Cities Full of Empty Car Parks

Is Now the Time to Future Proof New Development?

Autonomous vehicles (AV’s) are a topic that is constantly in the media as the way to make driving more efficient and however we imagine it, I think we can all see a future with AV’s becoming the norm, whether that be ordered via an app from your phone to travel in our city centres or platooning in convoy along our motorways. However, most of our built environment still assumes someone is going to drive and park. Whilst ideologically this means that we will eventually be able to turn our car parking areas into parks, potentially reduce our road widths and expand our pedestrian and cycle areas, it needs to be done with a plan or else the true potential of these areas could be lost, resulting in them turning into unloved, uncared for spaces that bring little long-term benefit.

Elon Musk predicts that fully autonomous cars will hit the road by 2023 and whatever the actual timeframes, we all accept that the move to full autonomy will happen and will happen in phases. Without the need to park on the door step of where we live, work and socialise, it is easy to see a world where car parking is accommodated in out-of-town warehouses at the fringes of our city centres. Great efficiencies can be achieved in being able to park in smaller, more remote areas and not having the need for vehicles to be independently accessible.

A London Parking Supply Study originally commissioned by Transport for London estimated that the total number of parking spaces available (both public and private) across the city is in excess of 6 million. With other studies estimating that up to 90% of our current parking spaces will eventually be surplus to requirement with full autonomy, it is clear that a significant amount of area will potentially be available in the future. In a well-managed transition, this space could be converted to deliver social and economic benefit, but are we pro-actively designing for this future, particularly with our new developments?

For 10 years or more the London Plan has promoted the need for electric charging points to be included in new development, seeking both an initial and a passive provision to cater for future demand (correctly envisaging a change to cleaner vehicles). Yet, no safeguarding of parking areas or new estate roads is currently considered anywhere in adopted policy to ensure that they can be redeveloped into usable space in the future.

Whilst many developers will no doubt have little appetite for more policy constraints on new development, with a prime parking space in central London not so long ago selling for £350,000, it is clear that parking spaces will eventually (and possibly more normally) become more valuable real estate if they are not to be given over for social benefit.

Of course, the example above is of the extreme, but in many instances undercroft, basement and multi-level car parks in new development are value engineered prior to construction. This results in low floor to ceiling heights and means that conversion to alternative usable space would be difficult if not impossible to achieve and with that goes a valuable source of return on an investment. At the request of highway authorities, new roads are often designed to maximum widths and to accommodate on-street parking far in excess of what will be required in future, potentially missing the opportunity to provide a better living environment.

Given that Elon Musk predicts that within 6 years from now we could be seeing the first autonomous vehicles on our roads, and within 10 years they could be changing the way we live and work, are we being short sighted in not future proofing our new buildings and places?

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Cities Full of Empty Car Parks