Parking Reform Network

Announcements

Event: How we won parking cash-out for Washington, D.C., and how you can too!

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Date: March 30th
Time: 7-8pm Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Cheryl Cort
Cheryl Cort

The Parking Reform Network is excited to welcome Cheryl Cort, the Policy Director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth to speak about the campaign for a Washington D.C. bill to require parking cash-out as part of employee commuter benefits. The “Transportation Benefits Equity Amendment Act” passed in April 2020 requires employers who provide free or subsidized parking to also offer benefits to employees who choose other ways to commute to work, such as taking transit, walking or biking. In a city where most residents don’t even drive to work, this is a big victory!

Why should parking reformers pay attention to parking cash-out? For starters, parking cash-out can reduce the need for new or existing employee parking and the costs of leasing more space. Secondly, parking reform policies sometimes can clash with drivers who want free or plentiful parking, or communities that have limited transportation options, as it may be unclear what the immediate benefit is to them. However, parking cash-out is one idea that may quickly find supporters from more diverse groups. As Donald Shoup (who first developed the idea) wrote, parking cash-out comes close to the goal of pareto optimality:

Parking cash-out makes many people better off while making few, if any, worse off. Commuters are better off because they get a flexible new fringe benefit, one that allows each person to choose the commute option best for her or him. Employers are better off because offering the new fringe benefit costs them little or nothing, and helps to attract and retain workers. The government is better off because tax revenues increase with no change in the tax rates. Finally, society is better off with less traffic and cleaner air. Economists describe a change as “Pareto optimal” if it makes some people better off without making others worse off—a great asset in public policy.

Shoup, Donald “Parking Cash Out”

Sounds like a win-win for all! Join this free event and get some insights on how parking cash-out can be won in your city: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcoce2srzMuH9HdHfw-w5BelLGF-guiwhnM

We’ll have a Q&A and breakout session with Cheryl after her presentation.

This free event is made possible by members like you.

Best Parking Policies of 2020

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By Jane Wilberding, Lindsay Bayley, and Tony Jordan

As we conclude our first year as an organization, we would like to reflect on recent accomplishments made in the area of parking reform throughout the U.S. and across the globe. Below is the Parking Reform Network’s summary of the best parking reform policies that came out of what proved to be a tumultuous year for so many.

One of the biggest areas for reform was in the continued elimination of minimum parking requirements. A range of communities, from big cities like Edmonton, to mid-size cities like Pittsburgh and Traverse City, to Hamlet (IN), have chosen to remove the mandate to build car parking with new development. 

Portland passed what is arguably the best low-density zoning reform in the US, which included eliminating parking requirements on 3/4th of the land in the city. By allowing builders to provide the amount of parking their future tenants may need, the housing market can become more responsive to changing needs. Small scale developers will have an easier time building housing, and they’ll be shifting away from subsidizing driving. 

Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) have also continued to make news. San Diego eased car parking requirements for ADUs and Chicago eased its ban on Accessory Dwelling Units. The Windy City also made news with their Equitable Transit-Oriented Development Policy Plan. In Seattle, paid parking rates will increase or decrease in downtown and surrounding neighborhood business districts as determined by a performance-based parking program.

There was exciting news for Parking Benefit Districts laws in San Marcos, TX. By charging tourists for the most valuable parking spaces (as advisory Board member Donald Shoup advises), the City is helping to manage demand. A portion of the revenue generated from the meters would be allocated to “address littering and park rule violations by hiring additional park rangers and park maintenance crew members.” 

Washington, DC is making progress on improving the parity for commuters who do not drive through the adoption of a Parking Cash Out law. Employers with more than 20 employees who pay for their employee parking, will be required to offer all employees a commuter benefit. That way, people who pay to take transit will be on the same footing as people who drive and are given a free parking spot. The law will not go into effect until 2023.

Other cities moving forward toward reducing or removing minimum parking requirements in 2020 include: Vancouver and Calgary (studying the possibility), Honolulu (PRN member helped to get requirements reduced and in some cases, eliminated). Paris is committing to eliminate half of its car parking.

We are eager to continue to influence and document the parking reform policies in 2021.   

The Parking Reform Network has 160 members hailing from 22 of the US states and DC, three Canadian provinces, two Australian states, and Singapore. Our membership includes an impressive array of parking professionals, city planners, educators, consultants, authors, and activists.

Since our launch in March 2020 we are proud of our growth and accomplishments, including the following:

  • We have added over 600 tagged links to the Link Library for articles and resources
  • Research Intern Andrew Kiefaber conducted a survey of 14 cities’ on-street parking management policies for our parking policy report card project.  Learn more.
  • Research Intern Evan Kindler has begun a literature review of Parking Benefit Districts to assist Board Member Mike Kwan in producing the first “chapter” of a Parking Reform Playbook.
  • Communications Intern Angel York is helping us to streamline our publishing and membership communications processes to keep members better informed of our activities.  
  • Our Board graded Portlanders for Parking Reform’s candidate survey responses for the May 2020 City Council primary election.
  • We hosted a fun and informative online membership meeting in September where members got to meet each other and mingle with Don Shoup, Norman Garrick, Todd Litman, Patrick Siegman, and Paul Barter!

We’re on a roll with weekly Parking Reform News posts and we’ve got a great and growing archive of original posts on our blog.

We worked on parking reform, we are working on parking reform, and we will keep at it until parking is reformed. Please donate. And spread the word!

Become a founding member of the Parking Reform Network

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When you join PRN as a Founding Member, you will join other members in building a movement to advocate for parking reform around the country. Your dues will help cover organizational basics and allow us to develop materials and research for our programs.

Members have access to our organization’s Slack chat, our mailing list, and our members only research and materials. Members are also eligible to serve on boards and committees.

But that’s not all! Our first 100 members will receive a set of these amazing stickers, one with an exclusive “Founding Member” banner. Join PRN today to get yours.

Two stickers in the style of Uncle Sam recruitment poster by James Montgomery Flagg. Likeness of Donald Shoup replaces Uncle Sam with text saying I want you to join the parking reform network. One sticker says Founding Member in the upper left hand corner.
I want you for U.S. Army : nearest recruiting station / James Montgomery Flagg. 1917. Library of Congress, edited by Lindsay Bayley printed on a laminated 3″ x 4″ sticker.

The Parking Reform Network is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization and your dues may qualify for a charitable deduction for federal income tax purposes. Please consult with your tax advisers or the IRS for with any tax-related questions.

Introducing the Parking Reform Network

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Almost 10 years ago I read a blog post about a book called The High Cost of Free Parking. It wasn’t available at the local library so I asked my wife, who was working at the university, to see if she could get it. I soon had a copy from Oregon State University via inter library loan and very quickly I was hooked on parking reform.

As someone who didn’t study planning or transportation, I hadn’t really thought much about parking spaces or where they came from. I imagine my reaction to Professor Shoup’s revelations was similar to someone a little more than 100 years earlier reading through a copy of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle; I was horrified and angry.

Nearly a decade later and I think parking reform is more important (and possible) than ever. I’ve seen parking requirements in Portland get increased in 2013 and then reduced again in 2016. We’ve developed new permit policies, passed performance-based parking management, and we’re on the verge of joining a handful of US cities in, effectively, having no residential parking requirements city-wide. Through it all I have learned that most people still haven’t really thought about parking spaces or where they come from, but when they find out often they are shocked just like I was.

My experience here in Portland led me to believe that every city needs a parking reform champion, at least one. The evidence is strong and the arguments are compelling. A generation of planners and consultants has had the opportunity to learn about the problems with 20th century parking policy. The housing crisis in our big cities has brought parking requirements to the forefront. I believe there’s an opportunity to foster a real parking reform movement and it can’t happen soon enough.

The Parking Reform Network will be the backbone of that movement, providing information, materials, and support for parking policy advocates. We will build a library of parking regulations, articles, and literature; and we will develop a rubric for grading a municipality’s parking policy so they can be compared in an apples-to-apples fashion. [Update on this project available here.] This library will be a resource for city staff, planners, and academics as well as reformers, providing a trustworthy and up-to-date source for best practices and policy pilots.

We’ll also serve as a literal network for communications and relationship building among professionals, advocates, academics, and elected officials who are interested in parking policy reform.

Sound like something you want to see happen? Join the Parking Reform Network today!

Today there are three copies of The High Cost of Free Parking and two copies of Parking in the City available in the Multnomah County Library system. How many are in circulation in your town?