To Reduce Pollution, London Will Outlaw Parking Construction
Saying London needs to get “bolder” about reducing reliance on cars, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced today that the city will ban the construction of new parking spaces in home and office developments in large parts of the city.
Details of the plan will not be released until tomorrow, but the Times of London reports that Khan wants to stop the addition of new parking spaces in central London and locations with good transit access.
The restriction on car parking is part of a package of reforms Khan is putting forward to reduce air pollution in London, which contributes to an estimated 9,500 premature deaths each year. Another plank calls for doubling the number of bike parking spaces in retail locations.
Khan’s goal is to increase the share of trips by foot, bike, or transit from 64 percent to 80 percent over the next 25 years, according to the Times, eliminating 3 million daily car trips.
The draft London Plan’s parking proposals are actually not that radical. A number of boroughs had already reduced or eliminated residential parking provision in homes close to public transport nodes before Mayor Johnson’s plan (and the work of the Outer London Commission) stopped this, while commercial development provision in central London was down to a maximum of one parking space per 1,500m2 of development, or, effectively, servicing traffic only. These maxima were strongly opposed by Eric Pickles, who sought to reintroduce the minimum parking standards abandoned in London as long ago as 1976. A nasty compromise allowed London to retain maximum standards, but much weaker than previously. Now that Pickles has gone (and his Svengali, Sheridan Westlake, has moved to the Cabinet Office) I hope that CLG is less interested in a fight.
@quinlet
Is CLG Central London Government?