Rethinking Parking: Planning and Urban Design Perspectives [Hardcover]

Five Rethinking Parking Perspectives??1. Place and Parking??2. Parking is Political??3.?Parking Policy??4.?The Price of Parking??5.?Professional Practice??Ten Case Studies??1.?Brisbane, Queensland. Australia??2.?Chicago, Illinois. USA??3.?Gold Coast, Queensland. Australia??4.?Los Angeles, California. USA??5.?Melbourne, Victoria. Australia??6.?Portland, Oregon. USA??7.?San Francisco, California. USA??8.?Seattle, Washington. USA??9.?Toronto, Ontario. Canada??10.?Vancouver, BC. Canada

David Mepham (PhD) is an urban access consultant living in Kangaroo Island, Australia.

For much of the past century, we have viewed the issue of parking from the drivers seat. It follows that key narratives about parking reaffirm the immediate needs of the driver. A consequence of this approach is a failure to understand the significant damage that parking causes to the destination. That damage is amplified by cheap, easy parking at the expense of place and access outcomes. Viewing parking from an urban planning and design perspective highlights different issues and opportunities. Five perspectives are offered:

• Place  If we gave drivers all the parking they wanted, the destination would not be worth visiting.
• Politics  Parking is intensely territorial, emotional, and prone to populism, and this is a barrier to strategic and sustainable parking reform.
• Policy  Parking tends to be focused on the me, here and now needs of the driver at the expense of bigger picture and longer term policy objectives.
• Price  Subsidized parking exists behind opaque pricing mechanisms. In contrast, a transparent accounting of costs is a vehicle for strategic parking reform.
• Professional practice  Parking is a significant land-use issue, located at the juncture of transport and urban l#$