Parking for All is a serious game

Traffic + Parking: Parking Perspective's Andrew Potter reveals inventive engagement exercise for parking professionals and stakeholders

Various and largely insatiable demands are placed upon the kerbside. Space for safety margins, buses, loading, collection and delivery. Parking for car clubs, residents, shoppers and workers. Public realm ambitions and greater access for vulnerable users. All compete for the same real estate – the kerbside.

These competing demands were the subject of ‘Parking for All’, an interactive game developed by Andrew Potter, director of Parking Perspectives. The game, which features a model street, player cards and newspaper stories, explores a number of potential guidebook approaches for councils to make rationalised and consistent decisions about who gets what space.

‘Parking for All’ was unveiled at Traffic + Parking.

Delegates role-played different interest groups and debated a series of different proposals for the management of the kerb outside their parade of shops. The scenarios allowed the delegates to investigate the various merits of how kerbspace is allocated and work through different approaches to determine what uses would win their space on the street, and who and what is displaced elsewhere.

The players each had their own objectives and agendas, but collectively they had to deliver an outcome that: retains free flow of traffic and public transport; provides a safe space for pedestrians, cyclists, children and people with disabilities; and makes space for delivery vehicles, electric vehicles and mobility services, as well as keeping existing users content.
www.parkingperspectives.com

Traffic + Parking 2024

The annual Traffic + Parking conference provides a space in which local authorities, their private sector partners, campaigners and consultants can explore topical issues relating to the planning, provision and regulation of parking, the kerbside and the urban street scene.

Traffic + Parking 2024 was packed with presentations, debates and an exhibition showcasing the latest innovations and services. The event was programmed by Parking Review and delivered by Landor LINKS in Manchester on 30 October.

The morning featured a major debate on the Future of Parking Policy, an in-depth look at delivering Better Streets and a panel sharing ideas on Beating the Parking Scammers.

The afternoon was made up of two special events. After lunch there was a ground-breaking exploration of artificial intelligence in the Parking AI session and the day concluded with a new interactive game called ‘Parking for All’.
www.traffic-parking.uk