Urban Transport Strategy. Management in Developing Countries John A Cracknell, страница 100

Inclusion in Bank traffic management projects/component  Few Bank projects have included comprehensive parking measures.  The known recent Bank projects which have considered parking are:

§  Moscow UTP (proposed) - parking study to determine strategy

§  Mumbai UTP (proposed) - demonstration on-street parking scheme with intent to expand to most densely developed part of the city under the project but deferred by borrower and parking development plan throughout project substituted

§  China – “Bank projects have some element of parking provision in their TMC’s” but the impression is that it is relatively minor component in that “parking (in Chinese cities) most would benefit from a comprehensive parking study[52]

Comments and issues – On street parking control and management is an important part of traffic management as vehicle ownership and parking demand grows.  Most of the parking measures in the above table have been used to some extent in developing cities but very few cities have comprehensive parking strategies.  An on street parking policy must combine (i) parking prohibitions to maintain traffic flows and to assist public transport (released road space should be used for buses) on main roads at least during peak periods, (ii) charged parking to discourage long stay parking while permitting short stay parking, in unobstructive locations, for commercial, shopping or business activities and (iii) facilities for servicing, loading and unloading.  Issues are:

§  Parking enforcement.  Enforcement actions against illegal parking, including away from main roads, in hazardous and obstructive locations is essential but often poorly applied.  Illegal parking is mostly dealt with by the traffic police but in many cities, the police have neither man-power nor inclination to deal with the problem on a comprehensive basis.  Operation and management of charged parking is not a

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traffic police role and is better carried out by some form of “parking agency” but issues arise over the enforcement as the “parking agency” is not always provided with adequate powers to apply sanctions. Corruption in relation to illegal parking and charged parking is often an issue;

§  In some cases, traffic laws are inadequate to permit effective on street parking policy; for example, the levels of charge allowed by law may be unrealistically low and the “parking agency” has only limited powers to levy fines on offenders;

§  On-street charged parking involves little investment, should be self financing and can raise revenue for other traffic investments but many developing cities fail to capitalise on the potential of realistically charged parking.  Most cities collect charges through public sector agencies but kerb space can be contracted out to the private sector (e.g. Mumbai) and, provided the levels of charge are defined in accordance with the city’s parking strategy, is an effective mechanism.

§  On-street charged parking policy in some developing cities is undermined by the use of drivers and chauffeurs since such cars have no need to park unattended.  Resolution of the issue is difficult but must rely on strong enforcement of a “no-stopping” (as opposed to no parking) policy;

§  Provided parked vehicles do not impede traffic on main routes, some cities have little perception of the need to introduce a parking policy.  In particular, footway parking is not only obstructive to pedestrians but as the tendency grows, pedestrians are forced into the street with both safety and traffic congestion implications;

§  Charged parking is often the most widely understood and accepted first (and possibly only) step in a demand management policy; the implications are discussed in Chapter 9 - Demand Management.