skyscraper living and parking

[Jan]

Every time you look at Marina City you'll notice that some half of the parking rings are not being used, even though it caters to the residents, the next door hotel and House of Blues, and 3rd party parking. The main reason for this is many residents just don't own a car, while at the time of design it was reasoned every household in the building owned at least one car.

What are people's experience with car ownership and parking inside your building?

image hosted on flickr

[ikops]

I think every 15 skyscrapers should have a metro stop. You do not need a car in a big city. Maybe space can be provided at the edge of the city.

[Disturbing Reality]

there should be multi-level parking (overground/underground) for public every two blocks or so.. skyscrapers (office/residential/mixed) should all have multilevel parking in addition to being accessible to public transport. I want to live in a highrise in the middle of the city but i want to drive not take the subway..

[Eric Offereins]

When density gets too high, that may not be possible (too many cars). I need my car for travelling to my work, so I would also need a garage. I agree that probably most people in city centres don't need a car.

[Suburbanist]

Even is most people living in central areas might not need a car for commute, I can't think of any big Western metropolitan area where the ability to travel at weekends, at nights, for shopping trips wouldn't be hampered by lack of car. Not only in terms of "can you get anywhere by transit", but in relate to time it would take to make non-commute trips without cars.

[auzdafluff]

It depends. In hot and humid climates like Dubai, Singapore and so on, it simply isn't realistic to expect everyone to use public transport. Even if you live next to a metro station, your destination might not be.

Turning up drenched to meetings and/or work isn't conducive to a good mood.

[SydneyCity]

Here in Sydney, larger, more expensive apartments in high rise, city centre developments typically include car spaces, whilst smaller, cheaper apartments often do not. Car parks for skyscrapers here are typically underground.

[Jan]

^ we have parking laws that require the offering of a parking space with units that are 60 m2. Typically in a downtown skyscraper, the kind of people that prefer these apartments don't have a car, rendering many of these spaces idle. Those parking codes may be useful in a general theory, but one market as specific as down town skyscrapers really requires its own set of rules. The lack of it just adds to the costs of it.

Nice to know that small apartments in Sydney typically don't have them.

[Suburbanist]

In fairness, on-street parking is extremely limited on central areas of Dutch cities, and open-parking garages are expensive (in fairness, Rotterdam parking garages on central locations are just expensive whereas those in Utrecht, Amsterdam and Den Haag are borderline extortionate).

They could demand developers to fit a given number of parking spaces, then allow buildings to rent unused spaces out for external users (such as commuters that need a place to park their car on a subscription basis), thus de-coupling parking spaces from apartment ownership.

[Ribarca]

In my previous city HK nobody seemed to own a car. It's outrageously expensive to get your own parking and there are just no places to park in the city. There are more taxis than normal cars in the city often. Taxi rates are affordable and it's often easy to get a can anywhere.

Singapore seems much more car oriented. There are 3 or even 4 lane highways all over the city.

[Jan]

Originally Posted by Ribarca

There are 3 or even 4 lane highways all over the city.

My town has them too. In a blaze of modernism they once figured 4-lane roads were going to speed up traffic, while all is does is create monster intersections that take forever to cross. Such a system is also against the idea that contemporary city centers are places you'd like to be in, not places you'd want to drive through. Especially drive thru traffic ought to be banned from city centers.

[Eric Offereins]

I agree, but probably in Rotterdam the traffic is still managable compared to HK, with busier traffic, extreme high population density.
HK had to move away from private cars, Rotterdam not just yet.