2 days Ago By Le News
Since 2015, around 11,000 public car park spaces have been removed in cities and large towns across Switzerland, according to recent analysis reported by Blick. More than 3,000 parking places have been removed in Geneva and in Zurich, more than 2,500 in Lausanne and 1,500 in Basel and Bern. Cities in French-speaking Switzerland have seen the greatest decline in percentage terms.
Geneva and Lausanne have both seen more than 10% of their public parking spaces removed since 2015. Geneva has lost 13% and plans to take away a further 12,000 places by 2034. Lausanne has removed more than 11% of its public parking since 2015.
Zurich has agressive plans to remove a further 10,000 places by 2040, with the aim of cutting traffic into the city by 30%. Cutting traffic will make cities calmer, cleaner places for those who live in them. However, for those who don’t, getting there will become, in many cases, more time consuming and less convenient.
With more services going online, shopping, delivered food, and entertainment in particular, there is less need for people to go into cities. Removing carparks could be an effective way to accelerate this trend. A key upside is greater retail efficiency – large online retailers are significantly more efficient than the brick and morter stores found in towns and cities.
The bigger these businesses get the more efficient they become. In addition, consolidated deliveries are more efficient than everyone making separate trips to physical stores. These efficiencies have the potential to cut transport emissions and further reduce retail prices, provided market regulators ensure there is sufficient competition in online retail.
The analysis looked only at public car parking spaces. Privately owned parking spaces were not included..
