Impact of parking design on the quality of residential life: a case study of residential car parking in Milton Keynes, UK (original) (raw)

For any new residential development scheme the provision of car parking space plays a fundamental role. To improve the quality and sustainability of a development, carefully designing the street layouts and parking is one of the important criteria. In the United Kingdom, it is a common practice that the majority of new residential development schemes provide on-street car parking. Traditionally, these on-street parking spaces should be considered as the additional number of car parking spaces for residents who might already have their individual household car parking space/s, for example as garage, off-street driveway or as a designated group parking area on private road. However, on majority situations, these garages with ’minimum’ width are so inadequately designed that even to get on and off as a driver by only opening the driver side’s door becomes very difficult. e house with such a garage forces the vehicle owner/s to park their car/s in alternative parking spaces; i.e., on-street. However, while providing such on-street parking space the layout designer/planner uses minimum street width that can accommodate car parking only on one side of the street instead of on both sides. If the car ownership number per household for that particular area is low then this one-sided on-street parking space could accommodate the required number of car parking spaces. Conversely, on majority of cases this does not fulfil the minimum number. e residents as well as visitors start parking their car on the side walkways (footpaths); i.e., they start parking on the kerbside; hence, blocking the footpath spaces. Few local authorities in the United Kingdom have detail residential parking standards specified for the number of parking space required for a proposed new residential development scheme. ese standards are in terms of the total number of parking spaces in proportion to the total number of housing units in the master plan. In addition, for a very few number of local authorities in the United Kingdom, there are specifications for the minimum size (length and width) of the garage or parking bay specified for the residential neighbourhood. However, for the majority of local authorities, the maximum parking requirement for the new residential development is described as ratio 1:1 or 1:1.5 only; i.e., the number of parking spaces to the number of household units, depending on the number of bed rooms for each household. In practice, to meet these maximum parking requirements sometimes it is easy to produce the master plan that could display the adequate number of parking spaces in layout but in reality, many of those designed car parking spaces are not useable; it is difficult to get out of the car because there is not enough space inside the garage to open the door. As a result, the total feasible parking spaces available to the occupier are reduced from the number of parking spaces originally proposed and later constructed. In situation where vehicle owners are habituated by parking their car on the kerbside obstructing and even sometimes ignoring the other road users such as pedestrians, cyclists, mothers with pushchairs, people with scooters, moped or wheelchairs who have walking disabilities, etc.; then the question arises whether the quality of life of those residents, who are living in such a newly developed residential neighbourhood, are affected or not? Ultimately, the quality of life by living such a built environment is affected. e quality of life for those residents is accommodating this car driver’s behaviour by sacrificing their freedom of accessing their natural rights to enjoy their neighbourhood’s street life. Residents complain about the inadequate parking provision is leading to on-street parking in many new residential development schemes, even leading to neighbour disputes. Using a case study example, Milton Keynes, this paper describes this residential car parking situation.