TPS' Parking Policy Principles

Just the Ticket! Parking Policy for Lower Carbon Travel

It's time to move on with parking policy. The Transport Planning Society makes eighteen recommendations to reduce the environmental harm done by parking and parked cars and help drive a behaviour shift from personal vehicle use to other, less damaging modes of travel.

Any travel by motor vehicle invariably relies on parking. Be it at the destination or origin of a trip, the parking space is a key enabler and important component in the overall choice of how we travel. Locate the parking space further from the destination, and travel by car becomes less convenient; make the parking more expensive, and choosing car is less attractive; remove the parking space altogether, and taking the car, or owning a car, becomes untenable.

Parking policy is thus an important aspect in delivering the transport system we want for the future. This paper sets out three headline themes relating to parking that the Transport Planning Society consider to be fundamental as part of driving the change we need:

• What we need from our planning laws
• Making the use of space more equitable
• Environmental taxes and charges

It concludes with why this is so important, and why parking is such a ready-made vehicle to deliver the much of the change we need when it comes to how we travel.

See our 18 recommendations below: