Fires In Enclosed Car Park
March 8, 2009
Fires in car parks are fortunately quite rare, but, although there have been few deaths or injuries recorded to date in the UK, there are concerns regarding new and emerging risks from modern cars and alternative fuels.
It is essential that the Building Regulations (via Approved Document B (Fire safety) (AD B)) are able to offer the best practicable and proportional guidance for the fire safety and fire protection of buildings which are above, or contain, enclosed car parks. Â The UK Government’s Communities and Local Government Sustainable Buildings Division have therefore commissioned BRE to carry out a three year project to examine fire spread in car parks.
The basis for the existing guidance in AD B for fire safety strategies in car parks relates to fire initiation and fire growth, and is based on research involving cars whose design is (now) decades old. There is increasing and widespread concern about the effect of modern car design on the ignition and growth of fires (e.g. increasing electrical power, greater use of insulation materials, plastic fuel tanks) and how these fires may spread to other vehicles parked adjacently or nearby; by thermal radiation, direct flame impingement or running fuel fires (from a fuel spill or tank rupture). This concern has been heightened by the increasing numbers of cars powered by alternative fuels such as LPG, and the possibility of cars using hydrogen.
Source:Â Â Â Â Â http://www.bre.co.uk
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Hong Kong – No. 1 freest economy
February 13, 2009
Hong Kong – Hong Kong was on Tuesday ranked the world’s freest economy for the 15th consecutive year in a survey by the US think-tank the Heritage Foundation.
Singapore was again ranked second in the annual study, followed by Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. The US was ranked sixth, one place lower than last year.
At the opposite end of the survey, North Korea was ranked the world’s most restricted economy, followed by Zimbabwe, Cuba, Myanmar and Eritrea.
Hong Kong scored 90 out of 100 in the rankings, 0.3 points more than in 2008 and some 30 points above the world average of 59.5 points.
Of the 10 individual areas assessed, Hong Kong ranked first in trade freedom, investment freedom and financial freedom and was in the top 10 for business freedom, monetary freedom and property rights.
The pro-free market foundation said Hong Kong was one of the world’s leading financial centres and said its regulation of banking and financial services was transparent and efficient.
Responding to the survey, Hong Kong’s financial secretary John Tsang said: “We are determined to uphold Hong Kong as the freest economy in the world.
“We see the role of the government as that of a facilitator. We can provide a business-friendly environment where all firms can compete on a level playing field.”
A total of 179 global economies were judged on 10 criterion, including freedom from corruption and labour freedom, to decide the Heritage Foundation rankings.
Source: SAPA
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LPG Automotive Tanks that May leak LPG Recalled
February 1, 2009
There has been a national recall of more than 13,500 LPG automotive tanks that may leak liquid LPG.
Axiom-brand hand taps on the tanks may have been fitted with an undersized O-rings, leading to the potential leaks.
The problem affects tanks fitted between November last year and February this year across the country.
LPG cylinder manufacturer APA is attempting to contact all motorists with the affected product.
In the meantime motorists have been advised not to refill the LPG tank, to avoid parking in a confined space and to contact their installer to have the affected part replaced.
Source:Â Â Â Â Â http://arafura.axxs.org
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Dallas’ compact-car parking spaces a growing problem
September 6, 2008
Dallas to consider changes as fitness of compact-car spaces shrinks
Like a heavy man wedged into a pair of bicycle shorts, it’s a tight fit and nobody’s too happy with the result.
While more drivers in Dallas are finding it difficult to fit their vehicles in compact-car parking spaces, Joanne Pratt worries that if the city eliminates the spaces, there will be fewer places to park.
Yet compact-car parking spaces seem to be everywhere in Dallas, especially on the day after Christmas when lots are full and the last thing you want to do is decide whether a decent parking spot is worth a door ding or a trip through an open window.
Now, after years of complaints from drivers and developers, the Dallas City Council appears poised to do something next year about the narrow spaces that so often crop up between behemoth SUVs.
“I have a small car, and it doesn’t even fit in these spaces. It’s virtually impossible to get in and out of the car,” said council member Angela Hunt, whose four-door Audi tests the 7 ½ -foot width of a compact space.
A standard parking space is a foot wider. But sometime in the late 1980s, no one seems to recall exactly when, the city adopted a policy that it hoped would help solve growing parking woes and nudge people toward buying smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
Like so many programs that start out with good intentions, however, it didn’t quite work out that way.
“People don’t go into a car dealership and purchase a compact car based on the fact there is compact-car parking,” District 11 council member Linda Koop said.
And as more fuel-efficient cars, including hybrids, become more common, even they are proving to be a tight fit.
“The reality of the marketplace is that even the hybrids are big,” said Theresa O’Donnell, director of the city’s Development Services department.
At a recent council meeting, Ms. Koop broached the subject of compact-car parking with an offhanded comment that she would like to see it go away.
Her aside prompted a resounding chorus from fellow council members who, almost to a person, said that changes must be made.
“It hasn’t been as effective as a lot of people thought it would be,” council member Jerry Allen said.
During a recent busy lunch rush at Eatzi’s on Oak Lawn Avenue, the problem was as clear as yellow stripes on black asphalt.
“I’d be curious to see how many people have door dings in spaces like this,” said Russ Plum of Frisco.
Mr. Plum and three friends were grabbing a quick takeaway lunch, but his friend Patrick Garcia had a tough time squeezing his Dodge Durango into one of the compact-car spots.
Mr. Garcia said that when he goes out in central Dallas “you’re forced pretty much to valet.”
The problem might be clear, but a solution could be complicated.
If the council gets rid of compact-car parking but requires developers to provide the same number of spaces per lot, more land will have to be devoted to parking. If it lowers the required number of spaces per lot, there will be less parking to go around. Less parking in lots means more parking in streets, with cars spilling into neighborhoods, such as those along Greenville Avenue.
“In some areas, it’s not as problematic. But again, where you have the restaurant adjacent to neighborhoods, it really does create friction,” said David Cossum, assistant director of Development Services.
Mr. Cossum likely will be in charge of bringing recommendations to the council next year on how to fix the compact-car parking problem.
The issue will have to be reviewed carefully, and easy solutions aren’t likely to be found, he said.
And for those drivers who are hoping to see the narrow spaces disappear at a favorite restaurant or shop, don’t hold your breath.
It’s unlikely that existing spaces will disappear in the short term, Ms. Koop said. Restriping and retrofitting lots would be costly and confusing, city planners agreed.
Neil Emmons, a veteran city plan commissioner who has studied the parking issue, said the most logical solution would be to permit new parking lots to be smaller, with the understanding that in the future, more people in Dallas will be walking or using public transportation.
“If I were going to make a recommendation, I would say reduce the number of spaces required, so that all of the spaces might have a wider stripe but require no more land usage,” he said.
As it stands, the general requirements for developers in the city are: Restaurants must have one parking space for every 100 square feet of interior space. Retail stores must have one space for every 200 square feet, and offices must have one space for every 300 square feet.
For a developer, that can quickly add up to a lot of pricey concrete.
Frequently, a builder will turn to compact spaces to fulfill the parking requirements with less concrete and less land, said Willie Cothrum, a former council member who now lobbies City Hall on behalf of businesses.
Under city ordinances, a builder can have as much as 35 percent of a lot devoted to compact-car spaces in most parts of Dallas, Mr. Cothrum said.
If council members decided to simply do away with compact-car parking without addressing parking requirements overall, developers would have to devote more land to parking, Mr. Cothrum said.
That’s something that neither developers nor council members seem to want.
“It doesn’t make any sense to do that because it’s not a good use of land,” Ms. Hunt said.
So with the new year, new kinds of parking lots are likely to be conceived in Dallas. Expect them to hold fewer vehicles but more comfortably.
“What I really think is going to happen in a lot of our new developments, we’re asking that it be sustainable, more walkable, so you’ll have less need [for] cars,” Ms. O’Donnell said.
THE PROBLEM: Narrow compact-car parking spaces that pose a tight fit even for the fuel-efficient cars for which they were intended.
CURRENT REGULATIONS: Up to 35 percent of a parking lot can be designated for compact-car spaces, which at 7 ½ -feet wide are a foot narrower than regular slots.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: Do away with compact spaces, at least in new developments. New parking lots either would have to use more land to meet current requirements, or the city would reduce the required number of spaces, meaning lots overall could be smaller.
Source: http://www.dallasnews.com
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Rome’s Car-Parking Chaos Sparks “Barbarian” Debate
September 6, 2008
Visitors leaving Rome with anecdotes of cars parked on zebra crossings, blocking pavements or two abreast on narrow streets would probably think the locals would welcome plans for a giant new carpark.
But this is Italy, where the calmest of conversations looks like a row, and debate between conservationists and modernizers over a carpark on an ancient hillside has escalated into a raging debate with both sides calling each other “barbarians.”
Some of the biggest names in Italian culture and politics – film director Franco Zeffirelli, pop star Adriano Celentano and centre-left opposition leader Walter Veltroni – are involved.
In a city that is effectively an open-air museum, bulldozers starting public works are almost always halted by archaeologists hailing the discovery of yet another ancient ruin.
Pincio hill is a Neoclassical terraced garden designed by Giuseppe Valadier in the early 19th century astride 1st Century BC ruins that conservationists have dubbed a “Secret Pompeii.”
City hall chose Pincio two years ago for a seven-storey, 726 space carpark to allow the narrow streets between Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna — one of Europe‘s poshest shopping districts – to be reserved for pedestrians.
In a city whose drivers American travel writer Bill Bryson said “park their cars the way I would park if I had just spilled a beaker of hydrochloric acid in my lap,” there is a clear need for more orderly parking and more public transport.
The debate essentially forces Romans to choose between their passion for cars – Italy has one of highest densities of car ownership in the world — and pride in their ancient culture.
The Pincio carpark was approved when Veltroni was mayor but Rome is now run by right-winger Gianni Alemanno. Traditionalists in Italy’s conservative government want him to ditch the plan — as do some leftists like Celentano, who called it “degenerate.”
In the latest round, Culture Minister Sandro Bondi – a poet – accused the centre left of turning Rome into “a supermarket for mass tourism.” In a letter to one newspaper, he proposed an international contest to solve Rome’s traffic problems.
Veltroni, a novelist and modernist, says the real barbarians are those who say “no” to anything new “in the country with the most acute ‘Nimby’ (Not in My Back Yard) syndrome in the world.”
“Without local people the centre of Rome risks becoming a giant tourist mall … and local people must have somewhere to park their cars,” he wrote in Corriere della Sera Newspaper.
Source:Â Â Â Â Â http://www.reuters.com
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