Looking beyond on-street parking : The Standard

There has been a debate about whether removing on-street parking can do anything to the city’s daily revenue collections or to address its runaway congestion, which costs the country Sh2 billion every year. Regarding on-street parking, it is discernible how looking for parking can cause traffic congestion, especially on streets where the parking lane is the same one used as a traffic lane. In London, the average motorist spends four days, or 91 hours, a year looking for a car parking space (cruising for parking). The situation is probably worse in Nairobi Central Business District (CBD), now that the daily parking fee has been reduced to only Sh200. In a study conducted by the International Parking Institute in 2018, 42 per cent of respondents said the demand for guidance systems to help drivers find parking was one of the top emerging trends in parking for the year. But could converting a parking lane into a traffic lane ease congestion? In an article by “Reinventing Parking”, “This could be the case, but only if parking is really the thing that is limiting road capacity. Many streets have other important constraints on road capacity.” “Congestion can also be as a result of weak on-street parking management”. Majority of on-street parking in Nairobi CBD has eaten into pedestrian walkways, but according to “Effects of On-Street Parking In Urban Context: A Critical Review”, “on-street parking should be restricted along major streets. It can be allowed on minor streets as it has the potential to provide a safer environment for road users in that context. When allowed, on-street parking should be parallel, not angled, because later is hazardous in all respects.” Zonal parking But in the case of Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ), on-street parking is controlled and only permitted in designated parking bays while the remainder of the kerbside space is subject to yellow line restrictions. CPZ aims at discouraging commuter and long stay parking by people from outside the area. To make sure that this works fairly, zones are enforced by uniformed parking attendants. There are of course smart parking innovations that a city can adopt without necessarily reducing their net parking revenue or if anything without compromising the quality of life for urban residents. Smart parking technology For instance, deploying sensor-based technology which is an IoT-based device that gives you a signal about which parking slot is open and which is occupied. The IoT devices are fixed on each parking slot from where it sends a signal to a nearby receiver which in turn gives you a continuous live update about the availability of all the slots. The collected data will be used to broadcast parking information to a parking guidance system and smartphone app for drivers. Besides the location of the parking space, the drivers will get information like the size of the parking space and even nearby public transportation information if the suggestion is needed. So, gone are the days of roaming around the blocks in search of one parking slot; just open your app and easily locate empty parking spaces. Market value Apart from on-street parking, this kind of parking also promises good revenues for the city. In fact, a recent market report by Allied Market Research points out that the smart parking market was valued at Sh506.2 billion (USD5 billion) in 2017 and is projected to reach Sh1.8 trillion (USD11.6 billion) by 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 11.2 percent from 2018 to 2025. Metered parking The Parking meter also allows users, if they use a prepaid card payment, to pay for consumption, of course if it’s permitted by the tariff plan. On the parking meter, at the time of arrival, it’s possible to identify if a person is authorized to park into a specific parking lot, or in a specific area, by entering the specific card. At one time, the average monthly income from metered parking for a certain city was estimated at Sh8.8 million. Multi-level parking In 2014, the Nairobi County had plans to construct a seven-storey automated parking facility within the CBD at a cost of Sh4 billion. This automatic car parking system enables the parking of vehicles, floor after floor and thus reducing the space used. Multi-storey (multi-level) car parks provide lower building cost per parking slot, as they typically require less building volume and less ground area than a conventional facility with the same capacity. A multi-storey car parks offer the greatest possible flexibility for the realisation of optimum parking solution. Time-saving vertical and horizontal movements take place simultaneously ensuring fast parking and retrieval times. Parking pricing It is imperative to charge motorists directly for using parking facilities. If parking must be subsidized, offer comparable benefits for use of other travel modes. In Kenya, buses pay higher parking fees compared to private cars despite the latter spending almost entire day in the parking lot further putting into question the pricing model. In some cases, authorities should manage and price the most convenient parking spaces to favor priority users. That means charging higher rates and using shorter pricing periods at more convenient parking spaces (such as on-street spaces, and parking near building entrances) to increase turnover and favor higher-priority uses. The idea is to “apply performance-based parking prices, which means that prices are set so that at least 10 per cent of parking spaces are unoccupied at any time.” The pricing structure should be progressive. For example, in some cities they charge Sh100 (USD1) for the first hour, Sh150 (USD1.5) for the second hour, and Sh200 (USD2) for each subsequent hour. Effort must be made to improve pricing methods to make parking pricing more cost-effective, convenient and fair. For example, use electronic pricing systems that accommodate various payment methods and rates, and allow motorists to pay for just the amount of time they will be parked. For short-term parking, charge by the minute rather than by the hour, and for long-term parking charge by the hour rather than by the day or month. Parking management To bring sanity in the parking business, there is need to ensure fair parking pricing, by charging motorists for directly using the parking facilities, use better-charging techniques to make pricing more convenient and cost effective and by increasing parking supply by using otherwise wasted space, smaller stalls, car stackers and valet parking.

Other ways to better manage parking are providing convenient and accurate information on parking availability and price, ensuring that parking regulation enforcement is efficient, considerate and fair and by improving walking and cycling expands the range of destinations served by a parking facility and reduces vehicle trips. In terms of legislation, there is need to consider parking tax reform by enacting various tax policy changes that support parking management. Time is ripe to change the politics of parking so that cities can meter more of their valuable curb space, produce more money, less traffic, cleaner air, and a cooler planet. Abdi is a Transport Journalist working with Abiria Magazine.

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Nairobi ParkingTrafficOn-street Parking