CAR PARKING STANDARDS AND THE URBAN ECONOMY

The problem of traffic congestion, with its accompanying inefficiency and unpleasantness, is common to most large towns. Post-war planners put forward imaginative and detailed proposals for housing, highways and large-scale intersections with seemingly little thought for the provision of parking facilities. Legislation introduced in the 1947 act required authorities to adopt standards of parking provision for development control. Standards were improved from 1960 when parking standards were related to land use. Forecasts of increasing traffic requirements issued in 1965, in the MOT Planning Bulletin 7, gave greater importance to parking policies in dealing with traffic problems. Parking standards became part of traffic policy integrated with local policies on traffic management. The effects of such policies on local authority traffic planning decision-making are discussed. When parking standards for development control are re-examined greater consideration of variation in need between occupiers and accessibility will give developers guidance through standards expressed as ranges rather than single values. (Author/TRRL)