TECHNOLOGY
Unpave paradise, put away parking lots
The future of transport and property
I
JUSTIN COETZEE
CEO of GoMetro, a local public transport app
t seems that the innovation and disruption evolution has hit the homefront in earnest, with industry practices and the old way of doing things being disrupted as never before. The latest casualty? Parking bays, according to Justin Coetzee, CEO of GoMetro, the mobility-as-a-service startup that is changing the way South Africans think about getting to work.
“ Cities are starting to realise that requiring less parking space is a good thing for livable cities” says Coetzee. He continues:“ City centres have become more and more congested, with a recent study showing that 30 % of traffic in a CBD is due to people searching for parking.
Noting the impact that a lack of parking had on traffic, cities in the 1960s started requiring a minimum amount of parking bays for any new development. But even minimum parking standards are the wrong way to go, and cities are realising that the easy provision of parking actually increases car usage in the CBD. City authorities are now thinking of incentivizing alternative mobility solutions to massive amounts of parking bays by saying‘ we’ re going to tax you for every parking bay you build and maintain.’
The“ smarter way” is flexible mobility, a recent concept which is set to revolutionise the way people move around the city and how they consume transport services.
Property prices to follow suit
“ There’ s an enormous correlation between working flexible mobility routes and the desirability or price of a property. There’ s a very well-documented link
Flexible mobility, the pioneer of which was Uber, entails getting around via customised transport solutions, usually shared, that involves people being able to use various taxis, minibuses, busses, trains, and more at their convenience rather than driving their own car around.
The vehicle( car, taxi, van, bus) drops you off at or close to your destination and then moves on to serve other people- meaning you never have to apologize for being late for a meeting because you couldn’ t find parking.
between land value and transport network availability. The easier it is to access amenities, the higher yield rent will be,” explains Coetzee, citing the very popular and influential Vox video on YouTube entitled‘ The high cost of free parking’.
18 OCTOBER 2017 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine