The Parking Reform Atlas is a work in progress. I plan to steadily improve it with the help of the international community of parking changemakers. Your comments or other help are welcome!
Scroll down to explore global parking reform examples
OR narrow your selection with these filters
Main reform type
Primary motivation
Main parking category
Main parking paradigm shift
World Region
We use the World Bank regions here.
Key actor type
Implementation state
Adaptive Parking thrust

Washington DC Parking Cash-Out Law (Transportation Benefits Equity Amendment Act)
United States of America
Washington, D.C.
This law requires (some) employers in Washington, D.C. who provide free or subsidized parking to also offer benefits to employees who choose other ways to commute to work, such as taking transit, walking or biking.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Free workplace parking is a large incentive to drive to work.
This DC law is a first-of-its-kind municipal-level parking cash-out law. It is a potential model for other cities and will be carefully watched for its impacts.
Parking cash-out has been estimated, based on experience in California, to have strong potential for mode shift (of 10 to 12% reduction in drive-alone commuter trips).

São Paulo discourages excessive parking close to transit by increasing its opportunity cost
Brazil
City of São Paulo
São Paulo's 2014 strategic master plan discourages excessive parking provision in buildings close to transit corridors. Below a threshold, parking does not count towards the calculation of allowed Floor Area Ratio (FAR) under the zoning rules. However, parking provided beyond the threshold DOES count towards FAR. This greatly increases the opportunity cost for developers of providing excessive parking.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
The idea of making excessive parking space count towards the allowed floor area in zoning calculations is a promising approach that other cities should study. It increases the opportunity cost of parking in a context-sensitive way. This fascinating and market-friendly approach to discouraging excessive parking provision close to public transport deserves more attention.

São Paulo parking minimums abolition
Brazil
City of São Paulo
The City of São Paulo eliminated parking mandates (parking minimums) citywide for all land-uses in 2014. This was part of the strategic master plan of July 31, 2014.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
São Paulo is among the largest cities to have completely abolished its costly parking mandates. It is impossible to ignore the precedent set by this enormous city with relatively high car ownership and 12 million people at the heart of a 23 million population metro area.
It is significant that this reform was part of an ambitious strategic master plan that focuses on people-oriented development and improved public and non-motorized transport.
Under this reform, the city refrains from promoting excessive parking supply. Another case in the Atlas will highlight another reform taken at the same time to more actively discourage excessive parking provision in buildings close to transit corridors.

Pricey residential permit parking in Stockholm
Sweden
City of Stockholm
The City of Stockholm has unusually expensive residential on-street parking permits. As of late 2021, the most expensive residential permit parking costs SKR1100 per month (US$120/month, which comes to US$1,440 per year).
Although this is expensive compared with most other cities around the world, it is still a little cheaper than nearby garage parking and is only roughly 50 times the non-discounted hourly charge in each area. So residential parking is still heavily discounted compared to casual parking.
The City of Stockholm issues resident parking permit in numbers that roughly match the estimated number of on-street parking spaces. No on-street parking is reserved solely for permit holders.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Cities around the world, even in Europe, struggle to set the prices for residential on-street permit parking at anything even remotely approaching a market price or a rent covering price.
However, the City of Stockholm has unusually expensive residential on-street permit parking in which the prices are approaching those of long-term garage parking.
This seems to be the result of a consistent long-term effort to establish and operationalize the view that parking on public streets is a privilege provided to residents, and certainly not an obligation that the city must provide. Parking policy and pricing decisions have consistently put this view into practice.
I hope to update this case with more information on the politics of how this was achieved if I can find out more.

Flap lock paid parking systems (Japan’s coin parking lots)
Japan
Japan
Numerous small surface parking lots are not the best feature of Japan's cities.
But at least they are priced, and one of the keys to that is "flap lock" parking systems. These enable self-service (unstaffed) paid parking. They do not require on-site staff and have low enforcement costs. Operating costs are therefore very low, making parking fees feasible even on tiny parking areas.
Is this a model for others?
ambiguous
Why should you care?
Japan fails to regulate small vacant-lot parking areas tightly enough, which causes various problems.
Nevertheless, the flap lock parking approach to pricing in Japan does demonstrate the feasibility of charging fees for parking even on very small parking areas (some as small as a single parking space).
This or similar systems might enable self-service pricing of small parking areas in many other countries too.
One possible application is for the small parking areas in front of small commercial buildings. This ‘frontage parking’ arrangement is common across Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Colombia and probably many other countries too. This parking is often private (customers-only or tenants-only). Typically, each business controls the spaces directly in front of it. This is extremely inefficient. Flap lock parking might perhaps be part of a better approach to managing such parking spaces. This would probably require local government help with negotiations to enable solutions that benefit all of the businesses involved.

Philippines unfortunate national minimum minimums
The Philippines
The Philippines
Unfortunately, local governments in the Philippines cannot lower or eliminate parking mandates (minimum parking requirements) because parking minimums are specified at the national level and cities cannot set parking minimums below the national guidelines.
Is this a model for others?
what NOT to do
Why should you care?
Preventing parking requirements from being adapted to each local context makes them even more harmful than they need to be.
The Philippines is not unique in having the national guidelines on parking requirements. However, the national parking minimums in the Philippines are unusually inflexible in allowing local governments no discretion to set lower or zero parking minimums to suit local contexts, even in locations where high parking minimums would be especially inappropriate.
This case also highlights a wider dilemma over local control versus pre-emption by higher levels of government. Although parking reformers cheer cases in which State or National governments restrain local governments from imposing excessive parking mandates (as in France for example) we are less happy when they impose excessive and inflexible parking mandates on local governments, as in this case.

San Francisco’s demand-based parking pricing (the pilot was called SFPark)
United States of America
City and County of San Francisco
San Francisco sets its parking prices (‘rates’) based on demand (using data on parking occupancy), under its “demand-responsive parking” policy. It raises the price by $0.25 on blocks where average occupancy is above 80%, lowers the price $0.25 on blocks where average occupancy is below 60%, and does not change the price on blocks that hit the target occupancy between 60% and 80%. As a result, parking prices may vary by block, by time of day, and weekday or weekend. Prices are adjusted approximately every quarter.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is a sophisticated and much-studied example of demand-based parking price setting (which is a key element of Professor Donald Shoup’s set of parking policy suggestions). Its success has been well-documented in San Francisco.
Demand-based parking pricing in San Francisco did not cease at the end of the SFPark pilot. In fact, it has been expanded and made permanent (but without the use of in-street parking sensors).
Success with on-street parking management has also probably played a role in emboldening the city to finally completely abolish minimum parking requirements across the city in early 2019.
Although the SFPark pilot faced some controversy initially, this soon disappeared. Demand-responsive parking price adjustments have generally proceeded without fuss or controversy since then.

Vancouver’s West End residential permit reforms
Canada
City of Vancouver
In West End Vancouver, residential on-street parking permit prices were shifted to market-based rates. But only for new permits. Existing permit holders could renew at grandfathered prices and low-income households pay the same price as these legacy permit holders. Together with some other parking management improvements, these changes have greatly eased the previous on-street parking problems and have increased the use of the existing off-street residential parking.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is a rare case of charging high, ‘market-based’ prices for on-street residential parking permits.
However, only NEW permits attract the market-based price. Holders of permits before the reform can continue to renew their permits at the old price (it was ‘grandfathered’). In addition, low-income residents are also eligible for the old price.
These features made the reform politically feasible. Nevertheless, because roughly 20% of legacy permits are NOT renewed each year, the number of permits at the grandfathered price is expected to decline quite quickly.

Parking and Seville’s network of segregated bicycle lanes
Spain
Ayuntamiento de Sevilla
Seville quickly built a large network of protected bicycle tracks (or segregated bicycle lanes) despite the fact that this involved repurposing large numbers of on-street parking spaces.
In most cases the new bicycle tracks were built on space taken from what had been the parking lane on one side of the road. Most commonly the parking lane was actually moved over and replaced a traffic lane. Nevertheless, the bicycle network required repurposing almost 5,000 on-street car parking spaces.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
The key question for parking reformers is how was such an ambitious bicycle network expansion possible despite significant levels of parking removal?
The decision to proceed very quickly with a large network seems to have been important. The approach to public input was also a key. There was still much consultation and it resulted in design changes in various areas. However, the question in consultations was never WHETHER the bike network would go ahead. The question was always HOW exactly bike lanes would be added to the streets. Blocking bike tracks from being built was not an option on the table.
It is also possible that relatively effective parking management in high-demand areas may also have helped defuse parking-related opposition. But this is speculative and I would like to learn more.

Gold Coast demand-based parking pricing
Australia
City of Gold Coast
Metered parking fees for city-owned parking are demand-based in two centres of activity in the City of Gold Coast under the city’s ParkInCentre Scheme (PICS). The areas are Broadbeach and Burleigh Heads.
Four times a year, the city reviews the price of metered parking in small zones across these areas, and adjusts the price up or down (in increments of 20 cents) to better manage demand. This is based on occupancy data, primarily from in-ground sensors. There are also three time-of-day pricing periods.
There are other areas with priced on-street parking in Gold Coast but so far Broadbeach and Burleigh Heads are the only centres with demand-based price setting.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is Australia’s first example of demand-based parking price setting. The ParkInCentre Scheme also involves a relatively evidence-based approach to parking management. This reform has received little publicity. It deserves to be more widely known and to have its effects studied in more detail. It remains to be seen if the City of Gold Coast will extend this approach beyond its currently very limited geographical extent.

Ranchi’s colour-coded parking fee areas
India
City of Ranchi
Ranchi improved the parking management on a 2.5 km of its main street, Mahatma Gandhi Rd. Four zones were delineated (red: no parking; orange: high-demand, high prices; yellow: medium demand and slightly lower-prices; green: low parking pressure and even lower prices). The prices were much higher than those of the the past and collection efficiency was improved. The city's parking revenue increased twelve-fold, according to ITDP India.
Unfortunately, this success has not been built upon.
Is this a model for others?
remains to be seen
Why should you care?
Ranchi was a pioneer in India of relatively high hourly on-street parking prices.
The creation of four zones to reflect different levels of parking demand is an excellent feature of this reform. This would have been more robust if it had included routine price reviews based on demand (occupancy for example).
The huge increase in revenue that was achieved suggested that most cities in India could be gaining much more revenue from on-street parking than they had been.
Unfortunately, the paper and cash based fee collection, problems with contracts, a lack of evidence-based price reviews, and a focus on revenue seems to have undermined the early healthy focus on parking management and led to political problems for the reform.
Perhaps, Ranchi could reap BOTH revenue AND street parking management benefits if the primary focus of the effort can return to parking management and if contracting policies, fee-collection methods and price-review practices can be improved.

Urban parking minimums banned by New Zealand's national government
New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand's National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD) is banning local governments that administer "urban environments" (settlements with more than 10,000 people) from including minimum car parking requirements in their district plans. "Urban environments" include most of the country's suburban areas. These Tier 1, 2 and 3 councils have until 20 February 2022 to removed any minimum parking requirements. Only 'accessible carparks' can be required (parking for use by persons with a disability or with limited mobility).
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
There is a growing trend for higher levels of government (national or state/province) to restrict the ability of local governments to enact excessive parking requirements. This is a striking example. This bans all but small settlements from enacting any parking minimums at all. Please note that this does not require local governments to impose parking maximums. They can't require parking but they do not have to restrict parking.

Parking Permit innovation in Portland's Northwest Parking District
United States of America
Portland
Noteworthy changes to the parking permits program in Northwest Portland include:
* a large surcharge added to the usual permit price, resulting in unusually high permit prices (by North American standards);
* limits on the number of permits for recently-built multifamily buildings
* a suite of mobility passes and memberships (the Transportation Wallet) is offered for free to anyone in the zone who gives up their parking permit;
* Fewer permits are allowed at addresses with off-street parking spaces;
* Tiered prices for multiple permits in a household.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Making it politically feasible to set high parking-permit prices is probably the most noteworthy feature of this set of parking permits reforms. Northwest Portland has found a combination of rules, price points, exemptions and incentives that won local support for permit prices that are much higher than in most other North American cases. On-street parking management in the area still has some way to go before problems with high parking occupancy rates are overcome but these reforms have helped.

Rio de Janeiro residential parking minimums replaced by maximums near mass transit
Brazil
City of Rio de Janeiro
For residential developments within 800m of mass transit, Rio de Janeiro abolished the previous minimum parking requirement of one parking space per unit and replaced it with a parking maximum of one space per four residential units.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Momentum to reform parking minimums and to consider parking maximums may be gathering across Latin America. Rio de Janeiro has joined Mexico City and São Paulo in enacting such reforms.
Parking maximums are controversial among parking reformers but if they are appropriate anywhere it is close to mass transit.

Nairobi plans a shift to time-based on-street parking (from today's flat-rate per day fees)
Kenya
Nairobi
Nairobi has proposed making its on-street parking fees duration-based (time-based) with a per-hour price. This would be a huge improvement on the existing flat rate per day regardless of parking duration.
The city already has a mobile/digital payments system and the basis for effective enforcement but loopholes in how these actually operate will also need to be closed if the duration-based fees reform is to succeed.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Cities, like Nairobi. which currently have a flat fee for all-day on-street parking, should certainly shift to time-based fees.
This mundane-seeming change is very important. A fee-per-hour can improve street parking conditions by discouraging long-duration parking in prime locations.
By contrast, flat-rate fees cannot play any useful parking management role and can only be about revenue (and they perform poorly at that too).

Kampala paid on-street parking in the central area
Uganda
Kampala
The Central Division of Kampala has paid on-street parking via contract with a private parking management company. This started via attendants and pay-and-display parking meters but today the main payment method is to pay via mobile money services based on a receipt issued by a parking attendant.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Despite some significant difficulties and problems, this seems to be a relatively successful implementation of on-street parking management, including fee collection, in a low-income country context.
It highlights that establishing such parking management is challenging but also rewarding.

Auckland demand-based parking price setting
New Zealand
Auckland
Auckland applies a relatively simple demand-based approach to setting its city-owned parking prices.
Auckland Transport conducts regular parking reviews of areas with high parking demand. This may trigger paid parking implementation in areas with only time limits previously. And in existing paid parking areas this review may prompt a price adjustment with the aim of achieving an average of 85% occupancy in peak parking periods.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is another case of applying demand-based parking price setting in a relatively low-fuss and simple way.
The use of very clear data-based trigger points to aid decisions on where and when to step up or change parking management is an excellent model for other cities.
The reported lack of controversy (after initial debate) over this pricing approach in Auckland is also striking. At least anecdotally, based on this case and similar ones such as Seattle, Calgary and San Francisco, demand-based parking price-setting seems to succeed at greatly reducing civic unhappiness over on-street parking price adjustments.

Information instead of parking minimums in London
United Kingdom
Greater London
To decide how much on-site parking to include in a project, developers in London are guided by TfL's Public Transport Accessibility Levels (PTALs) and by parking maximums which are themselves set using PTALs as a guide.
London is mostly free of minimum parking requirements, so parking minimums play almost no role in determining off-street parking investment in Greater London.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This example of using information rather than regulation is relevant to the 'Shoupista' view that there is no need to regulate the supply of parking with parking minimums and that developers just need the right information and the right set of incentives to make judgements about parking in their projects that will be roughly in line with the wider public interest.
This example is best understood together with the page about London's parking maximums https://www.parkingreformatlas.org/parking-reform-cases-1/london-parking-maximums-(and-minimums-abolition)

France limits how high parking minimums can be set
France
France
The National Government of France generally allows local governments to set minimum parking requirements but limits how high they can be set ("roofed minimums") for some housing.
These limits on the level of parking minimums are lowest for social housing, student housing and housing for elderly. There are also limits on the level of parking minimums for all housing near quality public transport.
Parking maximums are allowed "when the conditions of service by regular public transport allow it" but only for non-residential land-uses.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Higher levels of government are increasingly interested in setting limits on the ability of local government to set excessive minimum parking requirements. This is an important example.
This policy sometimes gets confused with parking maximums. Limiting the level of parking minimums that municipalities may set is NOT the same as a policy of imposing parking maximums.

Montreal parking tax with higher rates on surface parking
Canada
Montreal
Montreal imposes a special tax on all non-residential parking spaces in the central area (downtown and adjacent inner areas). Exterior surface parking is taxed at a higher rate than indoor parking. In 2013, the tax rate for surface parking was doubled to increase the incentive for such parking lots to be redeveloped.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Montreal's parking tax is applied to all non-residential parking in the central area. It has apparently played a strong role in spurring the redevelopment of many surface parking lots in the area (although a careful study of the impacts and possible side-effects would be good to see).

Nottingham Workplace Parking Levy Package
United Kingdom
Nottingham
Nottingham levies a charge on employers in the city that offer 11 or more car parking spaces for employees, regular business visitors or pupils/students. The revenue is earmarked for transport improvements. The parking levy is a transport demand management measure that affects travel by prompting employers to manage their workplace parking and by helping to fund a package of sustainable transport measures and investments.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is a rare case of a workplace parking levy applying across a large area (a large proportion of the Nottingham metropolitan area).
The Nottingham WPL is so far reported to be strikingly successful. It was crafted to be part of a strategic transport package for the city.
Note that business sites in Nottingham do not face minimum parking requirements, so reducing parking supply is one option available to them.

Singapore's 1980 parking fee shift from attendants to pre-paid coupons
Singapore
Singapore
Singapore adopted pre-paid parking coupons for parking payments, both in the streets and in government-owned off-street parking facilities. This replaced the older system of parking attendants issuing paper tickets, which had become too labour-intensive for Singapore by the late 1970s. In recent years, a phone parking app has become an alternative to coupons and will probably replace them completely at some point.
Is this a model for others?
ambiguous
Why should you care?
This is a reminder that there are many cities where parking meters have never been used for on-street parking payments. Pre-paid parking coupons (or cards) are a parking payment method that has been widely used in Brazil, Malaysia, Ireland, Israel and Singapore. They have some advantages over older parking meters.
Today however, even low-income or middle-income cities should probably consider jumping straight to phone-based parking payments (plus payments via vendors as backup). Singapore is making this transition and Tel Aviv, Sao Paulo and Penang have already phased out coupons and shifted entirely to mobile payments.

Melbourne's ‘congestion levy’ on long-stay off-street car parking spaces
Australia
Victoria
Melbourne’s 'congestion levy' is a parking levy that applies to parking spaces used for long-stay parking. However, research suggests that the levy has ambiguous outcomes and would need reform to better achieve its stated goals.
Is this a model for others?
ambiguous
Why should you care?
This is a case of a parking levy that clearly needs improvements. It raises revenue but it is not clear that it changes motorist or parking-owner behavior in helpful ways. This is a reminder that not all parking levies are the same. Poorly designed parking levies may not achieve their stated objectives.
Hamer et al., 2012 conclude: “What is also clear is that a large proportion of those who park and commute to the Melbourne CBD do not pay for parking. Employers cover this as part of wider salary packaging arrangements. This is a significant barrier to the effective use of parking pricing as a means of reducing car congestion. To address the issue, policy could either deal directly with employers by targeting employment packaging arrangements or deal directly with the driver using taxation such as a road toll.”

Palembang app to check the legitimacy of on-street parking attendants
Indonesia
City of Palembang
The city government has prepared a smartphone app to enable motorists to check if any on-street parking attendant has the legal authority to collect parking fees by scanning a QR code on the attendants' identity badge. This app is an effort to slightly improve oversight of on-street parking fee collection system in Palembang. But the fee-collection system has profound problems and really needs a much bigger shake-up than this small step.
Is this a model for others?
ambiguous
Why should you care?
Indonesian cities have on-street parking fees but are mostly unable to use them for any kind of effective parking management. Instead they merely collect a small amount of rent from on-street parking. This is done in an extremely leakage-prone way by contracting out very short sections of street to individuals who are given a permission letter to manually collect cash parking fees on that street section. There are numerous problems with this. The app described in this case suggests some effort to improve the situation but only a very small one.

Tel Aviv mobile-only on-street parking payments
Israel
Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality
In Tel Aviv the only options to pay for casual on-street parking are pay-by-phone (two companies) or by in-vehicle meter (one company).
This mobile-only approach replaced the older system of paying by displaying pre-purchased paper coupons. Tel Aviv has not used parking meters for on-street parking payments since 1972.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is a case of a large city where casual on-street parking payments are handled ONLY by mobile payment options, with no parking meter option. It shares this distinction with several other cities, including other cities in Israel and São Paulo and Shenzhen.
This experience should encourage cities that do not currently use parking meters, but which want in adopt or expand paid on-street parking, to consider avoiding parking meters completely and to jump straight to mobile-only payment systems.

Parking in Seoul's employer-based TDM program
South Korea
City of Seoul
Implementing paid workplace parking is the most common TDM action taken by employers under Seoul’s employer-based TDM program. A smaller number of employers abolish employee parking altogether under the program.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This case suggests that it may be feasible for more governments to take steps to encourage employers to implement paid workplace parking.

Buffalo parking minimums abolition
United States of America
City of Buffalo
Under its new Green Code, Buffalo abolished all of its minimum parking requirements.
Although the city retains some influence over parking provision (see details below), Hess and Rehler (2021) find large reductions in the provision of parking in the first two years of the new policy compared with what the previous minimums required.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This case of parking minimums abolition includes a safeguard, that certain development proposals are required to complete a TDM plan, which can result in the provision of off-street parking. This may have helped reassure doubters before the reform. However, it seems that this is probably not a case of retaining parking minimums in disguise.
Hess and Rehler (2021) offer a takeaway for practice from their study: "Our findings suggest mixed-use developers are likely to take advantage of the ability to provide less parking in highly accessible locations. Though many developers quickly pivot to the newfound possibilities of providing fewer parking spaces, others continue to meet earlier requirements. Cities of all types stand to benefit from undoing constraining parking policies of the past and allowing developers to transform parking lots to “higher uses.”

London parking maximums (and minimums abolition)
United Kingdom
London
All London Boroughs abolished their minimum parking requirements for all land-uses and adopted maximums in 2004 or in the years soon after. [But note that parts of central London already had parking maximums decades before this.]
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
London (and England more widely) is a prominent case of a large city that has been almost completely without parking minimums, and has applied parking maximums, for more than 15 years now. The impacts of the reform on residential parking provision have been closely studies by Zhan Guo and his colleagues.

Dublin parking maximums
Ireland
Dublin City
Dublin applies parking maximums not minimums. The 'car parking standards' in Dublin 'shall be generally regarded as the MAXIMUM parking provision and parking provision in excess of these maximum standards shall only be permitted in exceptional circumstances'. I assume that Dublin previously had minimum parking requirements but it is unclear to me when this occurred.
Is this a model for others?
ambiguous
Why should you care?
Without fanfare it appears that Dublin (and perhaps many or all cities in Ireland) has been applying parking maximums, rather than minimums.
However, the policy is interesting in that the goal seems to be not only to avoid excessive parking provision but also to avoid excessively low provision.
So, despite imposing maximums, the spirit of this policy therefore seems less relaxed about the possibility of low-parking buildings than a reform such as Edmonton's, where minimums have been abolished without imposing maximums.

Seattle Performance-Based Parking Pricing Program
United States of America
City of Seattle
Seattle adopted demand-based price setting for the on-street parking in its busiest areas. It is known as "Performance-Based Parking Pricing". Seattle has largish price zones. The system now includes time-of-day price variations, with three weekday pricing periods (morning, midday, evening).
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Seattle's demand-based parking price setting is noteworthy for starting in a relatively simple (but good enough) implementation but then making incremental improvements over time.

Edmonton "Open Option Parking" (parking minimums abolition)
Canada
City of Edmonton
Edmonton City Council adopted "Open Option Parking", which means that minimum on-site parking requirements have been removed from Edmonton’s Zoning Bylaw.
Developers, homeowners and businesses can now decide how much on-site parking to provide.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is a striking case of wholesale abolition of parking minimums across a whole car-dependent city.
The framing of the reform as "Open Option Parking" is noteworthy and may be worth emulating. Campaigners for a similar reform in Vancouver in Canada are already running with this framing.
It is also unusual in that the City of Edmonton with about 930,000 people accounts for a very large proportion of the metropolitan area of 1.3 million people. This reform therefore applies to most of the metropolitan area, including large areas that are car-dependent suburbia.

Hong Kong low residential parking maximums in the 1970s
China (HK was a British Colony at the time)
Hong Kong
Hong Kong aggressively restricted residential parking supply in the 1970s using strict parking maximums. The parking maximums were part of the HK Government's policy of restraining private car ownership that began in the early 1970s. Although parking maximums were abandoned in 1981 (with a switch to fiscal methods of restraining car ownership growth), the low parking maximums of the 1970s left a legacy that led to modest parking supply and high parking prices in Hong Kong ever since. There are lessons here, even if this might be difficult for others to emulate.
Is this a model for others?
ambiguous
Why should you care?
The 1970s residential parking maximums in Hong Kong were very unusual. Perhaps the only case of the deliberate use of parking maximums to constrain the growth of car ownership.
Although the policy was in place for less than 10 years, those years were a period of high economic and population growth. So the parking maximums policy seems to have been a key part of why Hong Kong has very high parking prices and modest parking minimums even now.

Jeddah on-street parking fees and improved management
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Municipality
On-street parking fees using pay-and-display parking meters were introduced to the Balad area of central Jeddah, along with effective parking enforcement. Previously, on-street parking in the area was free-of-charge and extremely chaotic.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This case demonstrates the power of ordinary straightforward on-street parking pricing with enforcement and improved demarcation of spaces to make a huge difference to the parking and street conditions in a commercial/shopping area.
It is striking that it achieved results even though public transport in Jeddah is still extremely limited. This is a city of more than 4 million people that has only 6 bus routes and no urban rail system yet.

Mexico City replaced its parking minimums with maximums
Mexico
Mexico City
Mexico City previously had parking minimums set at high levels. In 2017, it abolished all of its minimum parking requirements and replaced them with parking maximums. In addition, in central areas and near good public transport, a fee is charged on developers for every parking space built between 50% and 100% of the new maximums. This provides an incentive to build less parking than the maximum that is allowed.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Parking change-makers in many cities have much to learn from the successful campaign waged in Mexico City to achieve this reform.
Also noteworthy is the inclusion in the reform of a new fee on developers parking provision between 50% and 100% of the maximum. This seems to combine well with the rather permissive maximums. It has the attraction for the city government of creating a new stream of revenue as part of the reform.
The campaign also very successfully reframed the issue: that off-street parking is not a way to mitigate on-street parking problems but is actually a CAUSE of problems that need to be mitigated.

Moscow on-street parking pricing and improved parking management
Russian Federation
City of Moscow
Starting with a pilot in late 2012, Moscow has been progressively implementing paid on-street parking in its core areas, along with greatly improved parking enforcement.
The results have included reduced congestion, a huge reduction in illegal parking and a large drop in on-street parking durations.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is a case of a city that had an extremely daunting set of parking problems but has managed to establish relatively strong parking management in a short period of time. This should encourage other cities that parking management can be rapidly improved.

Calgary demand-based parking price setting
Canada
City of Calgary
Calgary sets the prices for its on-street parking in commercial areas based on demand. Annual occupancy reviews determine if prices rise, drop or remain the same for each of 27 pricing areas and four time-periods in the day.
Therefore prices now vary according to both location and time-of-day.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is a relatively simple but effective version of demand-based parking price setting, as recommended by Donald Shoup.
It is noteworthy for having time-of-day price variations and not just variations by location.
Price adjustments under this system seem not to have been controversial since the system was implemented in 2014.

Taipei demand-based parking price setting
Taiwan
Taipei City
Taipei City sets its parking prices based on demand (although community consultation sometimes leads to compromises on this). Pricing reviews take place every six months. Occupancy of 80% triggers an upward revision, while occupancy below 50% triggers a downward revision. This approach applies to both on-street and off-street city-owned parking.
I don't know which year this approach was adopted but it was already in place in 2009.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Taipei's price setting approach for the city-owned on-street parking is striking for being an early example of Donald Shoup's recommended demand-based parking price setting approach. I am not sure when Taipei adopted this approach or whether they did so under the influence of Shoup's writings!

Seoul parking maximums in parking restriction zones
South Korea
City of Seoul
Seoul imposes maximums in 10 areas of the city (7 areas before 2009). The parking maximums for each land-use in these parking restriction areas are set at 50% of the parking minimums that apply in general areas of the city. These parking restriction areas are the areas with 'first grade' on-street and public parking fees, with strong public transport access, and are in and around major business districts.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is a rare Asian example of the use of parking maximums.
Imposing parking maximums in congestion-prone but transit-oriented business districts is a time-tested and effective policy in many countries and Seoul's case is an ambitious and interesting version of this powerful policy.
I would like to know more about any analysis of its impacts.

Japan's Proof-of-Parking rule (shako shomeisho)
Japan
Japan
To register a car in Japan, prospective owners need to obtain a "garage certificate" from local police to prove that they have access to an off-street parking space.
It is not tempting to corruptly obtain or fake a certificate because overnight on-street parking is banned across Japan. So there is no point cheating on proof-of-parking.
Is this a model for others?
ambiguous
Why should you care?
Many other places consider emulating this policy, including several states in India. However, there is low awareness that the policy works well mainly by being twinned with the ban on overnight on-street parking. Nevertheless, there may be ways to succeed with such a policy by twinning it with a robust on-street parking permit system.

Istanbul ISPARK on-street parking management improvements
Turkey
Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
A city-owned parking management company, ISPARK, was set up to manage on-street parking. Free-of-charge, unmanaged parking (or pricing by illegal attendants) was replaced, area by area, with marked out parking spaces, with good signage, and predictable parking fees collected by uniformed attendants with digital handheld devices. This has greatly reduced the parking chaos in the areas managed by ISPARK.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This seems a useful example of a city with extremely chaotic on-street parking and a sense of parking crisis making large steps towards well-managed parking.
Have the early improvements been maintained and consolidated? It seems likely further improvements to on-street parking management are still needed. I would like to know more.

Digital Blue Zone on-street parking payments in São Paulo
Brazil
City of São Paulo
In 2016, the Digital Blue Zone (Zona Azul Digital) system for on-street parking fees replaced the older Blue Zone coupon-based system that had been used since 1975. So the primary way to pay for on-street parking in São Paulo is now by mobile app.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is an important example of a city that has never adopted expensive in-street parking payments infrastructure such as parking meters. It previously used pre-paid paper coupons and has now shifted to a mobile-only payments system. It seems to be working well and may therefore be a model for many other cities seeking to avoid the high capital cost of installing parking meters or parking pay stations.

Unbundled parking in Singapore public housing
Singapore
Singapore
Parking in Singapore's public housing estates, built by HDB, was free-of-charge at first. At some point (in the 1970s or1980s?) parking fees were introduced both for people (mainly residents) seeking long term 'season' parking and for short-term visitor parking.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
It is not widely known outside Singapore that car owners in public housing in Singapore pay at least S$960 per year (and usually more) for home-based parking.

Improved on-street parking management in Makati
Philippines
Makati City
Makati Parking Authority (MAPA) carries out effective on-street parking management in the Makati CBD using uniformed parking attendants with digital devices. The high standard of parking management in the area stands out in contrast with the extremely weak on-street parking management across most of the rest of Metro Manila.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
The unusual institutional arrangements in Makati CBD (where the Ayala corporation plays a prominent role) may make some aspects of MAPA difficult to replicate but it stands as proof that effective on-street parking management can be achieved even in middle-income countries where good governance is difficult to achieve.

Japan’s low-harm parking minimums
Japan
National (although this case focuses on Tokyo Prefecture)
Japanese cities (such as Tokyo) have parking requirements (minimums) that are less harmful than in most countries. They are set at low levels even when they apply in full. Furthermore, they exempt small buildings and phase in only gradually with floor area beyond the threshold (of 1500 to 2000 square metres). This means that parking minimums are not an obstacle to the development or redevelopment of small buildings on small sites in Japan.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
Japanese parking minimums are less harmful than most. They are not an obstacle to infill development.
In combination with other policies, they have resulted in most neighbourhoods having much parking that is open to the public and that is provided on a commercial basis at market prices.
You may think that this 'light' approach to parking minimums is possible in Japan only because of excellent public transport and other policies that keep car ownership low. That may be so of the large cities. However, the same kind of parking requirements apply across the country, even in towns and small cities where car ownership rates are high (comparable to or higher than the rates seen across western Europe).

Berlin abolition of minimum parking requirements
Germany
Berlin
Berlin abolished its minimum parking requirements, only keeping requirements for disability spaces and bicycles. However, it did not impose maximums.
Is this a model for others?
useful model
Why should you care?
This is one of only a few cases of a whole large city that has been without parking minimums for more than 20 years now. It would be useful to have more detailed information on the results of this.
Note that on-street parking management was improved but it still has weaknesses. Furthermore, strong parking management is restricted to only a few districts and chaotic on-street parking situations are common in many parts of the city. But according to Jos Nino Notz, there is no political push of any significance to try to reinstate minimum parking requirements.