Parking futures: Shared automated vehicles and parking demand reduction trajectories in Atlanta

The coming of automated vehicles (AVs) and Mobility-on-Demand (MoD services) is expected to reduce urban parking demand and correspondingly alter the urban parking landscape in a significant way. Multiple modeling efforts have already demonstrated that Shared AVs (SAVs) have promising potential to decrease urban parking demand. However, previous studies have only examined SAV parking demand at one point in time, with various market penetrations. It remains unclear what the demand reduction trajectory will be like during the transition period when there is a mix of SAVs, Privately-Owned AVs (PAVs), Shared Conventional Vehicles (SCVs), and Conventional Private Vehicles (CPVs). This study fills this gap by developing an agent-based simulation model to examine the spatially and temporally explicit parking reduction trends with mixed travel modes from 2020–2040. The results indicate that in the most optimal AV and MoD adoption scenario, the parking demand will decrease by over 20% after 2030, especially in core urban areas. Meanwhile, the parking demand in residential zones may double, which could lead to transportation equity concerns. Additionally, parking relocation may also induce environmental issues by generating a considerable amount of empty Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). To reap the benefits brought by AVs and MoD systems and to mitigate the accompanying social and environmental issues, our results suggest that proactive policymakers in the next decade will need to modify land use regulations for both new developments and existing parking infrastructure in commercial and residential zones, as well as update travel demand management policies.     

The elephant in the scheme: Planning for and around car parking in Melbourne, 1929–2016

A relatively recent body of literature has looked critically at the role of car parking in urban areas, showing that a significant determinant of the extent of parking space is the planning system. Of particular importance are statutory minimum off-street parking requirements for new developments. If parking and parking policies are significant to urban outcomes, one question that follows is − how active a role (if any) has strategic urban planning had in car parking? In this paper we ask if, and in what ways, car parking has been a stated strategic planning interest over the course of nearly a century of planning for one city − Melbourne, Australia. Our approach has three parts: a content analysis of strategic planning documents over time; a corresponding analysis of statutory policies on the ground; and reflection on what this means for the relationships between strategy and policy.We find that extensive car parking, treated as a public good, was once specifically planned as a critical component of facilitating a car-based city. We show that car parking has receded as a strategic policy issue over time, but that statutory minimum parking requirements introduced in the 1950s continue to be entrenched. Even with more recent strategic plans seeking to curtail car use and increase urban densities, minimum parking policies originally introduced to achieve the opposite effects have remained largely intact. We argue that parking has a significant role in urban form but is, in our case study city, illustrative of gaps between strategic and statutory planning, and between planning practice and research. Whereas post-war planning instigated policy approaches to car parking as a means of planning for car use, strategic planning in Melbourne now plans around parking − the elephant in the scheme. The findings have implications for other intensifying cities with a history of minimum parking policies; as well as for cities now undergoing rapid motorisation.     

Parking futures: The relationship between parking space,everyday life and travel demand in the UK

The paper proposes and develops an original concept, dormant vehicles, which refers to vehicles that are stationary while waiting to be used again, such as current parked cars. The concept involves several types of vehicles (cars, bikes, vans, automated vehicles), durations, temporal locations and rates of recurrence that, with the emergence of new mobility futures, would have diverse forms with significant implications for land use, space and place. New forms of dormant vehicle include shared electric vehicles, dock-less bikes and delivery vans that besides parking would present new in-between use situations such as dropping-off, picking-up, delivering, charging and awaiting repair. The paper highlights that without thinking clearly about these aspects of the future, plans for sustainable, smart cities could fall into a similar trap as in historical versions of automobility and parking, that is, of overlooking dormant vehicles and the ways they shape and are shaped. Rather than parking conveniently disappearing from cities, it is instead likely to change in various respects. The paper sets out to put this research agenda at the forefront, drawing on social theories of practice to propose and develop this new concept, highlighting its potential contribution to urban futures thinking. Ultimately, the paper argues for inverting urban mobility futures to identify the new forms of dormant vehicles associated with them, and consider their implications for land use, space and place.     

New urban planning challenges under emerging autonomous mobility: evaluating backcasting scenarios and policies through an expert survey

The future implementation of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) in cities can have significant impacts, both positive and negative, on their sustainability. The objective of this research is to investigate those impacts and evaluate which policies could be most effective in achieving the desired city scenario through a backcasting planning methodology. To this end, a survey among experts was carried out in which they expressed their opinions on the potential consequences of AVs in cities and on the effectiveness of various policy packages focused on achieving a more sustainable mobility and land use planning. The results obtained show that the experts consulted were sceptical about the positive impacts of AVs, arguing that they could induce an increase in car trips and urban sprawl. The policies that could be most effective in mitigating these effects, leading to a city more aligned with the planned objectives would be: to strengthen active (foot, bicycle) and public transport modes, to restrict access of motorised modes to central urban areas and to use freed spaces for alternative modes of transport, green areas and public facilities. A cluster analysis also showed that most of the experts consulted considered that the policy packages presented could be effective or very effective in reaching the most desirable scenario. Therefore, it is important that the implementation of AVs does not subordinate to, but enhances, the sustainable mobility and land use policies already being developed in many urban areas.     

Urban population looking for rural landscapes: Different appreciation patterns identified in Southern Europe

In the context of the peripheral European rural landscapes, the role of the urban population, generally referred to as the ‘outsiders’, has shown to be influential in the dynamics of rural space. This influence occurs namely through the demand for non-productive functions leading to the emergence of new modes of occupancy. In addition, the emerging policy framework concerning policies and planning in rural landscapes call for an improved understanding of the diversified social demands for these landscapes. We argue that a more profound knowledge on the urban demand for rural landscape is needed to better integrate the urban interests into rural policy and planning. The present paper aims to gain greater insight on this demand by identifying landscape preferences of urban users, framed by the multifunctional transition theory, and using a photo-based survey with contrasting land covers derived from CORINE Land Cover classes. Furthermore, the use of land cover classes as the main landscape component, and thereby relating preferences to specific land covers, offers a sound basis for a territorial approach, able to integrate landscape into rural policy and land use planning practice. A case-study in Southern Portugal was developed at the regional scale and results showed different appreciation patterns for rural landscapes varying from humanised and more naturalised landscapes according to the different functions sought by urban users. Another prominent result is that urban demand for rural landscapes, even if driven by consumption, is strongly influenced by both protection and production values. A deeper knowledge on the interests of urban population can be a step forward for rural communities, land managers, and sectoral policy decision-makers to better define investment strategies in rural-urban partnerships facing the growing urban demand over rural space.     

Taxing land for urban containment: Reflections on a Dutch debate

Excessive land use regulations aimed at containing urban sprawl have been criticised, because they may overcompensate for the external effects of uncontrolled greenfield development and contribute to stagnation in house building. Taxes on building in green spaces may be an instrument for balancing urban growth and the protection of the landscape. This paper discusses development tax and puts it in the context of other planning instruments. It reviews a recent policy debate in the Netherlands relating to the introduction of an open space tax and the research into this tax. It also investigates the policy process, which resulted in the tax not being introduced. Finally, conclusions are drawn as to whether the taxation of development may be a useful instrument to complement other planning measures.     

‘Sustainable City’ requires ‘recognition’—The example of environmental education under pressure from the compact city

The compact city is advocated as a key strategy to establish sustainable cities. Compact city policy implies urban densification, sometimes with elimination of green space. Citizen’s valuable arguments in urban densification developments in green space are easily ignored, as is explored in a case study in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Place making decisions are more often legitimized with sustainability claims, and arguments from less convinced residents are denied or remain unexamined. About green space these also concern environmental qualities significant for long term sustainability of cities. This is illustrated by presenting empirical evidence about environmental education, an argument emerging from the explorative study. Environmental education should be seen as an important element in longterm sustainability, but the educational relevance of proximity of green space to schools had remained unknown. Empirical evidence of the negative effect of larger distances to green space on environmental education is presented in a geographical survey. The results suggest that close proximity to urban green space also reinforces fieldwork activities further away. As the validity of this argument was denied in the case study, this illustrates the need to establish frameworks that foster recognition and learning in open processes in urban densification.     

Parking futures: An international review of trends and speculation

The explosion of low-cost, on-demand taxi services and the anticipation of an autonomous vehicle future has made transportation the center of debate and discussion for the first time since the massive expansion of the US highway system in the 1950s. Yet the realm of parking boasts innovations and developments far beyond the high-profile issues of TNCs and AVs. Rather, innovation in parking is happening in many cases quietly on a wide variety of fronts, including technology, public policy, and design. This paper serves an overview of emerging trends in parking, primarily within the US context. We identify and outline five developments and the pertinent technologies helping to catalyze change: unbundling parking costs, reducing parking minimums, pricing and allocating curb space dynamically, designing hybrid parking structures, and preparing for the autonomous era and “mobility as a service.” This paper presents these trends with illustrative examples highlighting current practices, governance challenges, and possible future scenarios.     

Parking policy: The politics and uneven use of residential parking space in Melbourne

Pressures on on-street residential parking in intensifying Australian cities are popularly ascribed to new higher density housing with insufficient off-street parking, underscoring calls to strengthen parking requirements in new developments. Despite the potential impacts of conventional minimum parking policies (on housing, land use, and transport patterns), there is no or little evidence of who uses residential on-street parking. Nor is there clear evidence of to what extent off-street parking, or requirements for it, actually offset on-street parking use. This study examines residential parking use in one Australian city, Melbourne, via two complementary sources: an existing travel survey of 8,994 households, and a custom online survey with 307 local responses. Although they have limitations, the two surveys provide new insight into where and by whom the use of on-street parking space around the home is more common.The study finds the majority (77–83%) of on-street residential parking use is by residents of detached housing. Most users of on-street parking have sufficient off-street parking, and half use garage space for storage or housing purposes. Residents of new flats and apartments account for disproportionately little on-street parking use, are excluded from on-street permits, and have closely controlled off-street parking spaces of which a third are unused. The paper argues uneven use of residential parking reflects household choices, and differing rights to space embedded by zoning traditions that privilege lower density housing. Critical analysis is given both of the capability of conventional ‘predict and provide’ parking policies to manage residential parking, and to cope with urban change.     

Whose village? Stakeholder interests in the urban renewal of Hubei old village in Shenzhen

This article examines the urban regeneration process of Hubei old village in Shenzen, and focuses on interest sharing among stakeholders. Urban regeneration processes are driven by the decreasing availability of construction land in Shenzhen’s city centre due to rapid urbanization and an unplanned, overcrowded urban core. The solution accepted by most stakeholders, i.e., local government, private developers, and urban villagers, is to generate land revenue through the demolition of urban villages like Hubei old village, thus clearing way for Shenzen’s urban development and transformation. However, tenants and small business operators do not benefit from the rising land and property value, and thus do not share the interests of other stakeholders. A further complication to Shenzen’s urban regeneration process is added by those who do not live in Hubei old village but have vocally fought to preserve its architectural heritage. By examining the urban regeneration process of Hubei old village in Shenzhen, this article provides a case study of the complex dynamics of the Hubei urban regeneration program and participatory planning process, taking as a starting point a question posed by an urban villager during an interview: “whose village?”, i.e., who has the right to make decisions on behalf of the urban village?     

Toward a systemic analysis of city-agriculture interactions in West Africa: A geography of arrangements between actors

Despite the importance of urban agriculture in developing countries, urban agriculture is not well understood by public authorities. This lack of knowledge impedes its inclusion in public policies of urban planning. A substantial body of literature deals with urban agriculture but little research has analyzed the multidimensional city-agriculture interactions facilitating its enduring presence within the city. We suggest the hypothesis that informal processes are at the core of the persistence of urban agriculture and propose the concept of socio-spatial arrangements (SSAs) between the actors. To study urban agriculture in Bobo-Dioulasso, a West African city, we propose to develop a geography of arrangements to understand the social and spatial characteristics of SSAs and the way they influence urban agriculture development. Taking the example of market gardeners and pig breeders, we highlight how farmers overcome urban constraints through localized social networks. Results show that arrangements between the actors are at the core of the persistence of urban agriculture. We underline two different socio-spatial morphologies (SSMs) of urban agriculture according to differences in urban agriculture characteristics. These SSMs illustrate how market gardeners and pig breeders integrate differently into the urban space. The systemic approach of studying arrangements between actors helps us understand how urban farming activities function, and how they are connected to each other and to the urban and regional system, thus building a picture of an agri-urban system. We discuss the policy and theoretical implications of this research. This study is aimed at providing a better understanding of urban agriculture that can enhance its consideration as a viable component of the city.     

Promoting planning for housing development: What can Sweden learn from Germany?

In the years 2006–2014, urban planning reform was seen as the major remedy against housing shortage in Sweden. The present government has the continuation of such reform on its agenda, but as of yet has made no proposals; instead, other housing policy measures have been introduced.In light of the uncertainty as to the future course of urban planning reform, possible future steps can be discussed. This article accordingly investigates whether German urban planning law and implementation could provide interesting reference points for discussion of further urban planning reform in Sweden, and if so, what parts of the German experience should be the center of attention.The article covers three aspects of German planning that influence the uncertainty, duration, and cost of residential planning as well as social goals addressed through planning: planning law, focusing on facilitated planning procedures of German planning law, measures taken in the organization of planning authorities to make development planning more efficient, and planning-related city demands for affordable housing.The conclusions encompass proposals for the further reform of the Swedish planning process in the form of a facilitated and accelerated development planning procedure for housing projects, as well as the introduction of private initiative in development planning. Further improvements to the organization and incentives of planning authorities are proposed. More research is required into municipal demands for affordable housing in the form of inclusionary zoning; such research should draw on the extensive international experience of such zoning, relating it to a Swedish pilot project.     

Property rights of urban underground space in China: A public good perspective

With the booming development of urban underground space in China, “fuzzy” property rights of this special form of land use type are not only the cause of ownership disputation and registration chaos, but also may seriously delay the undertaking of related underground land laws or regulations. China's emerging property rights issue of urban underground space, especially the delimitation of the surface and ground or underground, is facing such a challenge. This article aims to identify the property rights of urban underground space by using a practical method that classifies the underground space as economic goods, and to analyze attributes of different property rights of urban underground space within the theoretical framework of public goods. We use civil defense projects and underground parking lots as case studies. Both case studies are the most utilized types and controversial ownership cases of urban underground space in present China. Our case studies indicate that it is a feasible method to avoid the delimitation of the start-stop height of 3D property right vertically, and directly define the attributes of surface and underground property rights in line with the supply mode of goods. Our results show that the method proposed in this study can effectively solve the dispute of property rights against problems rising with unclear contract and lags in the legislation of urban underground space and clearly delimited the interests boundaries among different parties of property rights for urban underground space. Ultimately, this study may offer better insight into the utilization and registration work of urban underground space in China as well as reference for countries with similar property rights issues.     

Watershed management in an urban setting: process, scale and administration

Efforts in post-industrial countries to refine environment and planning administration in the face of unprecedented urban growth have important implications for ecological systems and human quality of life. This paper uses the case of an urban riparian corridor in South East Queensland, Australia to contribute to understandings of interactions between land use planning processes, watershed management initiatives and broader administrative structures in urban and rapidly urbanising settings. In particular it examines the understudied application of watershed management to an urban setting. Analysis of changes to the structure and function of urban riparian corridor management over time show that changes have occurred as a result of broader policy and institutional change in three distinct phases: top-down watershed management policy (1996-2000), regional natural resource and population growth management policy (2001-2005) and the recent re-emergence of local government as the dominant actor in a multilevel networked context (2006-2008). Trends toward regional scale approaches and increased urban planning initiatives have tended to concentrate responsibilities for urban environmental management with local government. This is in contrast to most rural natural resource management experience, and highlights the importance of meta-governance frameworks in ensuring the enduring applicability of the watershed management model to urban and rapidly urbanising catchments.     

Ecosystem-based adaptation in cities: An analysis of European urban climate adaptation plans

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) measures have been increasingly promoted in the literature, as well as in policies and practices, for their environmental and socio-economic co-benefits. The recent scientific literature has shown a growing interest to assess climate adaptation plans at the urban level, in recognition of the important role played by urban areas in addressing climate change challenges. However, little information is available on the combination of these two issues, i.e., the actual inclusion of EbA measures in climate adaptation plans at the urban level. This paper addresses this gap by developing a framework to analyze the treatment of EbA in urban level climate planning, and apply it to a sample of climate adaptation plans in Europe. The framework consists of a classification of EbA measures, and a scoring system to evaluate how well they are reflected in different components of the plans. The results suggest that there is in general good awareness in plans of EbA measures, and of their potential role in addressing climate change challenges. However, their treatment in climate adaptation plans at the urban level often lacks sufficient baseline information, as well as convincing implementation actions. The paper concludes by offering recommendations to improve future practice, in terms of enhancing the baseline information to improve the proposal and design of EbA measures, improving the treatment of co-benefits associated to EbA measures, and strengthening coordination with other planning tools. Possible future development of this works include the integration of the proposed EbA classification, and the analysis of a larger sample of territorial plans.     

Prices,policies, and place: What drives greenfield development?

While the recent global financial crisis heightened awareness of the linkages between global financial capital and urban spatial pattern, the timing of urban development – largely thought to be market driven – is not fully understood. Parcel-level studies of urban land-use change, which often use hazard models to investigate if and when development occurs, offer an opportunity to juxtapose the extent to which decisions to develop individual plots of farmland into housing are driven by market forces, the unique characteristics of the land and its intraurban location, or policies such as transportation infrastructure and municipal annexation. Using residential completion data in the Phoenix, Arizona region from 1992 to 2014, a period of dramatic commodity, fuel, and home price swings, and land cover imagery, we develop a parcel-level hazard model to gauge the relative impacts of market, policy, and place-based drivers of land change. We find limited evidence of induced development associated with freeway planning, that annexation and development are closely linked and moreso during economic booms, high fuel prices spur development in the region's core, and agricultural and urban land rents affect the timing of development. This study advances our understanding of development decision- making, policy impacts, and urban land-use change modeling and provides an empirical connection between local and global drivers of Greenfield development.     

Parking behaviour: The curious lack of cruising for parking in San Francisco

Cruising for parking has long been perceived as a major source of congestion and emissions in urban areas, but recent empirical work suggests that parking may not be as onerous as folklore suggests, and that the amount of vehicle travel attributable to cruising is minimal. In this paper, we reconcile these perspectives through a dynamic programming model of parking search, and empirical insights from a large-scale GPS dataset in San Francisco and the California Household Travel Survey. We first draw a conceptual distinction between parking search, the time between the driver’s decision to park and when a parking space is taken; and cruising, defined as excess vehicle travel due to parking search. In places with little or no through traffic, up to half of traffic can be searching for parking, but cruising can be zero. We then operationalize this distinction through a dynamic programming model. The model predicts that when parking is perceived to be scarce, drivers are more willing to take a convenient available space, even if it is some distance from their destination. Counter-intuitively, scarce parking can even suppress vehicle travel as perceived parking scarcity leads drivers to stop short of their destinations and accept a longer walk. Empirical data from California indicate that neighborhood density (a proxy for parking availability) has little impact on cruising for parking, but increases walk distances from parking locations to final destinations. We conclude that cruising for parking is self-regulating, and that in certain circumstances parking scarcity can even reduce vehicle travel.     

Zionism and agricultural land: National narratives,environmental objectives,and land policy in Israel

The 1990s saw two different and even contradictory trends in Israel. On the one hand, there was a substantial increase in environmental awareness, on the part of both the general public and decision-makers, that led to a change in the land use planning policy at the national level. On the other hand, the Israel Lands Council (ILC), the body empowered by law to shape the national land policy, made a series of decisions that severely violated the principle of preserving agricultural land and led to massive conversion of agricultural land and open space for commercial, industrial, and residential development. Thus the national land policy became incompatible with the land use planning policy and the rise in environmental awareness it reflected.     

The environmental and economic costs of sprawling parking lots in the United States

Urban sprawl is considered by most environmental scientists and urban planners to be a serious environmental problem. However, public perception about parking availability often forces planning offices to recommend parking lot sizes that exceed daily demands. The recent trend of increasing the size of stores, churches and even schools comes with increasing the size of parking lots that service these buildings. The objective of this paper is to analyze space allocation of parking lots in a typical midwestern county and to estimate the supply of parking spaces to potential demand. We also estimate the loss of ecosystem services represented by the area of parking lots in this county. We found that parking lots cover 5.65 km² (1 397 acres) of Tippecanoe County, Indiana which implies that 0.44% of the county area is devoted to parking lots. Our results show that there are approximately 2.2 parking spaces per registered vehicle, that parking lots make up more than 6.57% of the total urban footprint in this county, that the area of parking lots exceeded the area of parks in the city limits by a factor of three and that parking lot runoff and pollutants are significant compared to runoff and pollutants from these areas prior to their conversion to parking lots. As other authors have done before us we lament the poor use of land in urban regions of the United States, and encourage planners to think creatively about the use of land for parking.     

Urban greening: A new paradox of economic or social sustainability?

Cities globally have incorporated sustainable development into their planning, and led the way in responding to the world’s ecological crisis by “going green”. Urban green space accessibility is considered as the key to urban sustainability progress, not only environmentally, but also economically and socially. However, previous research rarely considers the latter two dimensions together. This study therefore joins the sustainability discussion from a new perspective, in particular the debate concerning the value of urban green spaces and whether and how they contribute to the variegated sustainability agenda? Based on data for 76,595 residential housing units in New York City, measuring the economic gains and equity losses from current urban green space accessibility reveals a paradox in sustainable development where the economic and social benefits of urban green space accessibility are seldom compatible, tending to involve a trade-off of some kind. In response, it is proposed that the spatial patterns of land use can represent a step towards multifaceted aspects of sustainability, with the provision of numerous small green areas that are “affordable and accessible” throughout the city being a more appropriate policy agenda than a few vast parks. Such a policy approach, it is argued, will provide a ‘win-win’ situation in terms of simultaneously contributing to both economic prosperity and the social justice of sustainability. This research also provided evidence for the institutional-driven countries such as China on how to learn from western experiences on planning land use patterns that are sustainable for individuals.