We’re seeing increased appetite for federal policy reforms, too: PRN set up a meeting last fall for Professor Donald Shoup to pitch national parking cash out to Representative Earl Blumenauer. This session, Re. Blumenauer introduced HB 8555, which would require equitable commuter benefits for workers who don’t drive!

And we’re only getting started.  

PRN has three critical projects underway to support advocates and practitioners across the country and around the world. Whether by fundraising or friend-raising (or both!) you can help us get these tools out the door and into practitioners’ advocates’ hands in 2023:

1.  We’re investing $15,000 in local parking reform organizing and advocacy. 

Parking reform activism and education is best done by folks at the local and regional level. By partnering with land use, transportation, environmental, and pro-housing organizations in communities with active reform campaigns, we strengthen our movement and multiply our impact. We’re supporting staff-hours at these organizations that allow advocates  to focus on parking reform and leverage their local knowledge and networks.

When a local partner isn’t established already, we’ll provide grassroots activists with direct support: help with a website and database, funding for materials and organizing events, and organizational support from our network of experts and volunteers. Our goal is to develop a turnkey parking reform advocacy template so advocates are spending less time on logistics and more time abolishing parking mandates.

2.  We’re training speakers to pitch comprehensive parking reform.

So you’ve just eliminated (or significantly reduced) your parking mandates? What comes next? It turns out, a lot of things! 

We’re developing a template presentation for reformers to give on what comes AFTER parking minimums are eliminated. On-street parking management – permits and meters – and investing parking revenues back into the community to reduce car dependency are just as important as zoning changes if we want to build sustainable and equitable communities. Advocates will also need help once minimums have been eliminated but improved transit and walkability hasn’t yet come to fruition. This presentation will support local affordable housing advocates who may still be working on their campaign to reduce parking minimums, and how to A) win their campaign by answering “the parking question” and also B) avoiding backlash and possible regression once they win. 

With your help we’ll be able to offer the script, slides, and training to our members across the country. When we meet our goal, we’ll be able to take the show on the road and present in local communities and at conferences. 

3. We’re advising state and other government agencies already in the thick of parking reforms, who need technical and/or communication support. 

For better or worse, most places adopting policy reforms are apt to see what their peers have done and propose something similar. As more states and regional governments mandate parking reforms for their cities and counties, we can help ensure that best practices are adopted to meet the requirements. We are developing short educational courses and white papers to assist planners and legislators as they design and implement parking reforms.

Funding this program will allow us to track parking reform campaigns, raise the profile of the national parking reform movement, and offer direct and timely assistance to advocates on the edge of victory.

More about PRN:

In case you’re not already familiar, the Parking Reform Network is a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to educate the public about the impact of parking policy on transportation, housing affordability, equity, and climate change. Our goal is to inspire and support a nationwide network of parking reformers, made up of consultants, elected officials, city staff, and grassroots activists, by providing high-quality educational materials and resources to lobby for change in a data-driven and innovative manner. Launched in 2019, the network now has members in 5 continents, and in 26 US states. Members include elected and appointed officials, planners, consultants, professors, students, activists, and journalists. 

At its most basic, parking reform is the use of policies and activism to discourage the building of too much parking supply and encourage more equitable, efficient and sustainable management of existing parking supply.

A collaborative community, we inspire and support parking reformers across the United States, and, increasingly, around the world. PRN is a space for consultants, elected officials, city staff, and grassroots activists alike to access and share high-quality educational materials and resources to lobby for change in a data-driven and innovative manner.

Please give what you can, tell your friends and colleagues, and sign up to become a PRN member today!

Together, we will grow the ranks of parking reformers across the country & around the world. 

In gratitude,

Tony, Enrique, Patrick, Lindsay, Chelsea, Madeline & the PRN team