We assisted Darebin City Council in Melbourne’s inner north by preparing a comprehensive car parking issues and opportunities report. This report provided the basis for enabling Darebin to continue its development of an innovative new Parking Strategy to guide sustainable mobility improvements.
As part of this project we provided a description of current approaches to car parking, highlighting how it has worked to increase car ownership, car use and reduced housing affordability. Crucial, our team provided conceptual designs for how streets could function by critically evaluating the need for car parking on selected streets. In many cases, replacing kerbside parking with a protected bicycle lane, wider footpaths and dedicated public transport lanes offered a more effective outcome.
Key facts on car parking that helped form the basis of our advice to Darebin City Council include:
- Car sit idle for 95% of the time
- Historically, car parking policies have shaped cities into car dominated landscapes
- On average, 40% of off-street, residential parking is vacant
- On- and off-street parking can account for 50% of all land use in a city
- Car parking adds $30,000 – $122,500 to the price of a residential dwelling in multi-dwelling developments
- Up to 30% of all traffic is caused by people seeking no-fee kerbside parking space.
This project focused on providing a closer alignment between a city’s car parking policy, and its wider strategic objectives to be more sustainable, have more vibrant streets, and a less car-dominated landscape.