Disabled Parking Review
Roads ACT was requested by the Chief Minister and Minister for Territory and Municipal Services to undertake an investigation into disabled parking with a view to assessing:
- whether the current provisions meet the national requirements of the Building Code of Australia (BCA) and Australian Standards (AS);
- whether the current provisions are appropriately located;
- whether the design parameters (size, lines and signs) of the current provisions meet the requirements of the AS;
- whether the current provisions meet community needs; and
- whether the ratio of disabled spaces needs to be increased to take account of demographic changes (including the ageing of population).
Consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff were engaged to undertake the investigation for local shopping centres with over a hundred car parking spaces. The investigation included a web based survey that received seventy responses from individuals and interest groups.
The project comprised four separate studies and a summary:
- Conduct a parking provision and accessibility survey for Group Centres
- Conduct a parking provision and accessibility survey for Town Centres
- Conduct utilisation surveys, and
- Review the policy and demand trends.
- Executive Summary.
The studies considered the five town and nineteen group centres.
Works resulting from the studies are proposed at the following centres:
- Town Centres:
Belconnen, City, Gungahlin, Tuggeranong, Woden
- Group Centres:
Calwell, Charnwood, Chisholm, Cooleman Court, Weston, Curtin, Dickson, Erindale, Hawker, Jamison, Kaleen, Kambah, Kingston, Kippax centre, Holt, Lanyon Market Place, Conder, Manuka, Southland Centre Mawson, The Village Centre Kambah, Wanniassa
The Report’s recommendations have been reviewed and a Stage 1 Works program developed to upgrade disabled parking spaces.
ACT Disabled Parking Review Report
The Report and works program are available for download below.
- ACT Disabled Parking Review—Executive Summary (
PDF 75Kb) - ACT Disabled Parking Review—Utilisation Survey ( PDF 93Kb)
- ACT Disabled Parking Review—Group Centres ( PDF 286Kb)
- ACT Disabled Parking Review—Town Centres ( PDF 157Kb)
- ACT Disabled Parking Review—Parking Policy and Demand ( PDF 323Kb)
The Report provides a comparison of the existing provisions of disabled parking spaces in the ACT and the requirements of the BCA and AS. Generally the ACT has provided more spaces than the standards require. The majority of these spaces were also found to be appropriately located within the various shopping centres.
The Report also compared the existing physical aspects of parking spaces with design standards and documented deficiencies. These relate to size, access needs and signage. These issues will be addressed under the minor new works or capital upgrades programs and are identified in the works program.
An utilisation survey was also carried out to help quantify parking space usage. The survey identified an average need of 3% of all parking spaces in shopping centres to be for disabled. This rate is higher than the current requirements of the standards. The ACT currently meets this target in the majority of cases. The report recommends increasing the supply to 3% where a deficiency currently exists.
The Report also recommended that a review of the basis upon which parking permits are issued be undertaken to better understand the dramatic increase in the number of permits issued and the corresponding increase in parking demand for disabled persons.
Last year, Transport Ministers from all States and Territories agreed to the development of a National Disability Parking Scheme. The ACT is participating in a working group of Commonwealth, State and Territory officials. It is expected that Transport Ministers will consider the Draft National Disability Parking Permit Scheme for endorsement in late 2009. Any further review of eligibility for disability parking permits in the ACT would need to consider the National Scheme once it has been developed.
For further information or comment please contact:
Harvey Bell
email: harvey.bell@act.gov.au
