Increasing Parking Supply When Supply Is Constrained

Increasing Parking Supply When Supply Is Constrained

By Cynthia Lang, CAPP, MPA

In urban areas where land use is littered with mixed-use buildings, shopping malls and high-rise apartments there are few options to increase parking supply. As cities increase multi-modal options in efforts to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, there remains the demand for parking and there never seem to be enough. Limited parking options could be caused by zoning constraints, or simply because the area is already saturated with no land remaining to use for parking. This is where creativity is needed.

What initiatives can be implemented to support unconventional businesses providing free parking, but have few options to build more garages or open lots? One solution to consider is hoteling. This is a space management method where multiple people are allowed to use the same parking space. Hoteling is not a new concept. The concept was introduced in the early 90’s used by businesses with many teleworkers. This concept has yielded benefits to many companies; one being a reduction in annual facilities cost.

There is a renewed interest in hoteling across today’s workforce coming out of COVID as many employees now work remotely and are only required to come into the office 1 to 2 times a week, or per month. With the increased number of remote workers, parking managers are offering a 3:1 ratio to support customers with limited parking supply. One challenge with hoteling is the parking system’s ability to track which customer/employee comes in on the first Monday of the Month and last Friday of the Month versus the customer or employee coming in on Tuesday and Thursday. What role does enforcement play in managing hoteling? What other considerations are there to ensure fair and equitable support to the employees?

Cynthia Lang, CAPP, MPA is a Portfolio Manager, National Capital Region for JASINT Consulting and Technologies, LLC. She can be reached at clang@jasint.com.