Tag Archives: on-street

Cities Move to Make COVID-inspired Parking Features Permanent

Delaware City became the next municipality to consider making COVID-inspired on-street parking changes permanent last week when its city council moved to keep “grab and go” downtown parking spaces for the long haul.

Twenty-three such on-street spaces will stay in the downtown permanently, allowing drivers to park for up to 15 minutes to pick up purchases, restaurant orders, etc.

The city follows Philadelphia, where legislation was introduced to keep “streeteries” and outdoor restaurant/cafe seating areas on sidewalks and in on-street parking spaces with a new process for approval.

Is this happening in your municipality? How is your organization involved? Let us know!

A Parking Lesson: Walking in Someone Else’s Shoes

Close-up teenager's retro style black and white tennis shoes, tattered, ripped, dirty, isolated on white backgroundBy Scott C. Bauman, CAPP

As a municipal parking manager, I often hear the following from residents; “There’s a car that’s always parked in front of my house. I want it gone. That’s MY parking space!”

The passion residents feel for the on-street public parking in front of their home can be deep and abiding. I have a better understanding of this now. Many residents incorrectly assume that the on-street parking directly in front of their home is either an extension of their property or that they have a fundamental entitlement to that space. When someone else repeatedly parks in front of their home and the homeowner looks out their window and sees that same car parked again and again, emotions can start flowing and tension builds. The homeowner often truly believes that the on-street space in front of their home is theirs, and other parkers are prohibited from using it.

Before recently, I’d receive these types of complaints and have the automatic response of, “The on-street parking directly in front of your residence is not your property. It’s public right-of-way owned and managed by the city, yada-yada-yada.” Citizens eventually come to comprehend this fact but always find it frustrating.

Awhile back, I gained a new perspective on this emotional issue. My neighbor started regularly parking his oversized, bright red, commercial plumbing van directly in front of my home. Every time I looked out my window, I saw that big stupid red van and got very irritated. While I didn’t contact my local city agency to complain (as I know better), I did speak with him and nicely suggest that a more appropriate place to park his van would be on his own property. I got lucky; he agreed and started parking it in his driveway. That’s when my perspective broadened.

The point of my story is two-fold. First, anyone–including a municipal parking manager–can become emotional over unfortunate parking situations. Second, I now have more compassion and empathy for my fellow citizens going through these types of stressors. The aphorism, “Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” is a valuable mindset when dealing with the emotional state and unique circumstances that can sometimes torment our valued customers.

Lesson learned. Lesson shared.

Scott C. Bauman, CAPP, is manager of parking and mobility services for the City of Aurora, Colo.

Flexibility and COVID-19

COVID-19 parking transportation curbBy Mark Lyons, CAPP     

Albert Einstein said the measure of intelligence is the ability to change. The demand for changes in mobility programs as a result of COVID-19 are enough to make any good mobility professional more flexible than taffy on hot day. I know you’re probably more than done with hearing about C-19 issues. And, yes, there are still many hurdles to cross before we can feel like it was before and getting back to the new “normal.” But for a minute, could we start to look back and realize that in very short order, our industry pros became central in the planning and recovery of our local microcosm?

Look at some of the stories where parking directors have yielded, albeit temporarily, the demand for paid meters and citations, instead posting signage to help local business preserve parking near their doors to encourage shoppers to continue honoring local services. Think about the number of streets and parking spaces that have been cut off so restaurants could bring seating outside to the customer. Loading zones have been extended to improve delivery logistics. Many cities and universities enhanced parking rates or time restrictions to ensure customers were not dissuaded from engaging local businesses. Many of us modified citation collections schedules and fees to provide relief during this period, when so many workers lost jobs.

There are many stories that could be talked about for days, but can we now take a moment to bask in our collective efforts to help our communities? Our professional parking and mobility pros have worked as integral partners with city engineers, planners, police departments, universities, city managers, and business associations and districts, and continue to support local businesses.

I hope our mobility community is no longer considered a distraction or viewed as an opponent of the business community. The next time somebody tells us that paid parking programs scare their customers away, remind them how flexible our industry was during the pandemic and of the hours we’ve spent contemplating how to help our local businesses, as well as the concessions that were made to help keep dreams alive.

If what Albert Einstein said is true, then congratulations team! Not only are you very smart, but you’ve made us all look great in the process!

Mark Lyons, CAPP, is parking division manager with the City of Sarasota, Fla.

 

In Defense of On-street Parking

on-street parking in Boston

Editor’s Note: The IPMI Blog is re-posting some of our biggest hits from 2019 through the holidays. New posts will resume on January 2.

By David Feehan

The media are full of stories of cities removing on-street parking spaces to create bike lanes. Let me state at the outset that I am all in favor of bike-riding, though I don’t count myself among bike riders. I am also aware of and support efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and bikes have numerous advantages in terms of the nation’s and the world’s health and well-being.

I am still waiting to see, however, the definitive study measuring the effect of eliminating on-street parking in business districts on merchants and their survival.

A few years ago, I was part of a team conducting a parking study in Fort Collins, Colo. The question came up: What would be the effect of eliminating on-street parking on one of that city’s busy downtown streets?

We were not commissioned to answer that question. But as the former director of downtown organizations in Kalamazoo; Detroit; Columbia, Md.; and Des Moines, along with business district organizations in Pittsburgh, I had some understanding of what convenient parking meant to local merchants. So I did some rough calculations.

I estimated the typical block in downtown as being 300 feet in length, then subtracted 10 feet on each end to gauge the frontal linear feet of storefronts. That equaled 280 feet. I estimated that most storefronts were 20 feet in width. I figured each parking space should be 18 feet long, so this meant about 15 parking spaces per block. I estimated the stores would be about 100 feet deep. That means the block would have about 28,000 square feet of selling space, and I was told that most merchants were averaging sales of $150 per square foot, though some were doing as well as $400 a square foot. This meant that the block should be doing at least $4.2 million in sales annually. A rough estimate would suggest that each parking space on that block was worth $280,000 in sales to that block, or $20,000 in sales to each merchant. As you can see, removing parking in front of the store could have a major effect on downtown businesses.

Of course, these are rough calculations. They do not account for nearby surface lots or parking garages, nor do they account for patrons riding bikes or on foot. But many cold-weather cities see bike and walking traffic decline precipitously when it’s snowing or sleeting, and many depend on the nighttime economy to survive–and many people feel safer having a car at night. For those of us in the downtown management business, it is a powerful argument for having the merchant and his or her employees park in a location other than in front of the store.

So before a city decides to eliminate on-street parking, someone should do a careful and rigorous analysis of the impact on Main Street. A lively Main Street can make the difference in attracting people to your town; a vacant, lifeless Main Street can have the opposite effect. Just ask your local merchant.

David Feehan is president of Civitas Consultants, LLC.

Is Manhattan Ready to End Free Parking?

Ninety-five percent of on-street parking spaces in New York City are free to use. Because the city has lost a good amount of spaces to bike and bus lanes in recent years, more cars are circling looking for those spots, increasing congestion and frustration. But a proposal to make on-street parking paid has sparked more than its share of controversy in Manhattan.

The New York Times estimates there are 3 million free, on-street parking spaces in the city. And while some lawmakers say making those spots paid would help reduce congestion and keep people moving more efficiently, drivers say adding payment to the recent loss of spaces targets them unfairly.

Will NYC embrace paid parking? Read the whole story here.

In Defense of On-street Parking

on-street parking in BostonBy David Feehan

The media are full of stories of cities removing on-street parking spaces to create bike lanes. Let me state at the outset that I am all in favor of bike-riding, though I don’t count myself among bike riders. I am also aware of and support efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and bikes have numerous advantages in terms of the nation’s and the world’s health and well-being.

I am still waiting to see, however, the definitive study measuring the effect of eliminating on-street parking in business districts on merchants and their survival.

A few years ago, I was part of a team conducting a parking study in Fort Collins, Colo. The question came up: What would be the effect of eliminating on-street parking on one of that city’s busy downtown streets?

We were not commissioned to answer that question. But as the former director of downtown organizations in Kalamazoo; Detroit; Columbia, Md.; and Des Moines, along with business district organizations in Pittsburgh, I had some understanding of what convenient parking meant to local merchants. So I did some rough calculations.

I estimated the typical block in downtown as being 300 feet in length, then subtracted 10 feet on each end to gauge the frontal linear feet of storefronts. That equaled 280 feet. I estimated that most storefronts were 20 feet in width. I figured each parking space should be 18 feet long, so this meant about 15 parking spaces per block. I estimated the stores would be about 100 feet deep. That means the block would have about 28,000 square feet of selling space, and I was told that most merchants were averaging sales of $150 per square foot, though some were doing as well as $400 a square foot. This meant that the block should be doing at least $4.2 million in sales annually. A rough estimate would suggest that each parking space on that block was worth $280,000 in sales to that block, or $20,000 in sales to each merchant. As you can see, removing parking in front of the store could have a major effect on downtown businesses.

Of course, these are rough calculations. They do not account for nearby surface lots or parking garages, nor do they account for patrons riding bikes or on foot. But many cold-weather cities see bike and walking traffic decline precipitously when it’s snowing or sleeting, and many depend on the nighttime economy to survive–and many people feel safer having a car at night. For those of us in the downtown management business, it is a powerful argument for having the merchant and his or her employees park in a location other than in front of the store.

So before a city decides to eliminate on-street parking, someone should do a careful and rigorous analysis of the impact on Main Street. A lively Main Street can make the difference in attracting people to your town; a vacant, lifeless Main Street can have the opposite effect. Just ask your local merchant.

David Feehan is president of Civitas Consultants, LLC.

Accessible Parking Controversy Raises Questions

accessible parking sign on streetThe Barcelona at Beaverton apartment complex in Beaverton, Ore., offers residents a private parking lot behind the building. Several residents with disabilities recently approached the city asking for on-street spaces to be flagged as accessible and reserved for them by apartment number instead, saying the back lot is too far from their apartments, especially in inclement weather.  And that’s created some controversy: City officials say reserving spaces on the street amounts to privatizing public spots, while disabled residents say the property’s parking lot spaces aren’t really accessible.

The complex includes eight apartments designed for people with disabilities. Four such residents currently live there. They say the curb spaces are just 10 feet from the back door, but they have to travel 300 feet to get to the parking lot’s spots, and some say they then can’t protect their heavy, motorized chairs from the elements. And with a new complex being built across the street, they say they fear not being able to park in what spaces exist near the door.

Read the whole story here. For more information on accessible parking, download “Let’s Make Accessible Parking More Accessible: A Practical Guide to Addressing Disabled Placard Abuse and Other Parking Issues for People with Disabilities,” from the Accessible Parking Coalition.