The business of parking

This week, Nidhi Adlakha looks at how diminishing parking spaces in commercial areas is a cause for concern

A shopping spree at Panagal Park or Nungambakkam — prominent commercial hubs of the city — is no longer the fun trip we looked forward to. The lack of parking spaces has made visiting these areas a harrowing experience.

Chennai’s vehicular population is close to 3 million and the land requirement for parking amounts to more than 117 football fields a year.

 Data shows that 27 per cent of the city’s major roads are used for on-street parking, leading to major congestion issues. It’s high time city authorities devised a parking pricing, management and enforcement policy to tackle the chaos.

A. Shankar, National Director and Head – Strategic Consulting, Jones Lang LaSalle, says, “Solutions include banning on-street parking in critical commercial streets, enforcing high parking fees in highly commercialised areas to encourage public transportation, and developing multi-level parking in commercial areas.”

The parking index, which is the ratio of peak parking demand to supply, should be less than or equal to one. “However, it is close to 1.5 at locations such as Anna Nagar II Avenue, General Patters Road, Sardar Patel Road, and South Usman Road. Locations such as NSC Bose Road and GN Chetty Road have parking indices of nearly 2,” says Shankar.

A parking policy is complementary to public transport, says Raj Cherubal, Director-Projects, Chennai City Connect (CCC). Studies suggest that an acute shortage of parking is seen primarily in commercial areas of Anna Salai, Periyar EVR Salai, T. Nagar, Purasawalkam, George Town, Nungambakkam, Adyar and Mylapore due to the lack of paid parking, resulting in people occupying parking slots for long periods.

The free space under flyovers in the city has been converted into gardens. While some see this as a step towards a greener city, could these spaces have alternatively been used for parking? “A city can use parking on both sides of the road in many places, but this requires well-design road networks. However, a city also needs aesthetic appeal so we should encourage green spaces even under flyovers. The parking issue cannot be solved by converting all spaces into parking slots. It needs to be managed with paid parking, monitoring, fines, etc,” says Raj.

Sunita Narain, environmental activist and Director General of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), says the important issue is the inequitable use of land. A car is allotted 23 sq.m for parking while a poor family gets 18 sq.m under the low-cost housing scheme. “Cities have already devoted a large proportion of land for parking. Green spaces and walkways are also at increased risk from parking.

 Thus, parking should be considered a travel demand management strategy to control use of personal vehicles and reduce pollution and congestion. On the other hand, authorities should promote sustainable modes of transport like non-motorised transport and public transport.”

H , Nidhi Adlakha 11 Oct 14