Polis president at EPA congress: the parking sector is ready for the new deal

Starting from the tagline: “Parking, the new Deal”  the congress (from 14 to 16 September 2011) addressed the societal role of parking. Parking was identified as a key instrument for urban accessibility and quality of life. A lot of attention was paid to the importance of the  links between parking and other fields of expertise. Different arguments came together to enhance the image of the parking sector. ITS developments were discussed. One could describe the red thread throughout the congress as "Parking 2.0". Not the offer of different systems was put central, but the societal goals that can be accomplished with them.

Central in this discussion is the level and nature of cooperation between public authorities and private operators. Polis president Jörn Marx, the Dresden Mayor for urban development, described the Dresden case together with recommendations for successful cooperation: a coherent planning framework together with transparent cooperation agreements.

The potential of succesful parking policies was highlighted by a video message of Siim Kallas, vice-president of the European Commission and commissioner for transport. Kallas emphasised the importance of parking as an economic instrument. He recognised the importance of parking policy not only as a part of transport policy, but also as an urban development tool. This was the first time that the EC communicated at this level about parking policy. Mr. Kallas' intervention can be seen as an important back-up to the EPA's objective to raise the profile of parking policy at the political level.

The next EPA congress will take place in Dublin, 12-14 September 2013, Theme: VISION2020: intelligent transport management.