The founding father's of Sydney placed national parks at it's north and south, and as it skirted the ocean to the east the only way to expand was to the west. Eventually, suburban creep will be blocked by the Blue Mountains barrier.
Unfortunately western Sydney has lacked the amenities that pre-war Sydney takes for granted.Only now are we finally building the road system and new train lines to give western commuters access to city jobs. It seems that in all this planning there is a " missing link " that fails to connect people from where they live to where they earn their living. We urge them to use public transport, but car parking space at rail stations falls far short of demand.
One of the problems is that inner Sydney is served by a state government owned bus system that provides regular services that are often uneconomical. The west is served by private bus systems that work on a " for profit " basis - and only run when customer use is economical. As a result, most commuters have no option other than using a car for travel between home and their nearest rail station - and finding a parking spot is becoming impossible.
Parking in the streets surrounding rail stations is usually subjected to time limits and in many cases finding an all day legal parking spot can involve more than a twenty minute walk to the station - and such a return walk later in the day to reclaim the car. As a result, many choose to drive to work and this adds pressure to an already congested road system.
The state government is adding more parking at rail stations, but this is falling far short of demand. Most commuters report that finding any sort of legal car space after 7-30 am is becoming impossible. The new train routes under construction will miss their capacity targets unless their intended passengers have their parking problems solved.
Car parks are services that require a great deal of open space, and in Sydney land use is premium priced. The only logical way to keep costs under control is to copy what is happening to living space in this city - to go upwards. Multi story parking towers near stations would be a possible answer to this problem - but charging for their use would add a new dimension to the woes of western Sydney.
For some strange reason we accept the need for metered parking in shopping centres but expect car parking for commuter rail use to be free. In the past, providing car parking usually only involved paving an area of vacant land and painting individual parking lines, but thinking of parking towers is a huge capital cost that would involve lifts and the need for fire safety sprinkler systems. That is an entirely new dimension.
Perhaps there is a cheaper option that has not claimed attention. Our existing rail corridors are open space and the air space above them is unused. Decking the area around stations to park cars not only connects the car park and stations for commuter use but is a far cheaper option that a multi story building. The other great advantage, the land involved is already in government ownership. There are no acquisition fees.
New stations are included in the rail roll out and parking decks above could be an economical way of solving one of the west's most troublesome problems !
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