Managing Successful Car Free Development
Planning transport for new developments with parking restraint has a mixed track record. Derek Halden was recently asked to review a controversial development in Dublin.
There are three basic principles that must all be followed through for approaches to succeed:
- Ensure that accessibility to jobs and services is good without using a car. You will get a car-dependent development if the journeys by car are more than about three times quicker than travelling by public transport, walking and cycling.
- Manage travel incentives for travellers to and from the new development. Annual public-transport tickets and car-share memberships can be bundled into facilities management agreements to ensure the incentives are sustained over time.
- Recognise that travel choices are about more than just journey time. To make alternatives to cars practical the cost, quality and travelling environment must be attractive.
If the development does not include all three of these approaches then attempts to restrain parking store up problems, such as parking congestion on nearby streets and road congestion.
Experience shows that we have far more transport problems associated with new development than are needed, not because the professionals doing the transport assessment did not do their job right, but because the implementation plan was not delivered in full.
See the press article.