More Carparks needed? : CBD car parks and its related issues

The latest news by AKT has argued about an issue that, while on the one hand council is encouraging a CBD rail link and being willing to consider closing off Queen St, it is also looking at making more money by encouraging more cars in the city. The evidence was seen that the council attempts to build more car parks around the city, along with some new development, such as the waterfront development involving building Queens Wharf and a carpark around the corner on Quay Street.



A new carpark was built in Quay St. More carparks?
photo Cred: AKT

Further, it has been argued that the intention of the council of providing more carparks in the city is not seen clear, and the council needs to make up its mind whether it wants to embrace a shift away from the vehicle clogged city and Auckland’s obsession with cars or ignoring these issues for pursuit of revenue. The discussion followed by the news also shows that most people think no more carparks should be created even for the future development.


one of the carparks in CBD

To deal with this issue, I think it’s better for the council to consider use of some other options for managing the increased demand of cars and promoting the use of public transport instead, the context of Travel Demand Management (TDM) is suggested here to apply to the central city transport planning.

The TDM is increasingly being used in different countries to improve the efficiency of the transportation system by managing the demand through a set of measures instead of increasing directly the capacity of needs for private motor vehicles, like building more roads and provision of more parking spaces. TDM is wide-ranging and covers tools and techniques ranging from land use planning to education workplaces on the benefits of introducing parking management systems. Some specific measures and methods of TDM include:

ž   Tele-work options;

ž   Flexible work hours and scheduling;

ž   Improved transit routing and scheduling;

ž   Commuter, as well as school-pool, ridesharing programs;

ž   Vanpool operations, as well as vanpool financial subsidies;

ž   Advanced traveler information;

ž   Shuttle services;

ž   Road pricing;

ž   Parking management in terms of parking control

ž   Car-use pricing

Instead of building more carparks, various types of TDM measures should be practically applied wide across the central area to meet the increased demand of the vehicles.

Reference:

AKT, (May/18/2011) More Carparks sends Mixed Message, http://www.aucklandtrains.co.nz/2011/05/18/more-carparks-sends-mixed-message/comment-page-1/#comment-32828, (accessed: 18/May/2011).

Auckland Regional Council (2005) Chapter 8: Travel Demand Management, Auckland Regional Land Transport Strategy 2005, Auckland: ARC.