Proceedings of the 25 th Southern African Transport Conference (SATC 2006) 10 – 13 July 2006 ISBN Number: 1-920-01706-2 Pretoria, South Africa Produced by: Document Transformation Technologies cc Conference organised by: Conference Planners EVALUATING PARKING REQUIREMENTS IN SOUTH AFRICA WITH SPECIFIC REFERENCE TO REGIONAL SHOPPING CENTRES G. HITGE and L. de V ROODT * P.O. Box 2072, Durbanville, 7551 * University of Pretoria ABSTRACT In South Africa, parking is required at a minimum rate, based on a characteristic of the particular land use. Research has shown that this approach to parking leads to the promotion of car use, low density urban development and urban sprawl. South African land use and transport policy, however, advocates higher density developments, curbing of urban sprawl and the promotion of public transport above that of the private car. This paper reports on an evaluation of the way in which parking is provided in South Africa, and in particular at Regional Shopping Centres. It found that GLA is only indicative of parking demand when the private car is the predominant mode of transport. It concludes that the desired urban form should be decided upon and that a transport system should be designed that will sustain that urban form. Parking can be provided at the appropriate level once the role of the car has been defined within the transport system. 1. INTRODUCTION The South African Parking Standards (DoT, 1985) requires that parking be provided at a minimum rate, based on the size of a particular land use. This policy is echoed through the requirements of the metropolitan and local councils in the country. Minimum parking standards were derived as a measure to ensure that vehicles can be taken off the street network quickly when reaching the destination end of a trip. This was needed to relieve congestion and allow other traffic to reach their destinations in the shortest possible time. This policy was necessary as the private car became popular among the public and hence important to politicians. The private car allowed people to live further from Central Business Districts (CBD’s), which lead to a decline in public transport use that did not extend into these areas. As the political focus shifted from investment in rail and bus services to investment in road infrastructure, public transport started to lose its competitiveness. The process of decentralisation led to the development of attractive shopping centres near the suburban residential areas. These centres intercepted the work to home trip of people working in the cities, and provided convenient access to housewives to shop during daytime. Like the other land uses, minimum parking policies were employed at these centres to ensure that the trip demand could be accommodated off the road network to prevent congestion for passing traffic. Many studies have shown that the provision of minimum parking rates promotes car use at 368