Parking Policy

Parking Policy

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Parking policy consists of local development ordinances and municipal programs that control the design, supply, and price of automobile parking. Once a bluntly-wielded tool of city planners, parking policy is now recognized as a major factor determining city form, the viability of transit services, development density, traffic volumes, and the look and feel of streets. Surplus parking encourages car ownership and car use, creating induced demand. For example, residential buildings that guarantee off-street parking promote driving over walking and transit. Outdated parking policies (i.e., generic, suburban-style parking minimums) thwart efforts to provide more transportation choices, reduce vehicle congestion, protect historic buildings, and revitalize downtowns.

For decades, cities throughout the United States adopted minimum parking requirements for new development, with little appreciation for the unintended consequences. Most ordinances were based on suburban examples, where the number of spaces utilized by a single land use was clear. The required parking ratios were applied to dense urban areas, usually 3-5 spaces per 1000 square feet of floor area, or 1 space per bedroom for dwellings. During the 1950’s through the 1980’s, when downtowns were in decline and land was inexpensive, large buildings were frequently demolished to create surface parking lots. This created uncomfortable gaps in the pedestrian network (also known as the urban fabric), and flooded urban areas with traffic. It also undermined transit services, which rely on convenient walking distances between uses, and which compete well for riders when parking is scarce and therefore expensive.

Example of a parking policy

This parking policy is built on the assumption that almost every resident, shopper and business will travel exclusively by car. Since these kinds of policies lead to large parking lots and provide free parking, traffic increases and the area may become even less friendly to people who walk, take public transit or bike to their destinations. Notice that this policy sets a minimum number of spaces. In many urban areas it may make more sense to set a maximum number of spaces, and require no minimum.

Rethinking Parking Requirements

Research during the 1980’s and 1990’s, led primarily by Professor Donald Shoup at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed that parking policies were undermining the economies of urban areas, hurting retail sales, and increasing traffic congestion. It was also shown that many suburban building codes required more spaces than needed unnecessarily increasing the costs of good and services and creating pedestrian-unfriendly “dead space” around buildings.

Shoup and his colleagues noted that “bundling” the cost of parking with building leases required anyone who used or did business in a particular building to participate in subsidizing anyone who used the attached parking. “Unbundling” the cost of parking from building rents has emerged as a necessary first step in reforming the allocation and use of parking.

In New York City, there is growing concern that free parking in new residential buildings will cause a steep rise in car ownership and traffic congestion. In August 2008, the organization Transportation Alternatives issued an urgent report [3] calling for significant reform to city parking policy. Their recommendations include: eliminating minimum parking requirements, lowering parking requirements in areas close to transit, prohibiting curb cuts for parking facilities on pedestrian-oriented streets, and reduced housing prices for car-free households.

Disrupting the Pedestrian Environment

Parking lots and off-street parking spaces almost always present obstacles for pedestrians. This photo (below) of the Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn proves that even modest off-street parking can deter those on foot. Constructed in 1908, the building on the left forms a safe, continuous pathway for walkers. The block on the right was built in the 1980’s, with greater parking requirements; vehicles cross the sidewalk at multiple points. The neighborhood shifts from “pedestrian-oriented to car-oriented as the pedestrian environment is undermined” [3].

Parking Policy Innovations

Many cities, primarily on the west coast of the United States, have instituted parking policy innovations:

Pricing

Many merchants mistakenly believe free parking attracts the most customers. In reality, parking is a scarce resource that should be appropriately priced to encourage desired levels of use. In commercial areas, on-street and off-street rates and parking duration limits should be finely tuned to parking demand, to encourage turnover of spaces, which helps support retail sales. For example, rates may increase significantly after two hours or duration may be set at 2-3 hours. Retail employees are thereby discouraged from occupying the most convenient spaces, perhaps being directed to another mode, or to less expensive spaces in a parking facility or a less busy street. Ideally, rates between on-street and off-street spaces should be similar, with the most convenient spaces priced the highest. This is contrary to the usual practice, where parking meter rates are minimal and spaces in parking structures are set far higher, reflecting the cost of providing them. This results in drivers “cruising” for parking, adding significantly to traffic and pollution. [1]

Wayfinding Signage

Drivers may be directed to a parking structure or other less visible facility by special signage.

Parking Meter Districts

In retail areas, parking meter districts allow all or a portion of parking meter revenues to be returned to the local neighborhood, to fund streetscape improvements, dedicated planning staff, extra and other infrastructure or services.

Shared Parking

To reduce the overall parking burden, municipalities encourage or broker shared parking agreements between uses with complimentary parking demands. For example, a bank lease spaces to a nearby movie theatre or restaurant for evening use only.

Parking design

In dense urban areas, many cities have instituted design requirements to limit the deadening effect of parking facilities on the pedestrian environment. Some examples are requiring landscaping or public art surrounding surface lots, prohibiting new surface parking lots except as a temporary use, and mandating active retail uses on the first floor of multistory parking structures. Diagonal parking is also replacing parallel parking, in order to calm traffic and provide more spaces per linear foot of curb space. Reverse diagonal parking (pictured) is also being used to provide greater visibility for drivers pulling out of the parking space. This is especially helpful to bicyclists.

Eliminate parking minimums

In many cities, parking minimums have been eliminated or replaced with parking maximums. In some cases, historic buildings are exempt from parking requirements, to encourage their preservation and re-use. Another approach is to allow developers to pay a fee toward off-site parking in lieu of providing the required parking spaces on-site. Collected “in-lieu” fees may help fund the lease or construction of a centrally located parking structure, and merchants may provide parking validation to customers who use this facility.

Parking Cash-Out

An innovation introduced by Donald Shoup is “parking cash-out.” With Shoup’s encouragment, in 1994 the California legislature passed a parking cash-out law requiring any business with 50 or more employees which leases parking spaces separately from its rent, to offer its employees the cash equivalent in lieu of a parking space. This payment could be used for an alternative commuting mode or simply pocketed. Because there was no enforcement mechanism included in the legislation, it has been widely ignored. However, in individual cases where it was instituted, the use of alternative modes, particularly transit, increased dramatically.

With the publication of The High Cost of Free Parking [2]in 2005, Donald Shoup brought increased attention to parking policy as a critical component of urban planning and transportation reforms.