During a recent webinar I spoke about the likely impacts of Climate Change on Transport and Mobility policy in the coming years, and specifically how parking operations in Local Authorities will need to react to and anticipate these changes.
This piece from last week’s Irish Times by public affairs expert Gerard Howlin will be of interest to parking managers, as it sets out some key changes that will impact on transport and mobility policy from 2023 onwards.
Some of the key points to note are as follows:
- The Government’s latest Climate Action Plan is expected to be published in the next week or so before the Christmas break, and will have far-reaching impacts.
- The Plan will embed an ambitious binding goal of 51% emissions reductions by 2030, with a target of 50% reductions for the Transport and Mobility sector.
- The article author Gerard Howlin closely reflects points that I made about transport strategy during our last webinar. He says:
“Nothing remotely like the status quo can survive, if transport emission targets are to be met. The private car must move over and make more space for public transport and cycling…” - Howlin goes on to explain that, once the new Climate Action Plan is enacted:
“there [will be] inbuilt legal pressure on civil servants and State agencies to ensure that carbon reduction is intrinsic to plans and budgets.”
If you’re not already seeing the impacts on your strategic plans, annual budgets, or short-term priorities, you can certainly expect to in the very near future.
This means that parking managers in Local Authorities will be key enablers of change in the wider Transport and Mobility context.
Parking operations will need to be agile and flexible to find right-sized solutions for the situation in each specific city, county or town. The keys to becoming more agile and flexible will be:
- More intelligent use of parking data
- Leveraging technology
- Better management of equipment and software suppliers
- Strategic forward planning of your parking operational needs
Please reach out if you would like to understand more about the coming changes, or to learn about how we can support you in the above areas.