Bristol City Council’s Plans for a Residential Parking Scheme in Bristol are running silent at the moment. But in the depths of the Council House I suspect there is a team of crack advisors [sic] ready to leap into action as soon as the latest consultation has been collected, bundled, and buried in a peat bog. And of course, as soon as the election is out of the way.
In my continuing and sparsely-read series of policy ideas for the city - the writing of which I find more enjoyable than having my photo taken while kneeling in front of pot-holes with a wounded expression on my face - I’d like to propose an alternate approach to parking management.
(photo via the Bristol Traffic Blog)
Well, an alternate-alternate approach to parking management, as I still think mutualisation of residential streets and cul-de-sacs is a cheap and simple way to give local residents the opportunity to decide how to manage parking in their area.
Interlude: if you get a chance, have a look at my tweaks to “20’s plenty” - a concept for a city-wide speed limit of 20mph with an associated reduction in signage, traffic lights and parking attendants.
Parking is only a contentious issue when demand rises to the point where residents are unlikely to be able to leave their car near to their residence. Another way of phrasing this is to say that there is an optimal ratio between the number of households in a ward and the number of on-street parking spaces; the "areal parking density”.
Instead of a huge edifice of parking permits, enforcement officers, clamps, tow trucks, fines and of course marketing leaflets saying how super it all is, we could just amend the city’s planning guidance to developers to indicate that planning permission for change of use or sub-division of a residential property would not be approved if it changed the ratio of household spaces to on-street parking spaces – let’s call it the “parking density metric” - in the ward.
Having looked at the “parking density metric” and done their calculations, developers can then decide whether to crack on with their development, off-set the externalities (create off-street parking or reduce households), or look elsewhere. The same principle can operate with commercial and industrial zoning.
But what if you’re a hair-shirted environmentalist who wants to reduce the number of cars on the streets. Or an MP with a house to convert into flats and “flip” at the taxpayers’ expense? Why then you walk a petition around the ward to run a referendum at the next Council ballot in which you can seek to amend the guidance given to developers for your ward. And if you get enough signatures it goes on the ballot paper.
Back when the Conservative Group in Bristol were making their proposed amendments to the city’s budget, officers established that a referendum wold cost approximately £0.50p per person, when carried out alongside an existing ballot. So that’s about £5,000 for a typical ward, which sounds like a reasonable sum to me. Each ward has a £10,000 budget each year through the Neighbourhood Partnerships scheme, therefore Councillors could if they wish initiate a referendum directly since they control that budget.
To limit the possibility of a Prisoner’s Dilemma situation, the constitution of the city could be amended to provide a limit on the change of the “parking metric” in a given period (e.g. no more than one standard deviation change of the average “parking metric” of the ward and its bordering wards in any four year period). And that’s my thought for the day. Bit policy-wonkish perhaps, but it’s my stab at creating a pricing mechanism for on-street parking. And perhaps a model for other referenda-based direct democracy.
Reminder – Residential Parking Schemes are a bad idea.
The guys are keepparkingfree.org do a better job of explaining it than I can:
If a scheme is introduced:
4. …there would be absolutely no guarantee of finding a space. There would be fewer spaces (see 8 below) and so more problems. Ask friends in cities like Bath that have schemes - you can buy a permit but still find nowhere to park!
5. …using the Council’s own figures and average enforcement levels, the Council would make a £multi-million profit. Guess who would pay?
6. …the cost for a 2 car family, including visitor permits, a parking ticket once a year (it happens) and a bit of pay and display parking would be over £200 per annum. Just when household budgets are already under severe strain
7. ...the Council has said it may ‘limit each household to one vehicle’. Even if that is OK for you now, what if your circumstances change?
8. …your household would be allowed 100 visitor permits per year, at £1 each after the first 50. Once you have used them (don’t forget visitors includes builders etc) you would have to use pay and display (mostly £1 per hour) or risk a fine or being towed away
9. ...a family wedding or funeral, with all the attendant comings and goings, could use up all your visitor permits for a year!
[and so on…click here for the full list]
