How parking is saving the planet
The ticket on the windscreen gets all of us hot under the collar at some time or another but, parking does have its good side too
Parking controls and enforcement. I guarantee that no word or phrase is more guaranteed to start a discussion than mention of a parking ticket or a lack of parking spaces.
As someone who edited a magazine devoted to parking for five years, I have been uniquely placed to witness this phenomena.
“What do you do?” would come the question.
“I edit a magazine about parking”, would be my reply.
Despite repeatedly telling everyone present that I wrote in Parking News on behalf of the parking industry, the next few minutes, sometimes hours, would then be filled with stories of incorrectly issued parking tickets or the amount of time it took to find a place to park on a busy market day in the local town.
And then I would issue my killer line: “Parking enforcement is actually playing a part in saving the planet.”
Cue disbelief and howls of outrage. But if people took the time to consider it for a moment, they would realise that I had not been brain washed by my bosses at the British Parking Association but that there was a large measure of truth in the statement.
Here is my take on parking’s place in society.
By controlling the places and times that people can park, parking operators can keep roads flowing freely and limit the amount of emissions released into the atmosphere. Lines or restrictions on parking on the roadside are in place to prevent vehicles blocking the road and causing congestion.
Everyone who has ever driven car will know the sense of frustration when a parked vehicle blocks half a road and so cars have to wait and pass the obstructing vehicle when there is a break in the on-coming traffic. What we now also realise is that the fumes of frustration felt by the motorist are nowhere near as harmful as the actual fumes emitted by the exhaust of the queuing vehicles.
When parking controls left town
In two separate but widely covered instances in 2009, Aberystwyth in Wales and Rome, the capital city of Italy, had their parking enforcement measures temporarily removed. While these are two distinctly different urban areas, in both cases the outcome was the same — carnage on the roads.
Motorists would be circling the streets of the city for up to an hour looking for a space to park. Disabled bay restrictions were ignored so people with mobility issues suffered. Deliveries couldn’t be made because the spaces in front of shops, usually reserved for limited drop-off times, were taken by motorists. Arguments broke out as people rushed to grab a parking space or abandoned cars in driveways as they rushed to make an appointment.
The situation arose in both cities due to a lack of resources and manpower and eventually local people were calling for a return to controlled parking, complete with penalty charge notices and restrictions on kerb side parking.
Keeping the traffic flowing
This is because the whole purpose of parking is not, as many people allege, to make money for the parking facility operators, it is to keep traffic flowing. And that is good for the environment.
By managing traffic flow so that roads are not blocked by parked cars, or by providing enough spaces so that drivers can get easily to their destination and quickly find a place to park, parking operators are helping to cut carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides from the atmosphere. As long as cars and lorries are circling, looking for a space, they are spewing poisonous gases into the air.
In the US, scientists have made clear links between nitrogen oxides — pumped out in car emissions — and heart and lung problems. Across the UK, vehicle pollution in the form of particulates and nitrogen oxides is killing 40,000 people a year. Other major towns and cities, such as Birmingham, Aberdeen, Leeds and Sheffield are also far exceeding limits on nitrogen dioxide.
Technology’s early adopter
Another often ignored fact about parking is that it is an early adopter of technology. Inventions such as automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) mean that people entering car parks no longer have to go through the rigmarole of entering their number plate into a ticket machine. Use of ANPR cameras means the car registration is recognised on entry to a car park and then again on exit. It makes leaving the facility fast and smooth. Often the ANPR technology links to an app and the payment seamlessly leaves the driver’s account. There is no waiting, with the exhaust chugging out fumes, as the driver inserts and collects a ticket at a barrier.
Technology extends to parking apps. Before even leaving their house, motorists can book a car parking space and drive directly there. Again, no circling and waiting, simply a smooth journey that only takes as long as it needs to.
Likewise, the enhanced information boards that greet you as you enter an urban area are a further way in which parking operators are cutting emissions. If, as a motorist, you see a sign that says ‘car park full’, you know to look for an alternative. Just 10 years ago, that information would have not been widely available and you would have been frustratedly circling the car park looking for a space to park.
Changing our behaviour
Parking is also at the heart of behaviour change. And one area that is transforming itself rapidly is the daily commute.
Once upon a time but within the past five years, a person would get into his or her car and drive to work. As more and more vehicles have taken to our roads, so congestion has risen to a point where the average speed of a vehicle in Los Angeles is 20.4 miles an hour; in central London it is just over seven miles an hour and in New York it is a get-out-of-your car and walk, four miles an hour.
Which is one for the reasons that parking operators have been suggesting other ways to travel. Park and Ride is one such initiative. Motorists do part of their journey by car, to the outskirts of a large urban centre. There they park, often for free, and then take a bus, a bike, a scooter or simply walk for the remainder of the journey.
Another idea is the final mile. This is being trialled in a number of UK and USA cities, with the idea that commuters would get to a travel hub, either by train or car. They would then get into electric vehicles which would transport them the final part of their journey into the busy city centre.
The provision of cycle parks is a means of encouraging people out of their cars and onto their bikes. Combined with bike hire schemes and safer and better cycle lanes, the provision of secure parking facilities for bicycles is fast encouraging a whole new raft of people onto two wheels.
Stealth tactics
Parking providers have also joined forces with town planners and housing developers to put limitations on parking provision in a below-the-radar measure to persuade people to find alternatives to car travel. In city centres, many flat and apartment blocks provide no parking. There result is a sharp decline in car ownership and more reliance on alternative travel.
An important behaviour change that parking policy can influence is the uptake of electric vehicles. By offering charging points in car parks and discounted parking prices for electric vehicles, the parking sector is helping drive the change from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Insurance giant leads by example
In one noteworthy example, global insurance company Aviva is transforming part of its huge staff car park into a solar-panelled facility. The large concrete car park now has a number of bays with solar panels on the rooftops. This feeds energy into the huge building so that Aviva’s headquarters is now run on all its own energy. At the same time, any electric vehicles can be charged while staff are at work. The scheme is being extended to all Aviva facilities.
Despite all this, there is no doubting the annoyance that we all feel when we turn up at our vehicle and find that fluttering ticket on the windscreen. But, next time you shout about the evils of parking remember it has its good side too.
