Housing Design and Mobility Convenience—The Case of Sweden

Abstract

A parking space is the beginning and the end of every car journey. Policies aimed at parking spaces are, thus, an effective way of affecting car travel. Policies regarding parking typically mean setting minimum parking requirements to meet the peak demand for parking. However, in several Swedish cities, as well as around Europe, attempts are made to lower the number of parking places. One way is to build homes without parking places for cars and pilot projects with zero-parking have started to materialize. This paper looks into the academic literature in the field of design and architecture to see how parking issues are dealt with. It also looks into ongoing practice by studying three pilot projects in Sweden that challenge the dominant parking norm by planning and building for a new normal—mobility convenience and zero parking. Both the literature and the cases point to little knowledge in the field. However, high demands on “creative mobility solutions” are placed on housing projects without parking places for cars. Even if the effects of sustainability are still unknown, zero parking pilot projects can narrate the possibility of another future—a future with mobility convenience instead of parking convenience.

Parking Policy as a Tool of Sustainable Mobility-Parking Standards in Poland vs. European Experiences

“…Research has also shown that-regardless of whether an individual owns a car-people make practically the same number of daily journeys. Meanwhile, Gunnarsson-Östling [28] notes that mobility convenience should be defined as the ability to move around in a different way than with a private car and parking spaces at the house should not be a determinant of quality, because the house is a place designed in a way that facilitates staying, not moving.…”

“…All this means that many more people decide to use public transportation [33]. In addition, Swedish authorities have noticed that access to parking spaces is a factor that has a big influence on how people choose their means of transportation and what their travel patterns are [28]. Municipalities often have parking requirements that can be maximum, minimum or flexible.…”

“…Each of these cities has different forms of defining parking requirements. In Malmo, the parking rate is usually in the range of 0.7-1.0 space per apartment in multi-family buildings (excluding guest parking lots) but if the houses are connected to carpool facilities or if exceptionally good connections by public transportation exist or are being made, the value may be lowered to 0.5 car parking space per apartment [28].…”

“…It is possible to further reduce the values of the coefficients by additional means such as, e.g., car-sharing, car-pooling, bike-pooling. Additionally, each apartment (regardless of size) requires 0.05 parking space for visitors [28].…”

“…Examples of such specific situations include flats with good access to a car pool, student flats, flats for the elderly and flats for people with more or less cars than the average. The statutory number of parking spaces varies from 0.5 to 1.4 spaces per apartment (plus 0.07-0.1 spaces per flat for visitors) [28].…”