Use and Impact of Maximum Parking Standards in Scotland

For transport planners and researchers interested in managing the demand for motorized transport, using parking pricing and/or rationing as a form of traffic restraint has its attractions. Several authors (e.g. 1,2) have demonstrated the link between parking availability, price, and mode choice. One sub-policy related to the general relationship described above is the use of maximum parking standards for new development. In many countries, it has been traditional that local authorities, when granting planning permission (a building permit), require the developers of new buildings to provide a minimum number of parking spaces per square meter of floorspace. Whilst several UK local authorities have had maximum parking standards, at least in central areas, since the 1980s, it was only in 2001 that governments in England and Scotland introduced national maxima, the rationale for this being that it would stop local authorities competing for development by offering more generous parking standards than their neighboring authority. These standards are in the form of guidance, not legislation, so they are not legally binding on local authorities, but if they are systematically ignored, then central government has the option of taking a planning decision out of the hands of the local authority and making that decision itself, including the imposition of maximum parking standards.