Parking in the central business district: North Sydney

While it is traditional wisdom in a car oriented society that more parking is good, and even more parking is better, such a policy is not always appropriate in the urban situation, particularly within the central business districts of major cities. The private car is not the only transport means. The infrastructural demands of private vehicles serving major urban centres can be excessive. The environmental impact of motor vehicles and their conflicts with pedestrians can be unacceptable. In developing a parking policy for the North Sydney Central Business District (CBD), which is the 4th largest in Australia, North Sydney's consultants adopted a policy of generally restricting the supply of parking within the CBD and its fringe areas and of restricting parking to an even greater extent within the core of the CBD. The policy specifies a minimal parking allowance within the CBD core for environmental reasons and a higher parking allowance in the remainder of the CBD, the latter being less than the 'unrestrained' demand for parking, for transport policy reasons. For the difference between the parking allowed and the 'unrestrained' demand, a parking/ transport contribution is proposed. This contribution can be used either to develop fringe parking stations or for public transport improvements. The parking policy also covers the location and size of public parking stations, on street parking time limits and enforcement, as well as resident parking schemes in adjacent residential areas, designed both to restrict commuter parking overflow and to ensure the availability of parking for inner city residents (A).