Free parking for free people: German road laws and rights as constraints on local car parking management

Finding space for nature in cities: the considerable potential of redundant car parking

“…This translates to huge areas of public land. At the same time, due to common planning rules requiring generous parking provision in new builds, many cities (both in developing and developed nations 53,[81][82][83] ) have created extensive areas of garage space as they developed 49,55,89 . This effectively duplicates street parking.…”

“…Public space allocation in streetscapes is fundamentally political, with competing normative and monetised claims determined by complex governance arrangements. Historically, prevailing approaches have prioritised private car parking and, as a result, the politics of on-street parking remain contentious in many cities, including Melbourne 53,55,69 . Any scale of change to parking arrangements can be subject to fierce opposition, as experienced in many cities that have dared to challenge the dominance of automobility-often with success, but rarely without navigating intense conflict 116 .…”

“…High vacancy rates in off-street parking areas are typical in many cities [52][53][54] , with a substantial portion of street parking used by residents with access to garages [55][56][57] . Central city garages also have low utilisation rates; even before the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-21, apartment parking in central Melbourne had a considerable vacancy rate (26-41%) 51 .…”

“…Consolidation of on-street car parking into nearby garages with redundant capacity represents a considerable untapped opportunity to systematically free up street space for NBS 56,58,59 . This could be achieved through existing, proven parking management mechanisms, such as the use of centralised car parking facilities (common in Germany 53 and Japan 60,61 ), or peer-to-peer parking apps which operate similarly to AirBNB or Uber 62,63 . While this produces no actual loss of parking, this would represent a compromise to the familiarity of street parking 64,65 , as well as the additional financial cost of facilitating garage parking (either borne by the state as a subsidy, or by drivers in a market model) 58,66,67 .…”

“…A substantial (and fairly typical) proportion of Melbourne's centre is allocated to streets 47 , and was originally developed following the 'conventional' parking approach, which involves generous parking provision, both mandated in buildings and provided on streets 50 . Conventional approaches have been historically common in North America 49,80 and parts of Latin America 81 , Europe 53,82 and Asia 61,83 . However, Melbourne's central city has started to move away from the conventional approach, incorporating some more active 'management' approaches since the 1980s aiming to limit and price parking 84 .…”