Car parking is a major land use known to occupy over 30% of the ground area of many cities1.

With population growth and climate change it is no longer acceptable to continue with sprawling carparks that are very often not at full capacity, and quite often even empty.

Carparking reform is needed to respond to this challenge. In the meantime, and starting today, there are valuable changes that urban designers and engineers can make on every surface carpark that will create better outcomes for the environment and local communities.

Step 1. Design surface carparks to provide multiple community and customer benefits

LayoutIf car spaces cannot be located directly by business entrances, the next best thing from the user’s perspective is to make the walk from the car space to the door aspainless as possible. This is also an opportunity to break away from the traditional layout of carparks. For example:

• Apply user-based footpath design to ensure they areconnected and smooth for easy use2. Paths should belocated between the noses of cars so the reversingvehicle risk to pedestrians (particularly young children)is minimised in terms of safety and exposure topollution from car exhausts.

• Ensure the journey is shaded; ideally by trees as theyreduce stress and benefit the environment3.

1 Ben-Joseph, E. (2012). ReThinking a lot: The design and culture of parking. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.2 Pikora T, Giles-Corti B, Bull F, Jamrozik K, and Donovan R (2003) Developing a framework for assessment of the environmental determinants of walking and cycling. Social Science and Medicine 56 1693-17033 Tzoulas K, Korpela K, Venn S, Yli-Pelkonen V, Kazmierczak A, Niemela J, James P. (2007) Promoting ecosystem and human health in urban areas using Green Infrastructure: A literature review. Landscape and Urban Planning 81 167-1784 Schliwa G, Armitage R, Aziz S, Evans and Rhoades J (2015) Sustainable city logistics – making cargo cycles viable for urban freight transport. Research in Transportation Business & Management 15 50-57.

Better Best Practice NoteCarparks and Environment

• Provide convenient bicycle access and parking,including cargo bike facilities4 to help increase visitsthat do not need a car space. Incrementally changingcar spaces to bike spaces has been shown to improveeconomic outcomes for clothing, food & drink andspecialty retailing areas5.

FunctionalityCarparks are sized to cater for peak user times, which means there are often times when parts of the carpark are not needed for cars. Find ways to make use of this valuable land for other purposes, for example:

• Design carparks to support markets, pop up stalls, oropen-air performances in the evenings of other quiettimes. This can include use of moveable planter boxes,bollards, fences or awnings.

• Support use of some carpark areas for casual ballactivities like downball or tennis walls via use ofsignage, marking and seating. These spaces providevaluable social and active outlets for young people,and a positive relationship can be cultured. Contactyour local Council who may give guidance and riskstrategies on design.

• Parents of young children know there are very fewspaces for children to ride their bikes. Groundmarkings can help children grow their cycling skills inunderused areas of the carpark. It could even bepossible to loan removable keylock bollards to asigned-up community group for coordinated cyclingtimes.

Action: Review your carpark use to understand peak demand times, and ask your community if they would like to work with you to make some of your carpark available for multiple uses some of the time.

5 Lee A & March A (2010) Recognising the economic role of bikes: sharing parking in Lygon Street, Carlton. Australian Planner 47:2 85-936 Van der Waerden, Timmermans H, de Bruin-Verhoeven, M (2013) Car driver’s characteristics and the maximum walking distance between parking facility and final destination. The Journal of Transport and Land Use 10(1) 1-11 7 Ralph K & Delbosc A (2017) I’m multimodal, aren’t you? How ego-centric anchoring biases experts’ perceptions of travel patterns. Transportation Research Part A 100 283-293

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Action: Apply a suite of above layout and design techniques to help car users feel more agreeable to parking slightly further away from their destination.

Should we be ‘improving the carpark experience’?

People want to park close to their destination so that they can more quickly go about their day6.

Evidence suggests that this is often not actually a timesaver as carparks generate more traffic and delays. Urban practitioners play an important role in helping the community understand this negative feedback loop.

But given this paper is about design and not land use, it is important to work with the common community7 view that nearby carparks make your day easier.

Suggested steps are framed around carpark users continuing to feel that using the carpark is a net-positive experience, whilst at same time putting forward design solutions so the space becomes net-positive for the environment too.

Air Pollution ExposureAssess carpark areas to understand where people are most exposed to air pollution. Once this is known, apply the following design features.

• Ensure car exhausts do not face towards footpaths andshopfronts.

• Plant vegetation at car exhaust level to reducepollution impacts10 however, avoid comprehensive treecanopy in a carpark as some breaks are needed to helppollutants disperse out of the carpark.

• Give priority parking spots near shops, and seatingto bicycles and electric vehicles, to reduce pollutionexposure to nearby users.

Action: Apply all of the above techniques in carpark design to maximise stormwater quality, air quality and greening outcomes for the local community and users.

10 Abhijith et al (2017) Air pollutions abatement performances of green infrastructure in open road and built-up street canyon environments – A review. Atmospheric Environment 162 71-86

Step 2: Design carparks to prevent pollution impacts

Stormwater RunoffApply design features that will improve the health of your nearest waterway, lake or bay by reducing the amount of stormwater and pollutants coming off the carpark each time it rains.

• Use a carpark surface treatment that allows rainfallto reach the soil reducing pressure on drains andincreasing soil moisture. Do this through permeablepaving spaced to allow water to seep in betweenpavers, or applying a porous paving mixture thatallows stormwater to drain through it capturingpollutants at the same time.

• Where the soil is sealed over by impervious concreteor bitumen, be sure to design the carpark gradient toenable stormwater to gently flow into the gardenbeds and tree pits. This will provide ‘passiveirrigation’ to vegetation and slow down stormwaterflow to reduce erosion of waterbodies.

• Divert stormwater into raingardens designed tonaturally filter the stormwater before it heads offsite.This need to be designed and sized to meet bestpractice water quality performance objectives forremoval of suspended solids, nitrogen andphosphorus8.

8 http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/business-and-industry/guidelines/water-guidance/urban-stormwater-bpemg9 Kennan K & Kirkwood N (2015) Phyto - Principles and resources for site remediation and landscape design. Routledge. London & New York

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• Prevent contamination of soils by incorporating plantswith thick fibrous roots to intercept and degradehydrocarbons in water runoff9. This is a natural andongoing way to phytoremediate soils and is suitable toaddress oil leaks onto to carparks.

Soil Contamination

Figure 1: Example design standard ‘Passively Irrigated Tree Pit’ Souce: Loci Environment & Place Inc. with E2Designlab, Coolth Inc., SESL Australia, Urban Forest Consulting.

Figure 2: Example design standard ‘Raingarden with Tree’ Souce: Loci Environment & Place Inc. with E2Designlab, Coolth Inc. and SESL Australia.

Figure 3: Example carparking design to incorporate future shading, stormwater treatment, safe carpark footpath Souce: Loci Environment & Place Inc. with Coolth Inc, E2Designlab, Urban Forest Consulting and Urban Ecology in Action,

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Step 3. Design carparks to improve the local and global environment

Surface carparks take up such large amounts of urban land area that there is no question they need to play a part in helping us adapt to our changing climate.

Ensure carpark design helps reduce the urban heat impact confronting people as we face increasing heatwaves.

Trees can reduce day temperatures by between 5°C and 20°C making everyday activities more pleasurable11. The cooling benefit is achieved when the trees are watered and therefore irrigation needs to be factored into the design. Plant the right species and invest in good soil volumes and preparation to ensure tree planting will not cause footpath disruption in future. See our Better Best Practice Note for Sizing Tree Pits.

Support flora and fauna diversity and pollinator opportunities by considering the location and types of plantings that are found in the surrounding streets. Undertake, a pollinator assessment to help inform where and what type of planting in the carpark may help support urban ecology.

Prevent future greenhouse emissions by joining with local and global efforts for the most critical challenge of preventing more climate impacts. Opportunities include:

- Generate energy through solar panels

- use efficient lighting solutions

- support electric vehicle recharging

- maximise vegetation to absorb carbon

- find ways to drawdown carbon from the atmospheresuch as creating and storing biochar below thecarpark surface.

Choose sustainable materials that are applying new environmental standards. If these products cannot be selected for the whole site, at least apply a trial area to support ongoing industry knowledge growth of new products. Practitioners can draw information from the online Australian Supply Chain Sustainability School and EcoBuy amongst other resources.

Action: Plan your carpark as an organisational asset that helps to improve the local environment using the above ideas. This will be a very visible form of corporate social responsibility investment that will be valued by local community members.

11 Mullaney J, Lucke T, Trueman SJ (2015) A review of benefits and challenges in growing street trees in paved urban environments. Landscape and Urban Planning 134 157-16612 Wolf KL (2005) Trees in the small city retail business district: comparing resident and visitor perceptions. Journal of Forestry 103. 390-395

Step 4. Asset maintenance

Carparks that ‘give back’ to the community and environment will require different maintenance requirements.

These maintenance changes are cost-neutral to the organisation when full costs are taken into account. Studies show that shade trees add value to property prices, and that customers spend more in treescaped areas12.

Actions:

• Appoint one of your staff to oversee plantings and report ifirrigation is not working, if litter is clogging drains. In fact,regular customers may enjoy this‘community stewardship’ too.

• In times of heatwaves, or long dry spells, be sure yourplants have extra water provided

• Pruning of your future large trees is critical in the first fewyears to get the basic shape of tree right, including astrong central trunk.

• In autumn, be sure to collect fallen leaves and place ontogarden beds as a natural mulch.

• If you have raingardens or raintanks, schedule a plumberto do a maintenance check twice yearly

• Check permeable paving to make sure voids are notblocked by sediment and debris. Sweep regularly, andapply a pressure wash. Your installer will guidemaintenance requirements.

• Be sure that any carpark features – new garden beds,footpaths, raingardens, tree pits or solar panels are listedon your asset and insurance register. Keep all installationrecords to help future property managers.

And finally, planning approval for carparking needs to account for potential traffic disruption. Be sure to consider the flow of car movement in this light, and negotiate with Council for the loss of one or two less carparking spaces if this is needed to accommodate environmental improvements.

Better Best Practice Notes are designed to help practitioners strive for best possibilities in delivering city shaping and sustainability projects. We call them Better Best Practice Notes as a reminder that our best is always getting better.

Loci Environment & Place Inc. is a nonprofit body and welcomes your use of this Better Best Practice Note; only asking that we be acknowledged as the author. We openly welcome your feedback on ways we can keep improving the usability and application of these Notes. Just contact us via info@loci.melbourne

This Better Best Practice Note has been developed in partnership with DELWP, Coolth Inc., E2Designlab, Urban Ecology in Action. Last updated December 2017.

Attach this Better Best Practice Note next time you request a quote, and ask bidders how they will incorporate best possibilities for your project.

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