Parking: Reflections for growing and developing cities

The document examines how parking policies, particularly minimum parking requirements, incentivise private car use and increase greenhouse gas emissions. It contrasts these with maximum parking requirements and effective management strategies seen in Pasadena, Portland, and London, suggesting that South Africa update its 1985 standards to promote sustainable transport.

• Parking infrastructure consumes significant urban space for vehicles that are stationary for the vast majority of the day, often prioritising cars over social or economic activities and obstructing sustainable transport like walking and cycling.
• There is a direct link between parking policy and greenhouse gas emissions; in the USA, the annual cost of emissions from parking infrastructure is estimated between $4 billion and $20 billion.
• Minimum parking requirements, which mandate a baseline number of spaces for land uses, often lead to an oversupply and under-pricing of parking because they are typically based on peak demand and lack upper limits.
• Replacing minimums with maximum parking requirements can significantly reduce parking supply and encourage sustainable transport. In London, this policy shift resulted in a 40% reduction in overall parking supply.
• Effective parking management can generate substantial municipal revenue that can be reinvested into urban upgrades. Pasadena used a 'parking benefit district' to fund street cleaning and pedestrian facilities, sparking business growth.
• In South Africa, the continued enforcement of the 1985 South African Parking Standards—which require, for example, seven bays per 100 m2 for neighbourhood shopping centres under 5,000 m2—facilitates urban sprawl and contradicts modern sustainable land-use policies.
• A hypothetical South African shopping centre of 5,000 m2 could save between 640 and 670 tonnes of CO2 per year if shoppers shifted from private cars to bus rapid transit (BRT) or minibus taxis due to reduced parking availability.

APA

de Vries, L., & Cohen, B. (2018). Parking: Reflections for growing and developing cities. WWF South Africa. https://dtnac4dfluyw8.cloudfront.net/downloads/wwf_2018_parking_reflections_for_growing_and_developing_cities_final.pdf

Chicago

de Vries, Leani, and Brett Cohen. Parking: Reflections for growing and developing cities. WWF South Africa, 2018. https://dtnac4dfluyw8.cloudfront.net/downloads/wwf_2018_parking_reflections_for_growing_and_developing_cities_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=de Vries |first1=Leani |last2=Cohen |first2=Brett |title=Parking: Reflections for growing and developing cities |publisher=WWF South Africa |date=2018 |url=https://dtnac4dfluyw8.cloudfront.net/downloads/wwf_2018_parking_reflections_for_growing_and_developing_cities_final.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{devries2018parking, author = {de Vries, Leani and Cohen, Brett}, title = {{Parking: Reflections for growing and developing cities}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2018}, url = {https://dtnac4dfluyw8.cloudfront.net/downloads/wwf_2018_parking_reflections_for_growing_and_developing_cities_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }