Bacău Push & pull

North-East Regional Development Agency

Adrian Anghel

director@adlbacau.ro

Project PUSH & PULL – “Parking management and incentives as Successful and proven strategies for energy-efficient urban transport”

·        Transport mobility;

·        Land use planning;

·        Innovative financing solutions.

Agentia pentru Dezvoltare Locala Bacau (Bacau Local Development Agency)

http://www.adlbacau.ro/adl/

Bacau Municipality, Bacau County, North-East Region

2015-2017

The three major target groups of the project are

• authorities / municipal staff,
• decision makers & politicians and
• end users.

For them information and arguments are provided with the aim to develop skills and capacities.

PUSH & PULL (also known as carrot and stick approach) is an idiom that refers to a policy of offering a combination of rewards / incentives and punishment to induce behavior.

The project aims to improve urban mobility by means of parking space management combined with mobility management (MM) measures. By introducing paid parking, increasing parking fees, reducing or restraining parking supply or implementing comparable measures, car drivers will be pushed to use more sustainable transport. At the same time, (parts of) the income generated from parking space management can be used for incentives to promote alternatives, thus pulling or attracting users towards public transport, walking, cycling and other sustainable modes which is the “core-funding mechanism”.

The project includes implementations in 8 cities / locations which incl. measures of parking space management and mobility management. All implementers set up the core-funding mechanism to use money gained from parking to finance mobility management. Further, training sessions for followers will be organised in 16 countries.

Objectives

• Save energy through a modal shift from lightly-occupied car to public transport, walking and cycling and potentially also carpooling. A crucial aspect of this objective is the link between revenues from parking and sustainable consistent and reliable financing for mobility management measures.
• Create favourable conditions for sustainable transport by identifying and spreading knowledge of ways to make the implementation of parking management measures more politically acceptable; and also by institutionalising parking management as a source of revenue for sustainable transport measures.
• Build the capacity and skills to implement measures to manage car parking in tandem with mobility management measures, which will help their cities to remain accessible and competitive in an era of steeply rising fuel prices.
• Further build capacity and skills by preparing a kind of “catalogue of measures” for cities and municipalities that meet the requirements of each of them with respect to parking management in particular, depending on whether they are beginners (to launch the topic), advanced cities (more structured work needed) or already “champions” (with a strategic approach that should end up in a comprehensive system); and to show how this menu of measures can be used in the development of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP).
• Inform stakeholders and foster their commitment by spreading the knowledge generated within the PUSH & PULL consortium in the broadest and most comprehensive way.

The flow of financial resources from parking revenues to mobility management and sustainable transport, as envisaged in this project, is a key means of ensuring that sustainable modes become an “integral part of mobility” in cities.

Current situation in Bacau

In Bacau exist approx. 10.000 parking spaces, from which aprox. 1.000 spaces are paid parking and approx. 1.340 are green parking spaces in residential neighborhoods. Paid parking is also implemented in the main goods markets of the city (Central Market, South Market).

Fees charged for parking are:

• Inner city parking: 34 cents/h – those who don’t pay, will have their car blocked. The fee for unblocking the car is 23 euro/day.
• City market parking spaces: 34 cents/h for the first 2 hours and 3 Euro/h if this stationary period is exceeded
• Those which park in restricted areas will have their cars blocked, and they will pay a 23 euro/day fee for unblocking the car.
• Parking spaces are managed by Bacau Municipality through Local Police.
• There is a project in preparation for paying parking fees through text message from the mobile phones.
• In total ca. 100.000 EUR are gained from parking space management.

IEE

Approach

PUSH & PULL will implement measures to reduce car and energy use and bring about a shift to more energy efficient modes in 8 EU cities. It does this by combining the highly effective push measure of parking management with tried and tested techniques for mobility management, and brings in further innovation by using the revenue raised from the former to help to finance the latter. The two are connected by the theme of finance (the revenues from parking management to fund mobility management).

The mobility management activities, campaigns and measures are carried out to influence the perception of options for alternatives (to inform and raise awareness) and then, together with parking management, to give car users the opportunity to try out new travel choices (experimental behaviour). Additionally, the introduction of mobility management measures at the same time as parking management measures is intended to enhance the public acceptability of the latter.

Bacau:

Implementation activities within PUSH & PULL

Parking Space Management (push)

It is planned that residential parking will be charged 2-3 euro /month. Parts of this amount will be used for maintenance and construction and installation of new parking spaces but also for public awareness campaigns for sustainable transport solutions.

Promotion of energy –efficient modes of transport (pull)

• Awareness raising campaigns and information campaigns for sustainable transport.
• Development of new tracks for cyclists on the main arteries of the city.
• Pupils & student tickets support for PT.
• The adoption of measures for citizens to quit travel with personal vehicles such as:

o   buses to be sufficient and modern;

o   circulation schedule to meet the needs of the citizens;

o   ticket prices to be convenient;

o   introduction of automatic vending machines for PT tickets.

– knowledge accumulated regarding the measures concerning urban mobility following the training sessions and through the assistance received from famous European specialists in this field.

Urban.

Weak features and criticalities of the tool/measure:

Challenges:

­   understanding the concept of parking management at institutional level

­   ensuring political commitment for the measures highlighted by the project

Weaknesses:

­   there are few specialists at local decision level within this area

­   urban mobility concept seems to be in its infancy as an integrated part of urban planning