Don’t park your policy: parking requirements are always in motion

The invention of the car literally changed the shape of the world. Cars have not only changed our ability to move through cities, but also the way neighbourhoods look and feel due to the need for roads and parking. As such it’s no surprise that parking is a key concern of governments, developers, and residents alike. In this post we explore the challenges of residential parking, and examine how effective minimum and maximum parking rates can be set.

The importance of getting residential parking right

It’s important that every car owner has a safe, secure space to park their car at home. However, the provision of too many residential parking spaces, particularly in apartments, can have negative impacts on society and the environment, such as:

• Increased greenhouse gas emissions from the construction, lighting and ventilation requirements of underground parking. Underground parking can account for up to 30% of apartment energy demand.
• Reduced safety and walkability for pedestrians due to streets designed to accommodate parking entrances.
• Increased house prices as homeowners must pay for parking they may not need. Car spaces can add anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 to the cost of a home.

Parking policies are in place to ensure that if you have a car, you will have a space to park it. These policies should be designed only to meet demand, not exceed it. However 80% of Council parking policies in Greater Sydney set higher minimum requirements than current average car ownership rates. There are a number of factors that can be considered to allow for more effective parking rates.

Not all places are created equal when it comes to parking requirements

A person’s need for a car depends on many factors—including their finances and living arrangements—but one of the most influencing factors is where they live. People who live close to employment, retail, and public transportation hubs often own fewer cars than those who live further away. Accessibility to public transport is one of the biggest drivers of car ownership. Car ownership data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) clearly shows a reduction around train lines.

Public transport can be measured using Transport for London’s Public Transport Accessibility Levels (PTAL) methodology (PDF). This method rates public transport accessibility using indicators such as walk-wait times, mode diversity and number of accessible routes. Car ownership decreases as PTAL increases.

Efficient parking policy cannot be one-size-fits-all across a suburb or local government area—it must consider the needs of the residents in an exact location.

Times are changing, and our relationship with cars is changing too

The Australian relationship with cars is changing:

• Car ownership in Australia is down by 0.5% from 2017 according to the ABS.
• 25% of young Sydneysiders did not have a license in 2016, an increase from 20% in 2011.
• An increase in car-share and ride-share usage in recent years has reduced the need to own a car, and has particularly reduced ownership of second or third cars.

Changes to urban form and public transportation infrastructure in Sydney have changed the need for cars across Sydney. Parking requirements need to reflect and adapt to these changes.

Cities around the world are also exploring new parking innovations such as unbundled and decoupled parking. Unbundled parking is when car spaces are sold separately to housing units, and can lead to both a decrease in parking requirements and lower housing prices. Decoupled parking is when parking is provided in a separate, but close by, location to housing. It can lower car ownership rates and parking energy requirements. Decoupled parking can also be adapted for other uses when it is no longer required for parking.

Given the current climate emergency and the need to de-carbonise transport, many global cities are focusing on a mode-shift away from cars. In addition to improved public transport, this mode-shift also includes making neighbourhoods more walkable and cyclable through the implementation of low-traffic neighbourhoods, cycleways and car-free superblocks.

Effective parking policy is both detailed and dynamic

Using Transport for London’s PTAL methodology, Kinesis has launched an accessibility-based Residential Parking App to provide location-specific and up-to-date recommended residential parking rates for anywhere in Australia.

The app allows planners to define their own area of interest—such as a local government area or development—by inputting the number of dwellings, their structure, and bedroom count. It then predicts the number of car spaces needed based on public transport accessibility and historical car ownership. The app also provides recommended parking rates across locations and dwelling types to help make decisions on what should be built and where.

We’ve set up a North Sydney Parking workspace to show how you can set effective parking requirements with the app. After defining the area of interest, North Sydney, we can see that PTAL scores vary across the council area. We mentioned earlier that accessibility is a good indicator of car ownership, so parking rates should be just as detailed across the council.

We picked three locations (the yellow points above), each with different levels of accessibility, to see how it affects predicted car ownership and corresponding parking rates. The chart below shows the recommended parking rates for two-bedroom apartments, using the “Low” prediction type which provides an optimistic estimate.

Our app predicts the need for between 0.4 and 0.55 spaces per dwelling, much lower than the amount of parking set out in North Sydney’s current residential parking policy (PDF) (0.5 to 1.5 spaces per dwelling, depending on your location). North Sydney’s maximum parking rates are already a good example of how policies can ensure adequate parking whilst minimising impacts on surrounding areas and promoting public transport, walking, and cycling. Kinesis’ Residential Parking app demonstrates how policy can respond even better to the specific realities of a location.

We are continuously improving the parking app to model the impact of additional public transport infrastructure, as well as emerging mobility solutions like car share and parking innovations such as unbundled and decoupled parking.