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.

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.

Due to be demolished to make way for the redevelopment of Darling Harbour, Sydney’s monorail has seen significant debate over what should happen to the structure once dismantled.

Landscape architect David Vago has drawn up a plan to take inspiration from New York’s famous High Line (see our blog post about the High Line here!), and turn the tracks into an elevated boardwalk and cycleway. His proposal would involve a three to five-metre-wide deck across the track, creating a 3.6-kilometre public walkway through the central business district.

The High-Lane, as he calls it, could be used by joggers, cyclists, office workers, parents with prams and tourists. The existing pylons would become vertical gardens and Monorail stations would be transformed into pocket parks, cafes and gallery spaces, taking around 12 to 18 months to build.

All the government entities remain non-committal regarding the project, with some scepticism and concerns given the proposed demolition to make way for the Darling Harbour redevelopment. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a concept car that is not only small and compact, but when parked, it folds to reduce space further.

The Hiriko City Car was designed by the MIT’s Changing Places research group to solve the growing congestion problems in cities. The City Car takes up approximately one-third of a normal parking space, meaning you can fit around three and a half City Cars in one conventional space.

The electric car can travel around 130km on one charge, and features electric wheels that are able to spin side to side, allowing the car to spin on the spot.

Below is a video from The Boston Channel, showing the Hiriko City Car in action. The first assembly plant is reported to begin production next year, with 9000 vehicles planned by 2015. Is this a look at the future of parking?

A recent study by researchers at the University of Tennessee has explored the impact of electric vehicles on China’s air quality and particulate matter emissions (the most likely to result in health issues).

According to the study published in TreeHugger, the particulate matter impacts per passenger-km in most Chinese cities are greater for e-cars than for petrol cars (3.6x on average), lower than for diesel cars (2.5x on average) and equal to diesel buses.

The key reason for the increased particulate matter and environmental performance of the electric vehicles is highly dependent on the source of electricity. With around three quarters of China’s electricity coming from dirty local coal, fairly lax air-quality regulations, densely populated coastal regions (many cities are located near very dirty coal plants) and the life cycle impact of electricity, it is clear that electric vehicles in China are going to result in negative environmental outcomes.

The good news is, however, that China is very much at the extreme of the situation, and when compared to countries such as France and Norway, where almost all electricity comes from very clean sources, the results are very different, with electric vehicles having a positive impact on air quality and emissions throughout their life cycle.

The residents of two major cities in California have recently seen the introduction of car sharing and bicycle hire operations, thus increasing their choice of transport.

In Los Angeles, the US’s largest car sharing network, Zipcar, has recently opened for business, placing over 125 vehicles throughout the city. The ‘car capital’ of the US is already exhibiting adoption trends and usage patterns similar to the other major markets across the US.

Meanwhile, it seems that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to bicycle sharing in San Francisco has been overcome. The recent addition of electric bicycles to the City CarFleet’s existing car sharing service, will allow users to deal with the city’s steep hills and terrain without facing exhaustion.

According to TreeHugger, the program will be trialled to find out how many car-share trips will be replaced by electric bicycle trips, and what factors influence the switch. 45 e-bikes will be added to the fleet in 2012, with an additional 45 to be added in 2013.

Figures released this week from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said that only 49 electric cars were sold in Australia last year, in a market that topped 1 million total vehicles for the first time. According to the SMH, the number of electric vehicles sold declined by 9.9 per cent on 2010.

Whilst politicians are calling for Australian manufacturers to build electric cars, customers are shunning them in favour of larger soft-roaders and cars with more powerful engines. Even some of the best-selling small cars in Australia - including many Mazda3s - aren't that fuel-efficient. Whilst we’ve previously discussed how the improving cost and emission efficiency of petrol vehicles will be the biggest threat to the EVs, these figures indicate that Australian buyers are not driven by efficiency as much as price.

The price of hybrids continues to remain high, with the cheapest model currently available in Australia retailing from $48,000 plus costs. With more hybrid models due to arrive soon (including one model from $25,000), this sub-segment may finally see some form of mainstream traction in Australia.

Meanwhile in California, car manufacturers are being forced to build electric vehicles, adopting rules that mean manufacturers will have to produce about 1.4 million advanced vehicles for sale in California alone by 2025. Adoption of California’s new rules comes as the state and the US Environmental Protection Agency match regulations for carbon exhaust and other pollutants. Read more about this here.

Across the border in Canada, the body corporate of an apartment block in Ottawa is up in arms over one of their residents who is using the apartment block’s electricity to recharge his electric car. The article says residents share the electricity bill for the complex, and the body corporate decided that because it does not pay for the fuel of other vehicles, it should not have to pay for the Volt’s recharging, at less than $1 per day.

The electric vehicle market is a very interesting one at the moment – it certainly seems to be at a tipping point. The only question is – which way will it fall? Wider acceptance, or consigned to history?

Last week, the Australasian Railway Association claimed that Australia was being ‘left behind’ as the only continent without a high-speed rail network.

The federal government released a study last August on the feasibility of a high-speed rail system on the east coast, linking Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. The $20-million study said a 1,600-kilometre speed network could reduce travel time between Melbourne and Sydney to three hours, with customers needing to pay $99 for the trip.

The proposed Melbourne to Sydney high-speed rail network could cost between $61 billion and $108 billion. Due to the very high cost of the project, the government has commissioned a second study, due to be finished by November 2012.

Should a project of this scale get the green light, it would see major tunnelling construction work expected to begin in 2014. It would be the biggest transport infrastructure project in Sydney since work started 90 years ago on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and supplement the harbour and rail network system being put in place across Australia to serve the storage and rail and sea transport requirements of the country's booming resources sector.

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!