Free Parking: “A Fertility Drug for Cars”
Decatur Metro | August 17, 2010This past Saturday’s New York Times featured an op-edy sorta piece from a George Mason prof on the economic effects of parking requirements.
If developers were allowed to face directly the high land costs of providing so much parking, the number of spaces would be a result of a careful economic calculation rather than a matter of satisfying a legal requirement. Parking would be scarcer, and more likely to have a price — or a higher one than it does now — and people would be more careful about when and where they drove.
The subsidies are largely invisible to drivers who park their cars — and thus free or cheap parking spaces feel like natural outcomes of the market, or perhaps even an entitlement. Yet the law is allocating this land rather than letting market prices adjudicate whether we need more parking, and whether that parking should be free. We end up overusing land for cars — and overusing cars too. You don’t have to hate sprawl, or automobiles, to want to stop subsidizing that way of life.
…Imposing higher fees for parking may make further changes more palatable by helping to promote higher residential density and support for mass transit.
Of course this is easier said than done, as the expectation of free parking is a national issue, which individual communities must struggle with locally. How do you weigh the parking expectations of out-of-towners looking to spend money in your city with the realities of how parking is affecting your urban landscape?
Latest from Decaturish
I have no idea, except that my suburban friends flip-the-f**k out at the prospect of paying for parking. It gets tiresome hearing them complain.
First thought: a community like Decatur choosing to get out on the bleeding edge on this issue–and I wish we would–should do an extraordinary job of PR about it. Not just announce it once, but proactively wage a full-blown campaign, over time, that frames the choice appropriately and doesn’t leave room for mis-interpretation (e.g., the city is gouging people, Decatur wants to keep people out, etc.). The objective being to make all the folks who think it’s outrageous to pay so much for parking, want to come to Decatur anyway. (Including ourselves.)
Second thought: I’d REALLY be interested to hear from some of our local merchants about how critical “outlanders” are to their profit and success. Somebody asked this question the other day and I don’t remember if anybody chimed in or not. But it’s clearly (in my murky mind) important to understand.
Third thought: I like to think I only use my car when I really need to. In fact, I use it nearly everywhere I go. If it cost me what it should cost to park in downtown Decatur, though, you can bet I would recalibrate the whole “faster/more comfortable vs. greener/more responsible” equation. Bet I’m not alone. I’d still go, but more often on my two feet or two wheels.
Has everyone checked out the Decatur parking study done last year? Lots of interesting stuff in there.
Including of the 20 business owners who replied to a survey, only 5% stated that there was too much parking in Decatur, while 50% said there was too much parking, and 45% said there was too much parking in some places and not enough in others.
I’m inclined to agree with the 45%-ers. But still, how do you get people to use the parking there is, where it is? Asheville has a couple of lots roughly the sise of the courthouse parking lot, and on the weekends, they’re free. Where they’re different from the courthouse lot is that they’re clean, brightly painted, well-lit, and there are signs all over the place telling you where they are, and signs in the lots themselves pointing the way to get to the shopping district. How come Decatur can’t just do this with some of the spaces it already has? (And yes, I’m aware the the City doesn’t own the courthouse parking lot– but couldn’t something be worked out with the County?) Surely that, combined with revamping the ordinance requiring a certain nimber of spaces per sq.ft. of store space, would pay off in the long run. These aren’t new ideas, because a number of people have discussed them on this blog. I just wonder if they’re ever brought up at the Commission meetings.
Don’t forget another HUGE factor in this debate is the surrounding residential neighborhoods, which will almost certainly fight tooth and nail against any reductions in parking requirements.
I have been a vocal opponent of parking variances for commercial developments in areas abutting residential neighborhoods. I am strongly against these variances but I would be in favor of an overall plan to reduce the amount of free parking space available in the city.
I agree that lots of free parking is a dis – incentive to alternative transportation methods. As the article above says – the way to get people out of their cars is to make parking scarce and expensive. To me that means not only the parking right next to the store or restaurant but also the parking spaces around the corner in the residential neighborhood. I don’t know how to do this – perhaps resident parking only zones or maybe meters in neighborhoods near commercial district with exemptions for residents ?
What neighborhoods have fought against are accommodations made to developers in the name of parking reform that really just serve to push the parking issue off the main streets and into the neighborhoods.
Last night I walked past Taqueria in the midst of the dinner hour. The TDS parking lot was full , Fairview building lot half full. I did a rough count. Half the cars had City of Decatur license plates on the front. Our parking issues are not just about out of towners driving to our restaurants.
…maybe meters in neighborhoods near commercial district with exemptions for residents
I love this because it gets away from the ambiguity of parking good vs. parking bad and gets down to the heart of what people are afraid of — that their quality of life will be impacted because someone else’s problem (parking capacity) is being offloaded on them.
Install meters with resident sticker exceptions (plus maybe one guest pass per household) in adjacent neighborhoods, add them to the PALs enforcement area, do additional hires so someone can patrol daytime and evening, and there you go.
It may or may not be the perfect solution but it’s proof that, approached creatively, it doesn’t have to be one side wins, one side loses. We can do something that’s fair all around.
Parking is a huge subsidy that drivers enjoy. We rarely calculate it in our comparisons of the cost of transit versus driving. If you look at aerial photo of downtown Atl, the predominate land use is for storing cars. What a waste of space! Surface lots also add to the urban heat island and create large amounts of stormwater runoff. A decked parking space costs upwards from $20,000 per space. Multi-family housing includes the costs of that parking into the price/rent, which is amortorized. Condo owners who don’t own a car are really getting screwed. Merchants absorb the cost of parking and build it into their prices. Shoppers who walk, bike or otherwise don’t use a parking space are paying for the parking of drivers.
Is this even an issue in Decatur?
I’ve heard complaints about lack of parking holding back the growth of our town’s business’ but I’ve never seen a lack of parking even on the busiest nights. Between the pay lot on Church the pay garage on Ponce, the free after hours courthouse garage the free garage off of Commerce. hundreds of street spots plus the lots for individual business’ .
There’s tons of free and cheap parking in downtown Decatur.
Someone prove to me this parking scarcity complaint has merit.
Sounds like you haven’t had a chance to read the article. No, we don’t have a scarcity of parking spaces in Decatur. But we could have, if we wanted to. If we stopped requiring developers to provide so much parking, then available spaces would be fewer and would cost more to use. The artificial subsidy would be gone, or at least reduced. That sounds like a good idea to me, except for the negative impact it might have on our businesses. That’s why I’m curious to hear from them about this notion. Somebody–some community–needs to forge ahead, but I wouldn’t advocate sacrificing our local merchants to do it.
This is only a tangential issue, but why are people so averse to underground parking lots? I always use the underground lot at the Edgewood Target and I’ve never seen more than a dozen cars down there, even in the blazing sun or pouring rain. Weird.
Proves the point–honestly, that place has so much parking I never even remember it HAS underground parking. And that’s the Target I use.
Melissa’s right– I didn’t even know it had underground parking (but I do now)!
You want to see a parking requirement gone awry, look at the plan for the new redevelopment of the housing authority that is already under construction. The new development does not even have enough greeen space to meet the current tree ordinance (not enough green space to plant the trees), yet in the middle of the development is a huge parking lot that all the buildings will surround. This disaster can be blamed on the parking requirements for that development. It is a shame, especially given the abundance of literature that demonstrates the importance of green space in housing authorities, for example check out http://www.urbanforestrysouth.org/resources/library/coping-with-poverty-findings-and-recommentdations/
Theoretically I agree. But in reality, one cannot remain a resident of public housing these days unless one has proof of a job or being in job training or going to school. Well, how does one get to the job, training, or school? Unless one’s job or school happens to be on a MARTA route, which are are getting fewer and fewer, and less frequently served, one needs a car and a place to park it. It’s a vicious cycle.
Now if the feds, state, and locals were all on the same page about alternatives to driving, some creative solutions would be possible in public housing. Why couldn’t there be a Zipcar-like option for public housing residents? Vanpools? Organized rides to local stores like senior communities often have? Heck, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all have this?
Underground parking is problmatic in that it is very expensive and substantially incresases the cost of development.
Good point, but I’ve always understood that they are preferred by urban design folks in order to make the above ground space more walkable, etc?
I used to park underground at Edgewood when it first opened, but there were several highly publicized car jackings that all happened in the underground lot. No thanks.
Now, if it’s a really hot day, I park in the covered galley between B&N and BB&B and pray I don’t buy enough stuff to need to bring a cart to my car. The wheels on the carts lock at the entrance, which I learned this the hard way with a newborn baby and a cart full of groceries…
Oh my goodness!! What did you do then??
Luckily a stranger realized my predicament and stayed to watch my cart while I made multiple trips to the car!
I feel unsafe when I park down there. Maybe it’s because there have been so many times I have and I’ve been the only one around for as far as I can see. Maybe it’s paranoia, maybe it’s street smarts. Dunno. I do know that carjackings etc. are not uncommon in that complex. I shop there frequently but try to be proactive and aware.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8vkbfz8PU8
An interesting (brief – 20 mins) presentation by the aforementioned prof on parking.
Sorry – 28 mins (but who’s counting?)
The answer is clearly valet parking! (smile)
What’s the deal with parking meters? Talk about ancient technology. I mean, who keeps change lying around? How often have you found a great spot but not had enough change on you?
I remember visiting Seattle, where all the “meters” are close-by solar powered kiosks that take credit cards. You then take the receipt (which shows when your time is up) and put it in your window. No need for change or those ugly poles at every space.
Wow. Sounds like technology worth investing in. Having change around is truly an issue. Especially if one needs one’s quarters for poker night! I wish meters took pennies–there’s hundreds of those floating around the crevices of our mini-van.
The new ones in midtown are very high tech and take credit cards…
don’t we have something like this by city hall–when you use a card to “swipe” at the parking meter? can anyone tell me if they are still in use and if they are/were effective? I usually walk to city hall, so parking is never a problem for me …
It’s a harder system because you have to have gone on-line to sign up your credit card and then remember a phone number, or maybe it’s a password, oh I’m not sure. It’s just complicated enough to confuse sporadic parkers who can’t remember the drill from the last time they parked there. Someone who parked there on a regular basis would probably find it more convenient. A system that was more like an atm machine using one’s usual credit card and password and not requiring on-line sign-up would be a lot more user friendly.
Everyone will be happy when parking is deducted from their bank accounts using their iPhones.
Isn’t there some kind of retinal scanning technology where I can just look at a parking meter and think “PAY!” and then it’s deleted from my checking account? Or some voice technology like when 411 asks me “city and state please”? Can’t I just say “30 minutes please” after the meter prompts me? Unzipping my smartphone from its pouch is just too much work!
karass, you are very very funny today. Now if we could just aim a time/space warp machine at our cars for the hour that we’re gone, we could erase the both the need for the parking and the cars ….
an oldie but a goody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dbFrE-OWUw
My better half and I have enjoyed reading the conversation about free parking in downtown Decatur. The smarter and wiser of the two of us made the following comments:
“Old people would die in the heat advisories walking to downtown Decatur instead of driving”,
“People who have worked hard all day may be too tired to walk to downtown Decatur to have a meal.”
“As far as I’m concerned, downtown Decatur does not have enough handicap parking.”
A lot of people in Decatur don’t want handicap people parking downtown. They only want beautiful people looking good in their running shorts.”
“Decatur businesses would be happy to get anybody they can to shop or eat downtown (add a “or whatever” to the comment)”.
and “Who are these people who are against free parking?”
The other person at the table looked up from reading the WSJ and said,
“Vive in libertate aut morere!”,
which roughly translates as, “Live to park free or die trying.”
There has never been such a thing as “free parking” so how can someone be against it?