The Provision and Management of Car-Based Infrastructure

Hannah Richardson, PSA Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd - Sustainable outcomes from contributions in lieu of parking

Hannah Richardson

Director | PSA Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd

Hannah is a company director of PSA Consulting (Australia), with over 15 years extensive experience in traffic engineering and transport planning for both public and private sectors throughout Australia. Hannah has been recognised as a Fellow with Engineers Australia and is a Chartered Professional Engineer and RPEQ with additional qualifications in land use planning. She is skilled in active and public transport planning and design, transport strategy and policy development, road safety and safe systems assessments, multi-modal network operational analysis, traffic impact assessment and broader land-use planning and urban design.

Co-Author(s): 

Eleanor Nightingale | Accession Consulting

Eleanor Nightingale, Director Accession Consulting, Queensland.
Eleanor is a qualified urban planner and transport specialist with extensive experience in public, active and aviation transport strategy, planning, delivery and review.
Eleanor has been at the forefront of multiple city-changing, community-building projects throughout South East Queensland and across Australia, for both government agencies and private entities. This has given her first-hand knowledge of the priorities, drivers and constraints of delivering transport-related initiatives, as well as the operational and strategic issues in connecting people and communities.
Eleanor loves to improve our cities and towns through making connections for people to places. For over 20 years she has brought people together to improve transport networks, services, journeys and destinations to make travel simple and efficient. She now help organisations deliver transport projects that successfully create and connect communities.

Sustainable outcomes from contributions in lieu of parking

Interventions for parking management require us to shift away from provision of sufficient parking to meet demand and towards parking consolidation, parking restrictions, and removal of parking in favour of open space or to support sustainable modes of transport.

While communities are often quick to point out that a reduction in parking provision or restrictions on parking may impact economic growth of a centre, this is often without due consideration of the true cost and benefits of parking and alternative provisions.

The often hidden costs include the cost borne by the community for the space taken up by car parking, the economic, social and health benefits of active transport and public transport infrastructure and the public realm benefits of removing on-street parking spaces.

Several recent studies have also delved into the economic return for retail and restaurants by different modes of travel by their customers, demonstrating that parked vehicles do not always provide greater trade outcomes.

Meanwhile, studies have demonstrated that for every $1 invested in public transport, $4 is generated in economic returns and similarly, for every $1 invested in cycling infrastructure in Queensland, almost $5 is returned through health benefits and reduced traffic congestion.

Upon reviewing the true cost of parking provision, and a comparison of the different types of interventions to manage the demand to continue to encourage economic growth, it is considered that the question should be asked, can and or should contributions in lieu of parking be spent on non-trunk transport infrastructure or services to encourage sustainable outcomes.

This would see contributions that are currently typically collected within centres that go towards consolidated provision of further parking infrastructure, spent on alternative transport provision such as passenger transport infrastructure, services (including shuttles from out of centre car parks) and active transport infrastructure.

Harry Barber, PBA Transit - The fundamentals of a congestion charge. Part One: The cause of congestion

Harry Barber

Transport Consultant | PBA Transit

Harry Barber is a transport consultant based in Melbourne working for clients in local and State Government often on issues related to parking. In 2021, he was part of the team that prepared the post-lockdowns City of Melbourne Independent Transport Review.

The report included the finding based on in-ground sensor data, that when parking meter fees were reintroduced in the City of Melbourne in November 2020, the number of Arrivals through the parking meters increased by 47% or 10,000 month-on-month.

The fundamentals of a congestion charge. Part One: The cause of congestion

Overcoming the barriers to the introduction of effective congestion prevention charges. I have been preparing a book that shows how we can overcome the main barriers to congestion charging in Australia. The premise is that congestion charges are a poorly understood solution to a poorly defined problem. 

Based on my work for local and State governments including the pricing of kerbside parking the book contains sections on the different road prices, the unusual type of fee that is used in a congestion charge, and how we can gain public consent.

Underpinning these factors is the lack of a shared understanding about what causes congestion. 

The proposed presentation is based on Chapter 3 The cause of congestion and Chapter 4 Measuring congestion. In the presentation, I will talk about ramp metering and other road management techniques with examples from the USA, Singapore, and Victoria.

The approach is informal but serious. The aim is to introduce concepts that can be applied generally.

I have carefully not said in this proposal what I consider to be the cause of congestion or how it can be diagnosed.

If you think everyone in the audience knows, then this will not be a relevant topic. Or you can tune in to find out!

Tim Boxall, PSA Consulting- How Local Government Planning Schemes can influence mode share for the better

Tim Boxall

Senior Traffic & Transport Engineer | PSA Consulting

Tim Boxall is a Senior Traffic and Transport Engineer at PSA Consulting with over six years of transport planning and traffic engineering experience across a broad array of practices.

He is a Chartered Professional Engineer, a Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland and is an Accredited Road Safety Auditor. Over this time, he has becoming increasingly aware of the role that local governments can play in positively influencing mode share. 

He has extensive experience in car parking policy and practices gained from undertaking car parking studies and strategies for local governments across Queensland. Through this, Tim has gained an understanding in the positive changes that local governments can make to influence mode share.

As well as car parking, Tim has experience in preparing Traffic Impact Assessments for a wide variety of developments, undertaking Road Safety Audits and developing various transport plans and strategies for local and state governments around Australia.

Co-Author(s): 

Shannon Batch | PSA Consulting

Shannon Batch is a Registered Planner with over 15 years experience in statutory and strategic land use and transport planning. An Associate Director of Land Use and Transport Planning at PSA Consulting, and in her previous roles in State government, she has worked across a wide range of land use and transport planning projects.

Some of Shannon's most recent projects have been focused on helping local governments review the transport elements of their planning schemes, including parking rates.

How Local Government Planning Schemes can influence mode share for the better

Local Governments have an excellent mechanism to drive travel behaviour change and encourage the uptake of alternative forms of transport. When considering ways to encourage a move away from private vehicles (especially petrol engines), parking is the single biggest lever that Local Governments can pull. Planning Schemes currently specify a minimum parking rate for different types of development and the expectation is that developers must meet this requirement or provide a justification if the minimum is not met. In some jurisdictions, a maximum parking rate is provided instead for specific situations. These situations and conditions vary across Local Governments, however typically fall into one of the following categories:

• Defined geographic area
• Land use zoning
• Proximity to public and active transport networks

Although some Local Governments do specify minimum parking rates for bicycles and scooters, Planning Schemes are currently silent on any minimum parking provision for electric vehicles. Overall uptake of electric vehicles is still low throughout Australia, although rates are increasing. 2% of all vehicles sold in Australia in 2021 were electric vehicles (up from 0.8% in 2020), while in Queensland, battery electric vehicle registrations account for 0.18% of all registered Queensland passenger vehicles. 

Similar to the provision of parking for parents with prams and seniors parking (separate to the specific provision of PWD parking), the rate at which electric vehicle charging infrastructure should be provided is largely market driven. Factors that will need to be considered by Local Governments regarding the provision of parking for electric vehicles are:

• Availability of charging infrastructure and payment model
• Location of parking bays with regards to the proximity to the development
• Types of development where electric vehicle parking and/or charging bays should be provided