With this short piece, I aim to learn as much as possible about a topic. I have picked four topics (4 separate articles) focused on the growing influence of technology on the real estate sector. The other articles are about Urban Farming, VTOLs, and Smart Buildings.
Urban Parking
Most people will agree that parking takes up too much space. Pedestrians do not like them as they lead to increased pollution by cars. City planners don’t like them as they take up space that could be used alternatively such as for community space and housing. And even drivers would agree it can be painful to navigate through traffic in city centres trying to find a parking spot. What makes it worse, is the disproportionate amount of space car parking take, with most often empty.
So what’s next? How do we reduce the number of parking spaces in our cities and make the spaces more accessible to all?
In truth, it is tough to see how city centres could become car and parking-free anytime soon. People enjoy their cars and the independence it provides. Food deliveries and house moves are still essential. Disabled access is required whilst hotels, offices, and residents need to have some form of parking, even if it be temporary. Car parks will therefore not be 100% removed from our cities anytime soon. What can be done, is reduce the number of spaces whilst disincentivising drivers from coming into city centres. How? Entrepreneurs, planners and regulators will need to work creatively and think about how parking spaces can be reused and repurposed. Exploring a few ideas:
Uber/Lyft ride-sharing. This was a big hit pre-Covid and hopefully these services will be available again. They are cheap and transport more than one passenger at a time, making them a great middle-ground between private and public transport.
Autonomous cars. When a car owner arrives at work, they would send out their car during the day to be used as a taxi for other customers (although still some way to go for this).
Expensive parking. Charge more for parking and not provide discounts for local residents, which would disincentive users from parking in certain areas and from purchasing cars in the first place.
Sensor parking. Providing sensors across car parking availability making customer journeys shorter leading to fewer parking requirements.
Priority lanes. Priority for shared, electric, and self-driving cars and incentivising drivers to use these modes of transport.
By starting to use the above incentives, and removing parking from our streets, below are only a few of the alternatives for these spaces:
Housing
Stores
E-scooter parking and charging points
Bike repair workshops
Ridesharing drop off and pick up.
E-commerce deliveries and food drop-offs
Disabled pickup and drop off
Increased public transport routes
Think of anything else your city is in need of
When you are next on the move, just have a look at the number of cars standing idle and the number of free parking spaces and then think creatively as to what those spaces could be replaced with. That is the type of future we need to start thinking of…
Have a great weekend all.
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