Goodbye to your peaceful local street!
Parking Policy 2.0 brings residential streets under Area Parking Plan
Residential streets within 250 metres of ‘intense’ commercial areas will be priced higher than other on-street parking
BENGALURU:
A day after the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) gave a 40-page PowerPoint presentation on Parking Policy 2.0 for Bengaluru before Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, thebengalurulive went through the entire policy and was shocked at the proposal to include residential streets which are within 250 metres of ‘intense’ commercial areas under the Area Parking Plan and price them higher than other on-street parking fees.
Bengaluru currently has around 94 lakh registered vehicles as of May 2020, and the compound annual growth rate of vehicle registrations is over 10% per annum.
Also Read: Parking Policy 2.0 for Bengaluru: Yediyurappa directs to present at Cabinet meeting https://thebengalurulive.com/parking-policy-2-0-for-bengaluru-yediyurappa-directs-to-present-at-cabinet-meeting/
The roads in Bengaluru are congested, with typical average speed on major roads during peak hours being around 15 kmph and average public bus transport speed at around 10 kmph. Various initiatives like introduction of metro rail and construction of flyovers have not resulted in perceivable changes in alleviating congestion on the roads of Bengaluru.
As per the DULT report, BBMP had adopted a parking policy in 2012. Subsequently, the action plan proposed refurbishment of 11 existing off-street parking locations, development of 10 new off-street locations, and organised on-street parking along about 85 roads. However, since its adoption there have been several changes in the demand for parking — commissioning of the metro system, aggregator-run taxi systems becoming popular in the city, increasing popularity of micro-mobility options like share cycles and bikes for last mile connectivity, rapid conversion of residential plots to commercial land use without due enforcement of parking requirement as per bye-law, infringement of residential roads by vehicles accessing nearby commercial areas, and an increasing vehicular population. Hence, there was a need for parking policy 2.0.
Objectives of the policy
Move from chaotic to organized parking:
· Organise and manage on-street parking so as to ensure that parking does not impinge upon seamless vehicular and pedestrian circulation.
· Shift supply of parking off-street, and minimize on-street parking supply to free up scarce street space for transit and NMT supportive uses.
· Free up residential streets from any parking to allow these streets to transform into walkable & liveable streets
· Inclusive planning of parking supply to support local business opportunities, facilitate people to access social infrastructure and recreational facilities.
Move from free to paid parking:
· Charge the user the true cost of parking to transfer the cost of using a scarce resource from public at large to the beneficiary.
· Unbundle parking charges and make users directly pay for their desired parking convenience.
Move from government-driven to market-driven parking regime:
· Enable faster development of organised off-street parking supply and efficient management through means of private market forces.The city needs to explore a privately financed and market-driven off-street parking regime, in addition to a public-funded, government-created off-street parking regime.
Move from passive and weak enforcement to active management:
· Urban local body to consider parking management as one of its key functions and deliver parking services in a systemic and efficient manner.
· Use of technology in enforcement and management of parking to better address concerns of manpower shortage, efficiency and pilferage.
· Gradually discourage use of personal vehicles.
· Support and increase the patronage of public transport by cross subsidizing transit and NMT infrastructure through parking revenue.
Preparation of Area Parking Plan
The APP shall include all types of parking like off-street, on-street, park-and-ride, residential parking, etc. In all the parking lots, provision shall be made for all vehicle types, including bicycles, IPT and shared mobility.
APPs shall also identify provision for transport vehicle parking as necessary in all zones and for on-street loading and un-loading zones in commercial areas.
APP should differentiate on-street parking into 2 categories — Commercial and Residential –for the purpose of facilitating a paid parking system. On-street parking categorization should be made based on the following criteria: Commercial Streets which have 30% or above commercial or non-residential establishments, and Residential Streets which have less than 30% commercial/nonresidential establishements.
APP shall clearly indicate that unless on-street parking lots are earmarked and demarcated, parking at any other locations on-street (anywhere within the public roadway or street limits) shall be deemed illegal, even if No-Parking signage or markings have not been installed. However, some critical No-Parking zones, where safety hazard or restriction of emergency access may arise due to illegal parking, shall be demarcated on the ground through appropriate physical design, signage and road markings as per IRC: SP: 12-2015 for the information of the general public and for ease of enforcement.
APPs should also identify location of signage, real-time information, parking meters, access control and other necessary devices for parking management at identified parking lots.
Parking charges
Pricing on-street higher than off-street parking to move demand from on-street to off-street to help eliminate congestion, bottlenecks, delay and reduced mobility efficiency arising from on-street parking.
· On-street parking price to be set at least 1.5 to 3 times higher than off-street parking.
Use differential pricing for various types of on-street parking to spatially distribute the demand for parking across a commercial or business district. Streets with high level of activity and congestion should be priced higher as opposed to roads with lower activity and congestion.
· The Area Parking Plan (APP) should identify non-residential roads that are within 250 metres around intense commercial areas, where the on-street parking, if provisioned in the APP, shall be priced higher than other on-street parking fee.
Pricing long duration on-street parking exponentially higher than short term to ensure increased turnaround and discourage locking of on-street parking space for longer duration.
· On-street parking shall be encouraged only for short duration parking (not exceeding 1 hour).
· In order to discourage long-duration parking, parking charges can be escalated when parking duration exceeds 1 hour.
· Mechanism shall be put in place to ensure that a vehicle parked and taken out at a given on-street parking lot would not be able to park again at the same parking lot for the next 3 hours to ensure turnaround of parking spaces.
Pricing to encourage park-and-ride (off-street) near peripheral mass transport stations by allowing subsidized long duration fee for park-and-ride users.
· Mechanisms to be developed to segregate park-and-ride users from general parking users at these locations.
· Park-and-ride users could be charged subsidized rates for parking their vehicles at these facilities that nudge commuters to ride transit than driving their vehicles in the city.
Pricing to ensure there is turnaround of parked vehicles and discourage abandonment of vehicles at off-street locations.
· Parking longer than 48 hours should be charged twice the normal off-street price.
· Parking beyond 96 hours without necessary prepaid tickets should be treated as abandonment of vehicle for necessary action by traffic police.
Pricing Residential Parking would be through a permit based system. Residential parking permits shall be charged a fee quarterly or annually based on the permit.
Methodology to calculate non-residential parking fee:
Base parking fee would be established in each zone based on the land (guidance) value. On-street and off-street parking fee, and residential permit fee for a zone, shall be calculated as a multiple of the base fee established for that zone.
Parking fee for different types of parking facilities would be determined as follows:
Type of parking off-street locations — Base parking fee
On-street – Commercial Parking 1.5 to 3 times (Base parking fee). Depending on location On-street parking fee beyond 1 hour should be escalated for busy commercial areas.
Residential Parking Permit (annual fee) 365(days) * 0.5*Base parking fee*8 (hours)
Park-and-Ride fee 0-6 hours: 0.75* 3* Base parking fee
6-12 hours: 0.75*9*Base parking fee
12-24 hours: 0.75*15*Base parking fee
No charges shall be levied for parking of bicycles (and pedal assisted electric bicycles) at spaces designated for bicycle parking.
Charges for all other vehicles shall be determined as per the Passenger Car Equivalent (PCE) factor.
Monthly parking passes may be formulated for the benefit of regular users of off-street parking lots. However, these shall be valid only at the off-street lots of a designated parking district. Monthly parking pass users should not be allowed at high turn around off-street lots (especially in premium commercial areas).
· The monthly parking pass shall be calculated as the price of 10 hour parking for a given vehicle category for 25 days/month.
Bulk parking fee mechanism for off-street parking may be formulated to facilitate shared mobility operators and e-commerce delivery agents. Such beneficiaries shall be validated by the aggregator and RTO. A database of such beneficiaries should be maintained in the central parking portal.
· Parking fee, on a prorated basis for the duration occupied, shall be redeemed as and when an off-street parking facility is utilized.
· Redemption of bulk parking fee shall be valid only at off-street parking lots and shall not be valid at any on-street parking lot.
About the Author
