Parking isn't as important as restaurant owners think

[Tonymercury]

https://theconversation.com/parking-isn ... %20it%20is

[CCCC]

https://theconversation.com/parking-isn ... %20it%20is

Cant say I agree with article , if your someone who does not have easy access to public transport and you know its going to be to hard to try and get a park your not going to bother dinning in an area
thats with limited parking, suspect brisbane has had no parking fees after a certain time so would attract the dinners but now charging them can see where the guy in article is coming from.

[boronia]

But if you can't get to one area by PT, you go another area that you can get to. Things balance out.

If you go by car, you might find the area is parked out already, and all those cars are not going to just one place, so an individual restaurant might be little better off than if there was no parking at all.

In my area, local businesses are complaining about loss of parking due to lightrail construction, but from my observations most of the cars that parked in the vicinity belonged to staff/owners of the businesses. Does this encourage or discourage casual customers?

[Tonymercury]

[/quote]see where the guy in article is coming from.[/quote]

Actually a woman, coming from this -

http://atrf.info/papers/2015/files/ATRF ... ion_84.pdf

[krustyklo]

I would expect common sense would suggest whichever mode puts the maximum number of people past your premises who are able to stop and eat there, or the greatest amount of access in the smallest possible space (eg a railway station would potentially put more people per hour past a premises opposite it or close by than having two car parks out the front and another hundred 600m away for the 2 km worth of shops on both sides of the road).

I have to be honest, if I owned a restaurant or coffee shop on a tram line, I wouldn't be bothering with the two parking spots out front and another hundred vaguely nearby to generate my revenue. I'd be advertising anyone showing a Myki gets 5% off to encourage people to get off at the stop, buy a coffee, and catch the next tram (in the case of a coffee shop) or to encourage workers going home to get off, call a few friends or family to come down, eat a meal together, then go home on the tram. Or walk from nearby to my shop then to the tram or vice versa. 80 or 140 people passing every 3-5 minutes in peak hour will do a lot more to fill my hypothetical restaurant, especially given they are free to get off the tram nearby, than people who need to park a car somewhere. I've been by both car and tram to Lygon and Brunswick Sts in Melbourne, and the tram wins for ease hands down compared to either street parking (lol) or off street parking where you pay by the hour. Plus you can drink without counting if you get there and home by tram.

The only business model I have seen for a coffee business that successfully relies predominantly on passing cars is a guy with a coffee van who parks in Sherbourne Rd Eltham just south of the railway bridge in a drive through dirt road bay where there's often 2 or 3 cars waiting when I go by on the 902 bus. There's a more permanent version in Greensborough Rd Watsonia that seems to do OK too.

As another data point, there was a similar study done for Sydney Rd as well although I can't find it online at this point in time after about 10 minutes googling...

[neilrex]

But if you can't get to one area by PT, you go another area that you can get to. Things balance out.

What you are assuming there, is that the problem with public transport access lies at the destination end, where the restaurant is.

On the other hand, for a large proportion of potential restaurant customers, the problem with accessing restaurants by public transport isn't necessarily at the destination end, it's at the home end .. where they live. Particular at night, when most people are likely to eat out. And particularly if you are not intending to dine alone.

[boronia]

The survey said 40% of customers came by PT, so I think it would be safe to assume they will return by PT, so they must have a means of access back to the home end.

[krustyklo]

On the other hand, for a large proportion of potential restaurant customers, the problem with accessing restaurants by public transport isn't necessarily at the destination end, it's at the home end .. where they live. Particular at night, when most people are likely to eat out. And particularly if you are not intending to dine alone.

The other assumption here though is that there is a need for everyone to be able to access the restaurant via public transport. In reality, you just need enough. It would be interesting to perform a similar study for restaurants in Lygon or Brunswick Sts, Melbourne. I would hazard a guess more people use other modes including PT than car quite simply because parking there is very limited in provision and time limit. From a restaurant point of view, surely 70 people passing every 5 minutes is worth more than a couple of spots out the front or a couple of hundred 400m metres away shared with 50 other similar establishments? Also, the catchment along a tram route would be fairly significant I would think, certainly within a 15-20 minute tram ride.

If I go to a middle or outer suburban pub in areas with limited PT, I will drive. When I lived near the 86 in Bundoora, it wasn't unusual to tram it to the inner suburbs simply because it was easier and I could have a few drinks. Indeed, even now living in middle suburbia, I will train or Smartbus it for similar reasons because the threshold of convenience with frequent enough services makes it easy to use PT, and driving and parking in some parts of Melbourne means I won't even bother making the trip at all otherwise.

[captainch]

were we live in nth qld our local pub & FOOD STRIP provide a full sised bus you call up they come pick you up FREE so you can drink & not worry about booze bus.........as they say if you loose your lience we loose money as you won't be back its good for every one! as there is NO public transport & on state of origin nights there can be up to 2,000 ppl big screen/ playground & THE BEACH IS CLOSE BY! great place to live!