How rethinking parking can create a lower traffic Hackney

Car parking might seem like a pretty dry and boring topic, but it has surprisingly wide-ranging impacts. 

This blogpost runs though why we should all care about car parking, and how Hackney Council can use it to better manage local traffic.

Hertford Road Hackney, showing the space given over to car parking

Why Care?

​Let’s start with the obvious question: If (like 65% of households here) you don’t own a car, why should you care about car parking at all?

Firstly, parked cars take a huge amount of public space from our streets, space which should be there for everyone and not just those who drive.  In London on-street car parking amounts to well over 1,400 hectares of space (equivalent to 10 Hyde Parks in size).  Yet in Hackney only 35% of households own a car, and the travel mode share for private driving is just 8.5%.

Hackney residents travel mode share taken from Hackney Council Transport Strategy evidence base

​The ‘opportunity cost’ of parking
 
So it is a fair question whether allowing all that public space to go to storage of private cars is the best or most equitable thing we could do with it.  
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Could it be put to better use, for example as bus lanes, outdoor dining to support businesses, sustainable drainage (‘raingardens’), cycle lanes, better/safer sight lines, safe crossings, parklets, street trees, bike hire bays, bike storage, or any number of other alternative uses?

The Council has already started to recognise this with its Parking and Enforcement Plan. But we think they need to go further and faster.  Have a look at some specific examples below.
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Some Examples:

​Repurposing parking spaces to provide sufficient space for hire bikes can keep them off the pavement, which improves accessibility of our streets and encourages use. Hackney Council has done well with this, but many more hire bike bays are needed.

​​An example of a Hackney street where parking directly compromises the conditions of other road users. A one-way street with a contraflow cycle lane filled with parking, which pushes cyclists into the ‘door zone’, or into oncoming traffic, and so provides poor conditions which discourage inclusive active travel. Imagine how much safer and more comfortable it would be if that side of parking were removed and dedicated to making a safe cycle lane.

​Hackney Council has recognised that lack of cycle storage blocks uptake of cycling and is doubling on-street cycle hangar storage from 2023-26. But there is still a chronic shortage with over 6000 people on the waiting list in 2024. Street car parking permits, on the other hand, are issued immediately and have no waiting lists or limits.  A cycle hangar that fits into one car parking space holds 6 bikes.

​Reclaiming the space taken by parking offers the opportunity to truly transform many public spaces from car-dominated streets into pleasant places where people want to relax and spend time, like this street in Camden (Alfred Place). The streetviews show the same street before and after parking removal and transformation.  Such radical transformations help build support for change.
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​Parking encourages driving
 
The second reason we should care, is that the overwhelming majority of homes in Hackney have no private space to store vehicles, so providing so much public space for the purpose of private car-storage is directly enabling higher levels of car ownership and use. We know this leads to harms; busy congested streets, slower buses, road danger and pollution.

Thirdly, the availability of home and destination car parking influences people’s decision whether to use a car.  You are less likely to drive a journey if you can’t be sure you can park close to your destination, or if your ‘home’ space will be gone when you get back.  Available and convenient parking induces demand to drive and directly contributes to the level of traffic on our streets.

56% of motor traffic on Hackney’s streets is local (i.e. starting or finishing the journey in the Borough), meaning reducing local traffic is a very important element of improving conditions on all our roads, including our main roads which suffer the worst effects of car dominance.

​How to better manage parking to control local traffic
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Whilst car parking can undoubtedly cause harms, a level of parking is essential.  Some residents need cars and sufficient visitor parking is important for accessibility, for some businesses, and for many services.  So how can this be managed better? 
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Hackney is already covered with Controlled Parking Zones; this is the basic first step to having any control. But where should we go from here?

1. ​Devise a ‘kerbside strategy’: Stop the default assumption that kerbsides get filled with parking. Have a coherent strategy as to what mix of kerbside uses to prioritise, and then work towards it. Lambeth are a good example of strategic thinking on this.  

2. Use permit pricing as a tool to control harms: Permits in inner London are far too cheap!  Parking spaces here typically have a market value up to 10 times higher than the annual cost of a resident’s permit.  Permit costs should better reflect the market rate.  Anything less is a subsidy to harm (and mostly going to richer people).  Increasing the price also helps to compensate cash-strapped councils for lost revenue that may come from reducing the total amount of parking.  Price must also reflect vehicle pollution, vehicle size and weight as these factors contribute to road damage and danger.

​3. Embrace (a little) ‘parking stress’ (i.e. when a parking zone has high occupancy rates making it more difficult to find parking spaces very close to home): Parking Departments tend to view parking stress as a problem to be fixed and so provide too much space.  For example in a recent consultation on Zone F parking in Hoxton, which created new parking spaces, the Parking Team said: ‘Due to the level of stress highlighted in the profile report, a decision was made to identify locations where parking bays could be added’.  

​But there is no legal obligation for the Council to provide public space for most residents to park private vehicles, only a power to do so if they wish. 
 
Take a leaf from the Mayor of Pontevedra’s book:

"It's not my duty as Mayor to make sure you have a parking spot. It's the same as if you bought a cow, or a fridge, then ask me where you're going to put them."
-Mayor of Pontevedra, Spain, Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores
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The problem with this approach of course is practical and political.  As long as Councils are selling people permits, they (not unreasonably) feel they should be given a convenient space to park… But this can be fixed by our next point; controlling the number of permits issued.
 
​4. Cap the number of permits: The single biggest way the Council can use parking policy as a tool to reduce traffic is to stop issuing unlimited numbers of permits for controlled parking zones. 

We have mentioned that there is no legal obligation to provide people with public space to park their private cars, so don’t treat this as if it is a basic right.  Almost all new homes in Hackney are already built as ‘car-free’ meaning they have no parking and no right to on-street permits.  This is not a new concept, it is just a case of starting to apply it to new residents who move in to existing homes.  

How a Permit Cap could work

• A kerbside strategy would work out how best to use the kerbside, and how much car parking we want it to provide. 
• A permit cap can stop more permits being issued than the available space can accommodate. Parking stress is managed at optimal levels.
• The cap would initially be set to allow all existing permitholders a permit.  Nobody would lose an existing parking right. The cap would improve parking conditions for those with permits, without giving over more space.
• Over time, the level of cap can be reduced by natural wastage from people who move away or don’t renew. 
• If the number of permits issued reaches the cap, any new residents applying must go on a waiting list until a space comes available from a resident moving out or not renewing (just as they currently do for cycle hangar spaces). 
• A waiting list could also allow the Council to better prioritise permits to those more in need of them by using prioritisation criteria if they wish.  Blue badge holders would of course be exempt.

 
Are parking permit caps legal and possible?

Yes! There are already English Councils which do this (including Bristol, Manchester, West Sussex and others).  The most extensive is Brighton and Hove Council who currently cap permits in 5 zones and operate waiting lists when the cap is reached.
 
The magic of this policy is that nobody loses their existing permit right, and yet it still allows Councils to control the number of vehicles in an area over time. 
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A more activist Parking Policy

Whilst some councils, including Hackney, have started to recognise the role of parking in reducing car use, it is still an underutilised traffic reduction tool.  We have declared a ‘climate emergency' here and this powerful control is entirely within the power of the Council.

In order to solve the crisis of too many cars on local streets, and congested main roads, the Council needs to use every tool available. This means prioritising kerbside uses that benefit sustainable active travel and climate adaptation, and it means consciously using parking as a control to prevent ever-increasing numbers of vehicles.

Low Traffic Hackney would like the Council to use parking more forcefully to reduce local car use and to prioritise alternatives.

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