The sustainability of parking provision in Ireland

Each Irish local authority sets out in its development plan the quantum of parking spaces required for new developments. The parking standards applicable to developments should encourage the idea of sustainable travel, with less parking required in areas where public transport is readily available and more parking required in areas where alternatives to the private car are less in evidence. Using data from their devlopment plans, the 30 local authorities are ranked on the basis of their level of car parking provision. These results are compared to a set of rankings for the local authorities based on their relative car dependency and usage of public transport. The analysis indicated that many urban-based local authorities do not have a coherent parking strategy, with very high levels of parking required in geographical areas where significant alternatives to the private car exist. Reasons as to why this may be the case are provided.