with just under 200 posts published every year…

Parking rates and sentiment

In 2011, Australian parking rates and the construction industry sentiment were inversely proportional. Sydney announced another on-street rate hike, and Australian parking rates continue to be amongst the most expensive in the world; due to both policy and appreciation of the Australian Dollar.

The value of car parks continues to soar, with an off-street private park adding up to $200k-150k in Sydney, and up to $100k in Melbourne and $80k in Brisbane. It seems the lesson here is to invest in ownership of the space, not in parking your own car!

Meanwhile, the construction industry grows gloomier, with Davis Langdon’s quarterly sentiment monitor declining every quarter throughout the year, and painting an increasing negative outlook on the industry for the future. Gosh, we’re a miserable bunch.

Innovation and technology

In what is most likely the most significant event in the industry this year, the SFPark program in San Francisco was switched on in April, as the world’s first large-scale application of demand-based parking fees. Later in the year, Los Angeles also announced that they would trial demand-based parking fees, to commence in April 2012.

Unlike the sentiment monitor however, on the technology front it appears to have been quite the ‘appy year. Mobile technologies exploded throughout the parking industry in 2011, with apps launched for probably almost anything you can think of. There are now apps for reporting on the misuse of disabled parking spaces; find nearby parking stations, to connect people who want to seel their private off-street parking, show locations of electric recharging stations, probability of getting a parking ticket, remembering where you parked, finding available spaces, to play car parking games, and more.

Another technology to take note of for the future are in ‘near-field communications’, with Google announcing the launch of their ‘Wallet’ product (allowing users to pay bills by tapping their phones to a device); and the emergence of EMV credit Card technologies. Both of these will have a significant impact on how payments are made in our industry into 2012 and beyond.

Government regulation and policy

One of the biggest shifts in policy this year was around minimum parking requirements in inner-city buildings and constructions. Both Sydney and Melbourne led the charge, reducing the minimum required car spaces for new residential and commercial properties, and were followed by Canberra, Adelaide, Wollongong and more. It’s not just governments who see this as the future – apparently the users have also reduced their demand for inner city parking spaces, instead being replaced by increased demand for shower facilities and access to public transport.

Melbourne City Council has led the way with increased technological implementation and installation; this year introducing a number of automated technologies, including in-ground sensors, license plate recognition systems, pay by phone technology, and an electronic monitoring and enforcement system throughout Melbourne’s CBD and Southbank.

Around the country, Wollongong City Council introduced paid parking meters but repealed and amended much of their program, leading us to believe that they should have done their homework a little better before pushing go. Brisbane City Council expanded their on-street metered areas of the city and inner suburbs, and Perth’s announced that inner city churches were made exempt from paying parking taxes. Meanwhile, it was reported that the revenue from Perth’s parking levies were not being reinvested into public transport – the intended destination for these funds.

Politically, the NSW State elections saw a new government installed, with big promises to address transport issues in NSW. Sadly, (?) the No Parking Meters party failed to win a seat.

Transportation and planning

One of the key topics we explored in 2011 was the contrast between European cities and car policies, compared to Australian and American policies. We published a number of articles this year on how Europe is leading the way in moving their societies and cities from car-based to people based, instead investing in alternative means of transport and supporting infrastructure.

Car parking is integral to this process, however: a Parisian study found that most urban trips are influenced by the car parking conditions at their origin and destination; and a subsequent UK study found that effective parking management will provide impetus to shift drivers to more sustainable modes of transport; providing these options are available to them!

Back in Australia, congestion in Sydney in particular continues to increase, with six of the major seven roads to the city getting slower in peak hour commuting. Sydney’s main transport hub of Wynyard saw a lot of focus, due to both the Barangaroo development on the north-western edge of Sydney’s CBD, and the fact that the commuter hub is reaching capacity – for both the train lines and the bus lines.

Alternative and environmental transport

Whilst in 2010 we predicted that electric cars would be a key focus for 2011; it appears that this was shadowed by other non-car transport methods. For us, the most interesting news on electric cars this year came from lifestyle assessment studies published in May, examining not only the electric cars’ output, but the entire chain of powering electric vehicles from production to disposal, concluding that electric vehicles still have a long way to go to overtake the petrol-driven engines for energy efficiency.

Bicycling seems to have been the key focus for urban and transportation planners as an alternative transportation method in 2011. Most of the major (western) city centres have been investing in infrastructure to support bicycling. New York has led the way, implemented their bicycle lane infrastructre program to much press and attention, and it would seem, significantly increased demand. It has seen some teething problems in managing the balance between cars and bicycles, pedestrians and enforcement, but for the most part seems to be going well. London is also seeing significant success in their bike sharing programs, with the Boris Bikes scheme very popular and bicycling on the uptake.

In Australia, Melbourne’s bike sharing scheme was revealed to being significantly underutilised in June, with possible causes identified as pick-up points, poor weather, compulsory helmet laws, and a limited number of bike stations. It is still Australia’s leading city in terms of bicycle usage, and saw a significant police crackdown in June – trying to establish and teach bicyclists that they also need to obey the road rules.

Sydney opened their new dedicated cycleways in April, and has seen a significant increase in users since. We’ve also come across studies proving the health benefits of bicycling, with significant benefits for the population of cities with high usage. Aside from health, the new dedicated bicycle lanes have also seen apparent increased property prices for the houses on the cycleway routes, noted in Melbourne and Sydney.

Putting our bicycling money where our mouth is, PTC’s resident cycling nut Andrew Morse was very active this year, participating in the Sydney Tweed Cycle event in July, and blogged for us comparing the benefits of owning a bicycle to owning a Porsche.

Worth a mention

To wrap, there were some other ‘notable achievements’ in the industry we felt warranted a mention.

Congratulations to both Barbara J. Chance and Ronald Fleming were both named Parking Professionals of the Year.

The car parking structure at 111 Miami Road, Miami, has redefined architectural innovation.

We hope that Los Angeles residents and administrators are able to learn a lesson from LA’s ‘Carmageddon’, that ended up being just pure panic in a city that doesn’t realise it can’t do without a car for a day. 

And one of our favourite examples of parking enforcement for the year was watching the Mayor of Lithuanian capital Vilnius run over an illegally parked car in a tank. That’ll show them!

Over and out!

Thanks to all our readers for your interest and interaction with our blog this year. We hope that you’ve found it useful, inspiring, or entertaining! We wish all of our readers a happy holiday and we look forward to enlightening you in 2012!

Our traffic division has really come into its own, generating a strong level of awareness among both our traditional parking clients as well as among architects, planners and engineers. We have confirmed the strategy that both arms of the business strongly complement each other to provide our clients with a unique proposition.

The quality and range of our consulting services have been significantly increased by the recent addition of Glenn Caldwell to the team. Glenn’s experience spans across 12 years including private sector operators, airport parking, consulting services and local government management. Glenn led the City of Sydney’s Parking Services Department for over 4 years and brings to the team a range of hands on expertise in such areas as on-street parking, car park Audits & Financial Performance, Data Analysis, Contract Management, Parking Meter Technology, Tenders, Pay Parking Implementation, Parking and Traffic Policy and Sustainability.

In late November Glenn presented a paper on EMV credit card payments to a Parking Association of Australia networking function which was the best attended event of the PAA in the whole of 2011. The topic of EMV is still in its infancy with regards to the implications of and responsibilities for operators of on and off-street parking facilities. To continue the process of information on this subject we are following up Glenn’s presentation (which can be viewed at our website) with a discussion forum where  feedback and input from equipment suppliers, credit card providers, banks and any other interested parties will be welcome. Comments may be posted on our News and Information page and we shall continue to deliver up-to-date information to all concerned.

This year has seen our consultants being involved in some exciting overseas projects. We were appointed by a shopping centre developer and operator based in Chile to assist with a project located in Bogotá (Colombia). Our involvement to date has related to the design of the car park component of the project for almost 3,000 vehicles. We are also working on a development just a stone’s throw from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) which comprises two commercial towers and a 1600 bay underground car park. Our initial brief here is to provide a concept design for the car park layout in order to achieve the maximum yield of space with the minimum amount of excavation.

The map below shows the locations of the projects we were working on at the end of November. All these projects are serviced from our office in Sydney. By having all our consultants located in a single office we are able to ensure that the whole team is across every project we are working on and to provide their individual experience of other similar sites for the benefit of our clients wherever they may be located.

Our recent appointment to assist Perth Airport in their signage and way-finding project means that we can now say that we have assisted Australia’s 11 largest airports as well as a number of regional airports in a variety of projects!

Australian projects included a range of shopping centre developments (new and existing), local councils and commercial buildings. Our services have been sought by various consortia with regards to major PPP projects for the development of parking structures within hospitals. We have managed tenders for access control equipment, parking guidance systems and car park operations. Our independence from suppliers of equipment and services means that our clients can be assured of impartial advice to suit their specific requirements.

The Wayfinding Forum, our official blog, has seen significant growth this year with an increase of 25% in the subscriber base. As you can see from the graph below, the number of monthly views has more than trebled in the past year, now reaching over 5,000. This year, we published approximately 200 articles covering a wide range of topics relating to parking, traffic and transport in Australia and abroad.

We would like to thank our readers, who hail from all over the globe, for their support in 2011. During 2012 we plan to continue increasing the quality of our blog posts, ensuring they are relevant and up to date, sharing knowledge from our team of consultants. Our goal is to make the Wayfinding Forum the premier destination for parking and traffic news and information in Australia.

Our consultants were present at a number of national and international events during the year, in addition to Glenn’s presentation at the PAA networking function. Kelvin Worthington presented a paper on financial feasibilities for PPP car park projects at the Campus Parking Workshop organized by the PAA in November at the Gold Coast. Cristina Lynn made presentations at a number of international meetings including a talk on Parking Policy in Australia at the World Parking Symposium held in Niagara on the Lake in June.

In November Cristina was in Sao Paulo for an event organized by Parking World together with Abrapark (the Brazilian Parking Association) where she talked about Parking Management issues. In the same month Cristina was in Buenos Aires for Argentina’s first Airport Conference where she presented a paper on Airport car parks. All the presentations are available on our website at our blog post on Argentinian airports and Brazilian Parking.

All in all it was a good year for our company and we are confident of having made a positive and valuable contribution to our clients’ projects. Our objective is to continue to do this in the years to come.

We usually like to finish off with something a bit different or special and this year it has nothing to do with the festive season or with parking. However we hope that it will bring a smile to your faces and that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous new year.

With best wishes from the Parking & Traffic Consultants team,

Cristina Lynn