Which parking bylaws have been put in place by the SN² partner cities? And what are the societal, environmental, and health benefits of innovative parking bylaws?
In our sixth SN² webinar, we tackled these questions with our two experts from Academia: Heythem Adjeroud (Université Gustave Eiffel) and Michael Johansson (Lund University). Jelten Baguet (Mpact VZW) moderated this session.
About the webinar
Jelten Baguet welcomed the participants and briefly introduced the SHARE-North Squared project, explaining its core ambitions – more parks, less parking – and how the team is working to realise this goal. Our project partners are doing a great deal of work on the ground by introducing shared mobility in (social) housing areas, and in meeting rooms and offices by rethinking parking policies. With the project being more than halfway through, it was time to ask ourselves: "Where are we now?" and "Does it really matter?"
Heythem Adjeroud from the Université Gustave Eiffel (Lille, France) answered the "Where are we?" question by giving an overview of the parking bylaws in three of our partner cities – Bremen, Utrecht, and Mechelen. He outlined the steps that developers must take when integrating shared mobility into housing, and demonstrated the basic principles of the compensation mechanisms put in place in these three cities. He concluded that cities are moving from minimum parking standards towards maximum standards and tradable parking, and are lowering thresholds to facilitate a modal shift away from private car use.
The "Does it really matter?" question was tackled by Michael Johansson, researcher at Lund University (Sweden). He showcased the economic, environmental, and societal cost of building 100 parking spaces, and presented the benefits of alternative scenarios to building parking. For instance, planting trees costs considerably less than building (unused) parking spots, captures CO2, and reduces the urban heat island effect in our cities – a major challenge in the years to come!
Watch the webinar to learn more about...
- The parking bylaws implemented in Bremen, Utrecht, and Mechelen.
- The methodological framework used to compare these different bylaws.
- The varying approaches and challenges faced by cities when implementing new parking policies.
- The hidden costs associated with building (often unused) parking spaces.
- The positive societal and environmental impacts of reallocating land to developments other than parking.
