Part 13: Parking control

Last updated: December 2007. This document ceases to be a controlled document when printed. Please refer to the current version at www.landtransport.govt.nz

4  Design considerations

4.1  Parking policies and strategies

The New Zealand Transport Strategy (NZTS) outlines the government’s aim to have an affordable, integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable transport system for New Zealand by the year 2010. The five objectives of the NZTS are:

• Assisting economic development.
• Assisting safety and personal security.
• Improving access and mobility.
• Protecting and promoting public health.
• Ensuring environmental sustainability.

The introduction and implementation of suitable parking policies and strategies by local authorities can have an impact on the above five objectives, given that parking management significantly influences travel behaviour. Parking can be considered a key component in both transport and land use planning, as managing the availability and cost of available parking can help reduce the number of car trips to a particular location.

Parking policies should not be considered in isolation, but should support and take into account wider transport, economic development, urban design, environmental, and social and recreational strategies that may exist at a local and regional level. It is particularly important to consider parking standards within a regional context, given competing regional centres. For instance, the provision of free or unlimited parking at one retail centre may attract motorists away from another, closer shopping centre that has parking restrictions. Such an uncoordinated approach may therefore generate more and longer trips by car overall. Accordingly, parking provision should be viewed as an integral part of the transport issues associated with land use development.

The development of robust local and regional policies related to parking allows specific locations and areas to have targeted strategies in place depending upon the parking management regime required, eg residents’ parking or zone parking within a central business district (CBD).

In developing and implementing parking policies and strategies, a number of issues (as shown below) should be considered.

4.1.1  Functions and hierarchy of the road

Each road within a district should have a road hierarchy classification – this is normally outlined in the district plan of each TA. The hierarchies are there to ensure that all roads are consistent with their classification to achieve a safe and efficient transport network. It is important that parking requirements, restrictions and prohibitions relate to the intended function of the road (see table 4.1).

The function of each particular road type needs to be examined when determining the level of parking and, in cases where there are high volumes and speeds, the ability of the road to carry traffic efficiently and safely is reliant upon external factors such as parking and access control. For example, where there are arterial sections of road where peak volume are high, there may be a need to introduce clearway parking during specific times of the day to provide extra lanes to through traffic.

Table 4.1 Movement and parking functions by road class

Road type	Movement function	Parking function
Motorway	Principal routes for the movement of goods and people between regions	No parking allowed
Arterial	Primary network that connects regions and cities/towns, as well as being the main roads through cities/towns, often forming long continuous routes and carrying the bulk of urban travel	Limited. Any parking provided should provide sufficient room for vehicles to manoeuvre out of spaces without disrupting through traffic. Opportunity exists to provide time-restrictive operations during peak times (eg clearways)
Collector	Provides a connection between the arterial and local roads	Provided, but may have differing types of restrictions applied
Local	Provides access to adjacent property	Provided. Restrictions may be applied where demand is high

In conjunction with the roading function, parking policies and strategies need to be linked to the overall land-use type in which the road is located.

4.1.2  Adjacent land use and development

Land use is a major factor when developing parking policies and strategies (as well as when determining supply and demand for specific parking facilities). Land use can be split up into general types of activities (eg as set out in a TA’s district plans), which can help guide the type of parking controls to be implemented, for instance:

• In retail and commercial areas, parking controls such as the provision of short-term parking for clients and customers will support such activities. The most sought-after spaces should be made available to the greatest number of people through the use of time limits.
• In residential areas, particularly near commercial areas, parking controls such as resident parking permit schemes will support residents’ parking needs. Naturally, such controls need to balance the needs of non-residents visiting the area by way of time-limited parking.

For each type of road within different land use zones, permitted stopping and parking activity types (eg bus stops, taxi stands, loading zones, disabled parking, short-/long-stay parking, residents’ parking) can be identified and potentially prioritised.

Local authorities have a responsibility in determining the number of off-street parking spaces to be provided, through controls set down in their district plan. These controls typically provide for maximum or minimum numbers of parking spaces for specific types of development and relate to the policies and strategies adopted by that local authority. Larger developments that typically require an integrated transportation assessment to support the resource consent application should identify the amount and type of parking to be provided with respect to the district plan.

4.1.3  Traffic characteristics

The type of vehicles or classes of users and their relative priority in terms of time and space allocation will need to be identified when developing a parking strategy and designing layouts for an area. Vehicle sizes and dimensions are included in section 4.5.

he types of vehicles include cars, taxis, heavy vehicles, cycles, motorcycles and buses, while classes of users include disabled, commercial and local residents. The demand for parking is largely influenced by the adjacent land use, such as retail areas in the middle of a CBD, schools, residential suburbs or industrial zones.

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