Morning
Back in March of 2026, Standards Australia discontinued the process which had generated the Draft update of AS2890.1. The advice from Standards Australia at the time was:
Standards Australia is committed to safeguarding the wellbeing of all Australians. As part of this commitment, we develop and update Australian Standards in response to emerging needs, evidence and national trends.
Recent research identified a clear increase in the size of vehicles being purchased and driven in Australia. This trend highlighted the need to review the existing parking bay standard to ensure it continues to reflect contemporary behaviours and supports public safety.
In 2023, Standards Australia proposed an update to increase the size of parking bays based on data on the size and scales of vehicles in Australia. Public interest in the draft standard was significant, generating more than 1,200 public comment submissions during the consultation period. The Technical Committee, comprising independent experts, undertook a comprehensive review of all feedback received.
Following an assessment and industry discussions, it has determined that the proposed changes to the standard will be reconsidered and will no longer move forward in their current format.
Further work on updating the standard is subject to a proposal from Standards Australia and engagement with the Technical Committee (CE-001).
There were some interesting implications arising from the proposed changes:
- sight distance provisions for accesses to development sites - residential or otherwise. Prior standard is based on pedestrian movements (speed, size, etc). Regulation and technology changes permit higher speed devices along the footpath (for example electric bikes / scooters which can move at much higher speeds). Sight distance considerations need to take into account the use of the road frontage (cycleway for example) and account for the expected movements rather than defaulting to a dated approach.
- vehicle sizes across the fleets continue to change - increases in the B85 and B99 vehicle dimensions impact dimensions for a number of elements within the Standard. The main outcome of this was an increase in area required for the same number of parking spaces (or potentially the alternative is to allow more time and number of manoeuvres to access and depart a parking space for a proportion of the fleet) and clearance height.
One of the challenges in applying standards is to understand where/why a requirement exists and what change in factors/layout may require a change to the advice in the Standard - the variables being considered in developing a car park design vary from site to site.
There is no information at the moment on the resumption of the review of AS2890.1.
Dave Niven
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David Niven
Fairfield City Council
Group Manager - City Projects
FAIRFIELD NSW
Australia
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