Let us now praise parking people...

The coronavirus epidemic has placed the parking sector on the front line

We are living through a pandemic. We are living in the age of lockdown, self-isolation and social distancing. We are seeking to survive the era of COVID-19.

The battle against coronavirus has dramatically transformed the way we live, work, shop and travel. We have seen the closure of schools, shuttering of businesses, the discouragement of unnecessary journeys, restrictions on public gatherings, and even limitations on who can visit us at home. When only food stores and pharmacies remain open, offices and factories close, planes do not fly and public transport is massively reduced there are major effects on driving and, by extension, on parking.

The impacts of the pandemic on the kerbside and the off-street parking sector are complex, reflecting how the provision of parking is variously (and sometimes simultaneously): a traffic demand management tool; a facilities management function; and a business in its own right. Parking is thus one of the pandemic’s front lines.

Early warnings
The arrival of the COVID-19 virus on the British Isles was inevitable, but few who gathered at the British Parking Awards 2020 in London on 6 March would have suspected that this would be perhaps the last major parking sector gathering for many months.

The event was unexpectedly prescient in that its host, the energetic and amusing Dr Xand van Tulleken, is also a public health expert. He used his appearance to pass on sound advice on social distancing and the celebrated the importance of the NHS.

In the weeks that followed a sense of the chilling effect the pandemic would have on business life became evident in the postponement of many parking and traffic events, including Intertraffic Amsterdam, the Parking Industry Expo (PIE) in the USA and Parkex in the UK. Likewise, the spring conferences planned by our publisher, Landor LINKS, have been relocated to the autumn. This pattern of postponement has been replicated across the business, education and sports sectors.

Panics, policing and positive parking
Car parks have become places of both tension and hope during the pandemic. Over a matter of weeks supermarket car parks transformed from being the backdrop for scenes of people panic buying trolley loads of toilet paper and beer, to become holding areas for orderly queues of shoppers practicing social distancing. Parking attendants are extending their duties to help marshal traffic and assist managing queues at supermarkets and other essential outlets.

Rural and seaside car parks were initially starting points for outings until concerns over the contagion being passed on by mass gatherings led to the lockdown. There has been some initial confusion and tension over how travel by car should be policed, but it was heartening to see how local authorities rapidly adopted what can be termed a ‘common-sense’ lighter touch approach to enforcing parking, especially in residential areas where many more vehicles are being left on-street by housebound, furloughed workers.

Civil enforcement officers (CEOs) are protecting spaces allocated to NHS staff, monitoring routes to hospitals and ensuring loading bays serving key stores are kept clear. CEOs are also being deployed to help communities by delivering aid to the vulnerable.

Looking after those who look after us
Without a doubt, the parking sector’s finest moments have been in the provision of free parking spaces for NHS staff and care workers who have come to rely on their cars as a safe and reliable way of getting to and from hospitals, clinics and care homes.

NHS trusts in England have joined those in Scotland and Wales and made on campus parking free for staff. Meanwhile, local authorities, private car park operators and online providers are providing additional free parking to NHS staff in the wider community. These initiatives are being supported by both the British Parking Association and International Parking Community.

And even car parks at shuttered shopping centres and airports are being positively repurposed as distribution hubs for essential deliveries or as drive-thru COVID-19 testing centres.

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