Beijing-parking-ITDP-China

5.1 London, UKSource: Europe’s Parking U-turn: FromAccommodation to Regulation (Kodransky, K.,Hermann, G., Institute for Transportation andDevelopment Policy, 2010.)London is divided into 33 boroughs, each withits own local authority that handles parkingissues. The local authorities receive specificationsfrom the London Councils—an umbrella lobbyinggroup working to further the interests ofborough councils while also overseeing certaingovernment functions across the city—to followparticular strategic measures, such as releasingannual reports on the state of parking. Transportfor London, the local government body responsiblefor most aspects of the transport system inGreater London, and directly supervised by theMayor, is also giving the boroughs directions forparking policies. Each borough can choose tohave much stricter regulations that go furtherthan those outlined by the London Councils.Many boroughs institute Controlled ParkingZones (CPZs) that specify when and where acar can park on-street. These zones are meant todiscourage long-term parking.On-street parkingThe borough of Westminster has eight differentparking zones and four different fees for parking,ranging from £1.20 to £4.40 per hour. Thereare no unregulated areas within these zones.On-street residential parking spaces, indicatedby signs painted on the street, are for sharedusebetween 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. for visitor use.Electric Vehicles and car sharing vehicles parkfor free. Four hour time limits are imposed foron-street parking. Annual review of parkingprices are executed by the boroughs and pricesare adjusted based on 85% occupancies and trafficconditions. Parking revenues go straight into aparking fund and a central finance team withinthe borough decides how to divide the funds tosupport transportation goals, which is a Londonwideregulation. In the borough of Islington mostparking payments occur by cell phone. Nearly48% of revenue for short-stay parking comes frompay-by-mobile transactions.Traffic enforcementThe Road Regulation Traffic Act of 1991 shiftedthe responsibility of traffic violation enforcementfrom the police to local borough councils.As a result, revenue from parking fines flow toboroughs’ budgets. Most boroughs hire privatecompanies for enforcement of illegal parking.Off-street parking maximumsFollowing the new guidelines set out by theGreater London Authority, all of London’s boroughsabolished minimum parking requirementsand converted these into parking maximums from2004. The aim is to have developers provide aslittle parking as they consider necessary. The citygovernment invests in public transport to improvealternatives to driving.London Central Saint GilesThe new Central Saint Giles development incentral London is an example of successfulhigh-density, mixed-use urban development withexcellent transport access. This top-end developmentonly has 10 car parking spaces.Central Saint Giles is a 0.7 ha mixed-usedevelopment in central London, built at a cost ofCNY 4.2 billion and completed in May 2010. Thedevelopment consists of two buildings of up to 15storeys in height, with office (37,625 m²), residential,shopping and dining (2,276 m²) uses at a FARof 9.4. The development includes 109 residentialunits, of which 53 are affordable housing. Theoffices are used by a number of high-profiletenants including Google and NBCUniversal. Theground floor is centered around a courtyard, linedwith shops and restaurants on almost the entiredevelopment. The buildings, as well as the publicspace can be entered from all sides, as the blocksare small (49m on average), and the developmentis open for all people to enter.Only ten car parking spaces are provided, somefor handicapped, and others at a cost of £100,000each, due to the insistence of Camden boroughcouncil that the development should be largelycar-free. Around the development there is alimited amount of metered on-street parking forshort-term visitors, as well as 3 car parking garages,open to the public and charged at marketregulatedprices. Although no car parking spacesare available in Central Saint Giles, there are 200bike racks in the basement, providing dry andBeijing Parking, ITDP-China 1031 March 2015