The street space occupied by parked cars may not seem like much, but it adds up. The US has an estimated 3.4 spaces for every car. In New York City, the amount of road space reserved for parking is roughly the size of 12 Central Parks, according to one estimate, and most of the city’s 4m street parking spots are free.

“The curb lane is some of the most valuable land on Earth,” said Donald Shoup, a transportation professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “I think that’s our biggest mistake, to take some of the most valuable land on Earth and give it away, free, to cars.”
Street parking doesn’t just take away space. It can inform how people get around. “Parking is one of the things that has a really powerful impact on people’s decisions whether to drive or not,” said Daniel Firth, transportation director at C40 Cities, a network of more than 100 cities around the world with ambitious climate goals.
Shoup and others have found that underpriced street parking keeps people driving in cities, even in those that have good alternative transport options. More people driving means more city traffic – increasing congestion and pumping out pollution.
But cities that want to price, or even convert, free street parking face obstacles – and not just from drivers. Most cities don’t have enough information about how their curbs are used, making it difficult to decide how to manage this valuable space.

They have no positive impacts on any meaningful dimensions

Freelance writer for Fleet News, Tom Seymour has been a specialist B2B journalist covering the automotive sector for over 14 years. He started his freelance career in 2015 and currently writes for a variety of automotive, business and technology publications.

02/11/2021 in Latest news
A new report from the University of Hertfordshire spotlights several schemes that could make an immediate impact to reduce car dependancy outside of cities.
Led by Smart Transport chair Professor Stephen Joseph, The Future of Transport Outside Cities report highlights how cities dominate research and policy discussions about transport, even though ‘Shire’ counties are responsible for 74% of the UK’s transport emissions.
Despite a reduction in car use during the pandemic, the transport sector remained the largest emitter of carbon emissions in 2020 (at 29.8%). Therefore, transport is key to any strategy aiming to combat climate change. 

@edwardlamb
Both dressed in black. One has the potential to kill. But rather than attack the source of the problem we have decided to label children as ‘vulnerable road users’ and shame them into wearing bright clothes that we know do not work. Sad

03 November 2021

 A survey seeking to capture a ‘snapshot’ of how transport professionals feel about the future is being carried out by the University of the West of England.
Researchers are seeking the views of professionals, along with volunteers and campaigners in the sector, on how they think transport will change between now and 2035.
Steve Melia, lecturer in transport and planning at the University of the West of England, said: “This is a rapid review at a time of great uncertainty for transport. What difference will climate change and decarbonisation make?
“Will the changes we saw during the lockdowns endure or evaporate? What place will the car have in future patterns of movement?
“This survey aims to take a snapshot and to analyse the relationships between what we believe and what we expect to happen.”
The deadline for feedback is 15 November. https://uwe.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2h2pdmVGybjA53o
Steve.melia@uwe.ac.uk

Marina BolotnikovaMar 11, 2020
As a kid, I was furious about SUVs with a passion that now seems embarrassing, telling all the suburban adults I knew that their ugly, gas-guzzling tanks were going to end life on Earth. I didn’t come up with this idea myself: Anti-SUV discourse was everywhere. Mainstream organizations like the Sierra Club — which famously renamed the huge Ford Excursion “Ford Valdez” after the catastrophic Exxon Valdez oil spill — helped create a cultural backlash against these hulking cars. A TV ad campaign run by the Evangelical Environmental Network — “What Would Jesus Drive?” — urged Midwesterners to rethink their addiction to big cars. New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher’s 2002 polemic High and Mighty sneered at the rise of “behemoths that guzzle gas, spew pollution, and endanger their occupants and other motorists.”