The first installment of Parking News on this site was March 3rd, 2020 and how the world has changed in a month. Here’s a roundup of links to stories about parking and transportation as they relate to the current crisis and where we go from here.
Some cities, like Spokane, WA, Vancouver, B.C., Seattle, WA, and Brisbane, AUS have stopped charging for on-street parking entirely. Other cities, including: Berkeley, CA, Salt Lake City, UT, Portland, OR, San Diego, CA, and Boulder, CO are keeping the meters on, but reducing enforcement, time stays, and generally calling for leniency and understanding during these times.
At my Parking Minute blog, I argue that cities should lower parking rates, but only as part of a performance pricing strategy that will bring them up as we return to a new normalcy.
Traditional transportation demand management is difficult to justify right now, especially for healthcare workers and some healthcare systems are looking to reduce rates and find more parking supply for their employees.
Hospital parking, however, might be harder to find in general if parking garages are turned into emergency wards for COVID-19 patients.
In Las Vegas, a city with what seems like a million shuttered hotel rooms, houseless people are sleeping in a surface lot because the shelter was too crowded for social distancing.
The parking industry is heading into rough waters. Demand is down, even if monthly contracts might be still providing revenue, and some parking operations have laid off staff.
No one knows how this will all shake out. Will we see permanent shifts in commuting habits? It’s unlikely we’ll end up exactly back where we started, Walker Consultants has some ideas for how cities can manage parking during COVID-19 and our own blog here at the Parking Reform Network features some thoughts about what parking policy looks like post-coronavirus.
All these links came out of our full link library (which is available to members of the Parking Reform Network). You can preview some of our database here, or just go ahead and join us already!