Street parking, ah yes.
We once had a deputy prime minister in the UK (the post somewhat of a novelty in itself as much as in its appointee; incidentally, his nom de guerre was "Two Jags") who decided that the way to tackle excess car ownership in the UK was to legally prevent local government planning departments insisting on more than one off road car parking space per property.
Of course, the developers were quite sanguine about this as they could put more of the land into apartments than into car parking.
As a policy it has proven a remarkable instrument.
Now, when putting up a block of 2 & 3 bedroom flats (apartments, for our colonial cousins) each one has only a single allocated parking place.
Of course few families moving into two or three bedroom flats will only have one car. More importantly, when considering the more expensive 1 and 2 bed luxury properties even a married couple usually has more than a single car.
So naturally enough, the limited off road parking provided did not, as Two Jags expected, result in abandonment of second cars but in an increase in street parking. In fact, it made worse the very problem it was intended to address... but nothing new in that, the law of unintended consequences as never been familiar to politicians.
Now that the law has been relaxed a little, we might expect some return to planning offices requiring more reasonable (and realistic) provisions.
For those properties with only one allocated parking space and no available land, the pop-up garage might well be a solution.
Of course, given the rainfall in this country, it may require some considerable investment in drainage or in automatic sump pumps.
Off course, since the current Prime Minister, in his effort to garner laurels from Mr President and Al Gore NL, has now decided that the UK shall become the worlds premier country for electric car ownership ... (possibly he hopes his "green" credentials will allow him to be able to trade his collection of US playable CDs for something more practicable on his next jolly to the US).
Quite how all those street parked cars will replenish their batteries has yet to be determined.
JMW