Expert shares vehicle size data for better parking lots in Mumbai

Stressing that every inch of road space is important in Mumbai transport experts have shared data on length and width of vehiclescars in the city to authorities to develop ideal parking spacesSenior transport expert and chairman of Mumbai Environmental Social Network Ashok Datar has designed a blueprint for Mumbai Parking Authority to plan proper parking facilities in the city and submitted dimensions of several vehicles running on Mumbairsquos roadsTwowheelers parked on a footpath in VikhrolildquoEvery square foot of land in Mumbai is precious We located altogether 140 vehicles Indian and imported using Mumbai roads This provides useful actual material which can be used for marking of parking spaces in narrower areas particularly The basic minimum objective of mobility is that two vehicles from opposite sides should be able to cross each other From the chart it is found that the smallest is 36 m long and 16 m widerdquoDatar said the dimensions are key to parking management and while buying new buses in Mumbai and other congested cities in the country ldquoThe idea is that with parking on narrow lanes and roads it should allow a minimum carriageway for one car and a small bus to pass comfortably We should allow painted lines at the centre to mark the carriageway outside of which we can tolerate parkingrdquo he saidOther experts said authorities should focus on strict vigilance and enforcement of rules to streamline parkingDatar added ldquoAs social ethics we consider bicycles and walking as natural rights of all citizens but anything other than this should have some service element for mobility We can develop a user fee mechanism for cars and twowheelers and to a much lesser extent on buses and trains as space and enviro efficient public transportrdquoOfficial standWhile officials of the Mumbai Parking Authority MPA were not immediately available on record they said they had considered vehicle size in their pilot studies ldquoAs of July 15 the status is that the MPA has been taken up for implementation on an experimental basis in three civic wards of D K and S which is around Malabar Hill Tardeo Girgaum in south Mumbai Andheri west in western suburbs and Bhandup Vikhroli in eastern suburbsrdquo an MPA official saidHe said that MPA too had conducted a monthlong survey and analysed similar data of available parking spaces parking requirements for each type of vehicle duration and loadingunloading facilities ldquoMore data was being garnered to work on preparing a comprehensive plan by streamlining parking rates and drafting a parking policyrdquo he addedRanjit Gadgil programme director Parisar for Sustainable Urban Mobility Network had a differing view ldquoWe feel this approach itself is fundamentally flawed Parking management is not meant to lsquosolve parkingrsquo by making more spaces available and making parking easy and affordable The idea of parking management is to make parking difficult and expensive easier to enforce and ensure parking does not encroach upon other road users This is to discourage people from using their own vehicles and ensuring we create a better movement for buses better footpaths and cycle tracksrdquoldquoNarrow roads less than 9m width should be only one way with parking only for cars and LMV on one side This was a practice earlier but totally violated now with parking on both sides In all commercial areas there should be no free parking during the daytimerdquo expert Ajit V Shenoy of Mumbai Mobility Forum saidApart from strict vigilance by traffic cops and BMC he said commercial vehicles should not be allowed to load or unload on busy roads and handcarts must operate only between 10 pm and 8 am He added ldquoHC suggestion of not allowing parking more than one car per family on road free should be implementedrdquo140No of types of vehicles whose data was collected by DatarData collected by expertsCars Maruti Dzire and Honda Jazz at outer boundary amongst vehicles costing less than Rs 10 lakh they measure 399 m in length and 174 in width Skoda Superb 486 m x 186 m Innova 47m x 18 m Newer models of BMW and Jaguar 510 m x 19 m Mahindra XUV500 459 m x 18 mBuses Eicher Midi 2x2 seats 79 m x 22 m cheapest at Rs 41 lakhs for 37seater AC TataLeyland 47seater 117 120 m x 26 m Volvo 145 m x 26 mMPArsquos focus areas Studying legal aspects for setting up the authority Preparing comprehensive plan for all 24 civic wards Finalising parking rates for formulation as a policy Designing uniform signage Local consultations Use of tech and software Preparing a lsquoCity Parking Poolrsquo by listing available public and commercial buildings Appointing lsquoParking Marshalsrsquo Syncing parking data with cityrsquos development plan Old vehicle scrapping centres Studying underground parking and at places under flyovers