Expert shares vehicle size data for better parking lots in Mumbai

Double parking on a road at Kalbadevi

Stressing that every inch of road space is important in Mumbai, transport experts have shared data on length and width of vehicles/cars in the city to authorities to develop ideal parking spaces.

Senior 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 Mumbai's roads.

Two-wheelers parked on a footpath in Vikhroli

"Every 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 3.6 m long and 1.6 m wide."

Datar said the dimensions are key to parking management and while buying new buses in Mumbai and other congested cities in the country. "The 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 parking," he said.

Other experts said authorities should focus on strict vigilance and enforcement of rules to streamline parking

Datar added, "As 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 two-wheelers and to a much lesser extent on buses and trains as space and enviro efficient public transport."

Official stand

While officials of the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA) were not immediately available on record, they said they had considered vehicle size in their pilot studies. "As 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 suburbs," an MPA official said.

He said that MPA too had conducted a month-long survey and analysed similar data of available parking spaces, parking requirements for each type of vehicle, duration, and loading/unloading facilities. "More data was being garnered to work on preparing a comprehensive plan by streamlining parking rates and drafting a parking policy," he added.

Ranjit Gadgil, programme director, Parisar for Sustainable Urban Mobility Network, had a differing view. "We feel this approach itself is fundamentally flawed. Parking management is not meant to ‘solve parking' 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 tracks."

"Narrow 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 daytime," expert Ajit V Shenoy of Mumbai Mobility Forum said.

Apart 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, "HC suggestion of not allowing parking more than one car per family on road free should be implemented."

140
No. of types of vehicles whose data was collected by Datar

Data collected by experts

Cars
. Maruti Dzire and Honda Jazz at outer boundary amongst vehicles costing less than Rs 10 lakh; they measure 3.99 m in length and 1.74 in width.
. Skoda Superb: 4.86 m x 1.86 m
. Innova: 4.7m x 1.8 m
. Newer models of BMW and Jaguar: 5.10 m x 1.9 m
. Mahindra XUV500: 4.59 m x 1.8 m

Buses
. Eicher (Midi- 2x2 seats) 7.9 m x 2.2 m cheapest at Rs 41 lakhs for 37-seater AC
. Tata/Leyland - 47-seater - 11.7 /12.0 m x 2.6 m
. Volvo - 14.5 m x 2.6 m

MPA's 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 ‘City Parking Pool' by listing available public and commercial buildings
. Appointing ‘Parking Marshals'
. Syncing parking data with city's development plan
. Old vehicle scrapping centres
. Studying underground parking and at places under flyovers