A still mobility transition

The parking industry has proved its ability to re-invent itself and ensure effective coordination among mobility operators. Ivo Cré and Victoire Couëlle bring together representatives of the parking sector to discuss ways it can support the integration of multimodality in our cities.

Urban mobility is constantly adapting to new needs: previously centred around growing car ownership and major road expansion, we are now experiencing a modal, motor, and space shift enabling multimodal and sustainable lifestyles. To achieve a successful mobility transition, it is necessary to start integrating new mobility alternatives into urban planning. This integration has a spatial component: how do we organise space for moving traffic, but also for vehicles at destination. It is all about parking!

The parking sector is central  to provide a successful response to emerging needs and demands with regards to new mobility culture. Parking policies become a topic which brings local mobility stakeholders and local authorities together, and where public and private interests are coordinated. The parking industry is becoming an increasingly complex and connected ecosystem allowing for multimodal integration, playing a crucial role in achieving a new mobility model.

Evolution of the Mobility and Parking Sector – with and beyond COVID

Credits: Park4SUMP

With the implementation of teleworking measures and strict travel limitations, COVID-19 has noticeably impacted our mobility behaviours. Over the past year we have experienced a notable shift away from traditional car ownership, causing profound changes in the structure of urban mobility. Faced by the emergence of new mobility needs, it is necessary to provide solutions and integrate alternative mobility services into our urban ecosystem. The first step towards integration starts with the parking sector, one of the central determinants for modal choice. Changing mobility patterns bring new parking demands: teleworking, e-commerce, food delivery and takeaway, mid distance car tourism… They all require a new parking response.

For instance, the City of Barcelona has successfully adapted to the mobility shift away from car ownership by integrating kerbside management and alternative mobility into its urban planning.

Providing a Platform for Multimodality

During this period of combined transitions and socio-economic uncertainty, the parking industry has shown its ability to reinvent itself and adapt to new demands. The concept of parking itself has evolved from a physical infrastructure that interacts with one customer at a time, to a complex system of kerbside management, parking locations, mobility services, EV-charging options, etc. Even the integration of logistics services in off-street parking facilities is tested.

The parking sector has always played this unique role of bringing together all the different actors of the mobility ecosystem, from logistics to the electric vehicle sector, while constantly maintaining direct interaction with its customers. As the parking industry is reinventing itself to offset losses from off-street parking revenue, it is now focusing the provision of urban space  – the ultimate scarce resource.

As the mobility ecosystem has become increasingly complex, organizations such as the Alliance for Digital Parking Standards (APDS) are looking at ways to coordinate transportation actors. The adoption of new digital management tools is helping the parking sector become more flexible, allowing for the optimization of surface urban parking and supporting an easier linkage within the MaaS ecoystem. The APDS Data Domains adopted by DATEX II, provides a unified interface bringing together parking platforms, parking operators, service providers to support the customers with finding, locating, reserving, and paying a parking space. It also helps to the enforcement of illegal or non-compliant parking.

'If the future of innovative mobility will be driven by integration, it is necessary to ensure a systematic collaboration between all mobility stakeholders and develop truly an innovative, integrated and competitive business model.'

Nigel Williams, Vice President of the European Parking Association

Reorganizing the urban spaces, the role of parking in the built environment

When talking about parking we usually refer to the location itself, overlooking the complex network and behavioural elements attached to it. People organize themselves around cars as it allows them to navigate their personal networks (home, work, school, and other crucial locations). If we want to help people shift away from the predominantly car-oriented attitude, we need to develop infrastructures that make it easier to adopt multimodal behaviours.

'To achieve a vibrant multimodal city, we need to look at the direct interaction between land use and transportation, building compact cities that will support an evolution in people mobility behaviours.'

Paul van de Coevering, Professor Urban Intelligence at Breda University of Applied Sciences

To achieve this, we need to build environments that provide multimodal alternatives and make cities more compact. Parking is the first step in mobility transition, as it is a necessary precondition for modal shift. With limited open spaces in urban areas, parking can help optimize space management, which has been urban planning’s focal point.

The concept of parking itself has evolved, focusing on EV-charging options, too
- Credits: Michael Fousert on Unsplash

The EU project PARK4SUMP has closely looked at this issue of parking standards: parking standards for new development regulate how much (car-)parking space is built. Parking standards were designed to instruct developers to build parking lots in relation to the functions in the building. High requirements to build the fixed standards affect construction and maintenance costs of (new) buildings, create land use conflicts and severe environmental problems.

Most countries have so called 'minimum requirements'. That implies building developers can build more if they want. Fixed maximum car parking allowances limit how much parking is provided in new buildings in order to reduce costs and deal with all other named problems.

Approximately 80% of all journeys begin and end at the home, so that the availability of parking facilities at home is of particular relevance for the choice of mode of transport. In addition, parking is a cost factor in housing construction and parking requires space, which not only reduces the area that can be built on, but also takes up space for stay and play.

The Province of South Holland has started reducing parking norms to use the urban space more efficiently. The Province plans to build over 200,000 new dwellings with limited parking requirements, to develop temporary parking solutions as well as mobility hubs. The goal is to gradually reduce parking spots to gear the usage of urban space towards people rather than cars.

Housing projects themselves have focused on repurposing parking areas and integrating mobility services alternatives. Launched in 2019 in Gothenburg, EC2B proposes an infrastructure 'built for the purpose of sustainable mobility'. With an integrated mobility platform and zero parking accommodation, this housing has experienced a behaviour shift with a notable increase of shared mobility usage.

'The implementation of parking requirements and land price systematics allows for 70% more houses, improving land development, accelerating building time, more desired living-environments as well as healthier living environments.'

Raymond Linssen, Senior Project Leader of Spatial Development at the Province of South Holland

If car ownership and traditional mobility behaviours will not disappear from one day to the other, we need to start considering new mobility needs and behaviours shifts. The parking industry plays a central role in bringing together the entire mobility ecosystem, local authorities, and citizens.

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Park4SUMP

The Horizon 2020 project Park4SUMP aims to show that good parking management can help freeing up public space, supporting local businesses, reducing search travel, generating revenues, and making our cities more attractive.

The project aims to help partner cities to:

• integrate parking management into their (future) SUMP;
• free an average of 10% of public space currently used for parking by means of participatory planning;
• invest at least 10% of parking revenues into sustainable transport;
• develop a more human-centred neighbourhoods with active modes such as walking and cycling.

Park4SUMP brings together 14 national governments to increase knowledge of how legislation on parking facilitates and hinders the use of effective parking management by cities in that state. The project is a partnership between organizations including POLIS, Edinburgh Napier University, Mobiel 21 and Isinnova; as well as cities and regions including Lisbon, Tallinn, Rotterdam, Trondheim and Arnhem-Nijmegen.

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Alliance for Parking Data Standards

The Alliance for Parking Data Standards (APDS), formed by the International Parking & Mobility Institute (IPMI), the British Parking Association (BPA), and the European Parking Association (EPA), is a not-for-profit organization with the mission to develop, promote, manage, and maintain a uniform global standard that will allow organizations to share parking data across platforms worldwide.

More here.

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ECTB: Easy To Be

Credits: EC2B

EC2B is a sustainable mobility service. EC2B packages various mobility services (carpooling, bike-sharing, public transport, etc) and makes them easily accessible through its app. In addition, individual counseling for residents is included. The service is under constant development and will be expanded with more mobility services but also with new functions – for example, a user community where users can get advice and tips or plan a ride.

More here (Swedish only).

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Prices to reflect true costs: Baden-Württemberg is pursuing a policy of cost-covering parking fees

Another financial instrument for creating incentives to curb the on-going increase in the number of cars in cities is cost-covering charging for public parking spaces. The goal of the Ministry of Transport is to open up street space for all citizens and for all forms of mobility. Thus, a new regulation in Baden-Württemberg gives municipalities more freedom in the levying of parking charges and in particular, residents' parking fees. Thereby Baden Württemberg is the first state in Germany to implement this option, following a change in the legal framework on the federal level.

The underlying principle is that parking in public spaces and in publicly accessible car parks should be cost-covering. Thus, it will be possible to take into account appropriately the importance of parking facilities, their economic value or other benefits for residents when determining the amount of parking fees, not just the administrative expense. In order to promote more climate-friendly forms of mobility, municipalities will be able to give priority to electric vehicles and car-sharing vehicles for short-term parking and exempt them from parking fees.

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About the authors

Ivo Cré is Director Policy & Projects at POLIS Network.

Victoire Couëlle was Communications Assistant at POLIS Network.