News

Parking Reform Network Posts

• Are Parking Authorities Obsolete? If you’re wondering what a parking authority is or why they exist, PRN Board Member Mike Kwan has you covered in his post
• How Do We Grade Parking? This is the second of a series of posts by PRN Research Intern Andrew Kiefaber. Part one is here.

Minimum Parking Requirements

• An Assemblymember in the California State Legislature has proposed a bill which would prohibit residential car parking requirements near transit, statewide.
• Guest column: Parking reform will help us create a sustainable future for Bend
• The author of that column, PRN member Melanie Kebler also posted a great twitter thread about her efforts in Bend, OR
• Laramie, WY is debating whether to reduce parking requirements by 30-50%

City News

• Charlottesville, VA weighs whether $10 million slated for a car parking garage could be better spent on other things.
• St. Louis, MO is redirecting $5 million from it’s parking reserves to fill COVID-19 related budget shortfalls.
• Denver, CO’s transit board wants to redevelop underused park-and-ride lots into housing for humans.
• A scenic outlook in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA will begin using a reservation system to manage some of it’s car parking stalls.
• Hoboken, NJ is increasing parking meter rates to aim for a Shoupian 85% occupancy.
• People living in their vehicles on Los Angeles, CA streets may face more difficulties in keeping their homes from being towed.

Odds and Ends

• For Cities, Less Traffic Means Lost Revenue
• How to Pay Bus Fares and Parking Meters in Google Maps
• Prepare For Gridlock If Future For Autonomous Vehicles Is Plentiful Cheap Journeys

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We bring you this week’s parking reform news, big and small. Sometimes small things add up. Not having to stand on your tippy toes to pay parking. The ability to pay cash. Plugging in your EV. Have a look!

Better Uses for Car Parking

• A former K-Mart cat parking lot in St. Paul, MN will become nearly 400 workforce and senior homes.
• Streetsblog explores innovations in curbside secure bike parking.
• An underground car parking lot in East Lansing, MI is being used as a socially-distant farmer’s market.
• A Swedish national experiment called “one-minute city” repurposes curbside car parking for more active uses.
• COVID has lead to many places streamlining and expanding programs to use curb space for higher purposes than car parking.

Opinions

• Californians who live in multifamily housing such as apartments face an extra hurdle to electric vehicle ownership; changing the green building code can help.
• Removing free parking in Vancouver is in the best interest for the environment.

City News

• Leicester, England is the latest British city to implement a Workplace Parking Levy
• Ann Arbor, MI is considering zoning changes, including fewer required car parking spaces, to allow for more housing to be built.
• Colonial Williamsburg, VA continues to implement a performance based parking management plan.
• Parking near this Oceanside, NY post office is “at a premium,” but not enough of a premium to pay for.
• Auburn, AL is building a 350 stall parking garage, but only charges $1 an hour to park at the curb until 6pm, weekdays.
• The saga of the Surf City, NC paid parking initiative is approaching the final steps.

Parking Meters and Enforcement

• Saint John, New Brunswick council looks to increase parking ticket fines
•  New Bedford Drivers Rack Up $100K in Parking Ban Fines
• The meter vendor in Santa Cruz. CA donated $18,000 in holiday service fees to a local charity.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• Brisbane parking meters to be permanently cashless
• ‘Tiptoe Reach’: Tall Parking Meters Causing Issues In Watertown
• Minneapolis mosque says Park Board’s refusal to sell land for parking infringes on religious liberty
• Greensboro, NC wants to disallow people with unpaid parking tickets from renewing their car registrations.

You can support a parking reform movement. Join the network or donate today.

We’re trying a different format for the news. Less narrative, more bullet points. Let us know what you think (if you have an opinion).

Now for the bite-size narrativeish note.

Editor’s notable link: saving car parking spots after a snowstorm. As neither a driver nor a person who lives in a snowy climate, I’d like to hear discussion on the pros and cons of this tradition. Also – when did this practice start? Has it been around as long as parking spots? What other non-car items do people park in dug-out car parking spots? I’m hoping this is a safe topic, like asking about whether various foods are sandwiches.

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Minimum Car Parking Requirements

• PRN Member Nathaniel Barrett has another great thread covering Dallas, TX moves toward lowering required car parking ratios.
• Bend, Oregon councilor proposes city consider removing minimum car parking requirements.
• Toronto Could Remove Car Parking Minimums for New Developments
• Toronto to consider ending car parking minimums on new developments, imposing maximums instead
• Seattle’s reduced parking minimums cut 18,000 stalls and saved over $500 million

Opinions and Op-Eds

• San Franciscans are being asked by the group Urban Environmentalists to sign a petition to start charging for residential on-street car parking.
• There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and no free Old Pasadena parking
• Why is Koreatown parking so bad?
• A Chance to Reclaim the Historic Core of Black Indianapolis
• Should residents of new apartments without on-site parking in Philadelphia have access to permits or is it time for a permit parking blacklist?
• Hartford needs to be a walkable city to thrive, but the city is built around cars rather than people

City News

• Neighbors Fight Elmhurst Restaurant’s Parking Lot Plan
• Most NYers Would Trade Free Parking For Safer Streets, Survey Says
• Pre-pandemic commuters ditch BART parking permits
• Court backs Florida church’s freedom to welcome beachgoers — for now
• Brussels will make slopes of Justice Palace car-free from March
• This Abandoned Parking Garage in Paris Is Now a Mushroom Farm
• City of Naples may have a solution to parking problems [The “solution” is a parking garage… – Ed.]
• Why this Silicon Valley Toyota dealership is turning its car lot into apartments
• Nashville’s expanded ‘sidewalk cafe’ permit extended another year
• Metro Nashville launches Smart Zone to better manage the curb
• 74-unit apartment building proposed for 17th Street in downtown St. Pete

Enforcement

• Court bans app that prevents parking fines in Amsterdam lawsuit
• New parking fines of €40 proposed for Dublin city centre
• Parking Spot Saver Warns, ‘Don’t Park Here. It Be War’
• SCDOT tells Isle of Palms to restore beach parking, rolls back prior approval

Studies, Research, and Reports

• How zoning keeps the number of low-emission neighborhoods artificially low
• This is an interesting survey of the price of residential street parking permits, it’s not perfect, but it’s a good start!

This Week’s News in Map Format

The first in a series of posts describing the work of PRN Research Intern Andrew Kiefaber on our efforts to compare the parking policies of various cities has been posted, check it out.

The big news last week was the vote in Berkeley, CA to eliminate most of the city’s car parking requirements and implement maximums in much of the city. Patrick Siegman ponders why Berkeley (and many other cities) required blind people to purchase car parking spots. Will Toronto, ON be the next city to eliminate car parking requirements? Dan Bertolet at Sightline details two bills in Washington state which could lead to widespread parking reforms.

The evidence against required car parking continues to mount. A recent study from UC Santa Cruz and UCLA researchers shows a strong correlation between building parking spaces and excess auto ownership. Another study, this one based in Chicago, concludes that car parking requirements hold back development at transit oriented locations. So what to do? This thread explains work in Washington, DC to evaluate transit-oriented housing projects for overabundant car parking, developers who choose to build excess car parking have to pay for additional mitigation.

Vancouver, BC may expand car parking permits to all residential neighborhoods. Charleston, SC will allow businesses on historic King St. to expand their operations without expanding their car storage supply. Ann Arbor, MI is exploring options to allow larger residential buildings, likely with less car parking, outside of downtown. Albany, NY will use eminent domain to force the sale and redevelopment of several “Parking Lot District” parcels. And the first multi-family housing development with no car parking in Austin, TX has broken ground.

Transportation for America has been studying how COVID-19 impacted curb management and how cities adapted. Citizens in Pasadena, CA are angry about the prospect of losing free car parking in public garages. But in North Carolina, paid car parking is going coastal at a trio of beach towns: Surf City, North Topsail Beach, and Beaufort. Further south, in Jacksonville, FL the city council has approved $3.5 million to assist in the building of a parking garage. The deal facilitates a plan to redevelop prime waterfront land that currently is a parking lot.

Finally, in parking enforcement news, a class action suit in Montreal, QC alleges that the parking meters deceptively overcharged city residents. And hazardous car parking in Ahmedabad, India is blocking streets and sidewalks, residents want a resumption of a citywide car parking crackdown which had previously brought the problem under control.

You can support a parking reform movement. Join the network or donate today.