Three Trends in Parking Management

Dan McCombie is a Research Associate at Larisa Ortiz Associates

I’ve noticed a couple of trends of late in regards to parking and how downtowns are trying to effectively manage the demand for it. It feels important to understand these trends because they all have implications for how customers access downtowns, as well as the toolbox of strategies and tactics we have as district managers. In any event, I would be curious to know if what I’ve observed tracks with what others have also seen. Here goes…

1.       Parking decks (as we know them) are experiencing incremental extinction

There was a Crain’s NY article recently talking about the challenges being faced by Manhattan parking garages. Operators say they’ve felt a lost demand over the past 18 months, citing a 10% drop in the number of “transient units” (cars that park by the day or hour). They attribute this trend to growing patronage of car-share (Car2Go) and ride-share (Lyft and Uber), but made all the worse by rising labor costs and recent rumblings by politicos about possible congestion pricing in Manhattan. Yet this is not unique to New York. Waning demand for structured parking is also being felt in cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston where competition from alternative transit choices and concerns over congestion are just as prevalent.

Uber has been unapologetic, responding that it’s all for the better those garages disappear if that creates more space for affordable housing and public parks. Sounds rosy, and there is some sense to it since affordable housing--typically exempt from parking minimum--presents a real option for infill development. But we’re also seeing cities like Philadelphia incrementally knock down their garages and replace them with luxury housing. In other cases, owners are getting creative and turning their underutilized parking structures into trendy food hall retrofits.

To be clear, parking structures are still being built, but increasingly with an eye towards a ten to fifteen year horizon where the use of that deck will likely be fundamentally different based on declines in car ownership and increases in autonomous vehicle use. That means designing for easier retrofitting to retail or other non-residential uses, usually by adding a few feet to ceiling heights. Or it means curbing costs and capitalizing on economies of scale by going fully automated with garages that don’t require human labor and can store more cars in a smaller footprint.

Regardless, in more and more places we’re seeing garages adapt based on the anticipation (or realization) of reduced demand.

Automated garage designed by BRN Architects in Izmir, Turkey
Photo: Inhabitat

2.       On-street parking is off-brand

The literature is rich in urbanist corners about the benefits of turning traffic lanes and on-street parking into bike lanes and larger sidewalks. A really good example of this is the NYC DOT’s report, The Economic Benefits of Sustainable Streets, commissioned during Janette Sadik-Khan’s time at the helm of the agency. The report is notable because it seeks to draw the connection between complete streets and economic development, and does so employing an objective methodological approach where local business sales were monitored before and after street renovations. Their change in sales was controlled against sales figures for other comparable commercial corridors within the same neighborhood. After conducting this research, the study conclusively found that complete streets provided benefits to businesses in all types of neighborhoods, “from the central business district to modest retail strips in residential areas.”

I bring this up because more and more people are recognizing the spending power of pedestrians while the notion of creating more space for cars feels counterintuitive and antiquated. So while we see reports and case studies that supports removing on-street parking to bring in a protected bike lane, the literature becomes much more scant on whether or not it makes sense to turn a traffic lane into on-street parking. I draw attention to this because complete streets means supporting as many competing uses as possible, but many streets simply don't have the capacity to do that. If you must choose, what is the argument for parking instead of bike lanes (if there is one)? Yes--I’m familiar with the oft-quoted fact that every on-street parking space is responsible for some $200-$300K in revenue for nearby businesses. I’ve seen this number quoted ad nauseam and out of its original context. That is not to say it’s wrong, but it glosses over many of the variables that are responsible for generating that value.

On-street parking can play a valuable role for commercial districts that goes well beyond providing direct storefront access for shoppers. Good flexible on-street parking can also provide commercial loading areas for vendors or serve as designated pick-up and drop-off points for ride-share services in an effort to ease congestion. It can also have a “teaser” effect in that it suggests to shoppers there is easy and available parking (thereby inducing more shopping trips), but actually increase the utilization of garages and decks as a substitute when curbside spots are at capacity. And at the end of the day, it also can calm traffic and reduce crossing distances which also serves the pedestrian environment. In short, flexible curbside parking has its benefits which may or may not make sense depending on the district.

Ninth Avenue street improvement project
Image: Economic Benefits of Sustainable Streets; NYC DOT

3.       “Smart Parking” is smarter thank you might think

A common refrain in many districts is that there is simply not enough parking to suit retail. And this assertion comes from all corners; not just customers but also property owners and merchants. But with the growth in alternative transit choices and with Millennials owning fewer cars, more often than not we’ve found it’s an issue with parking management and not supply. How do we address situations where one lot is at capacity while other lots are underutilized? There are several solutions, but I'm increasingly drawn to the growing number of apps that seek to address the parking management question. Here are a few examples:

·         ParkMobile – Perhaps one of the more ubiquitous options in the market right now, it provides seamless parking payments through an app, with the advantage of allowing the user to feed the meter remotely when their time runs out. The company also provides a Parkmobile.io website as a way to make reservations with parking garages and ensure a spot is waiting for you when you arrive at your destination.

·         ParkWhiz – Similarly allows users to reserve and pay for spaces seamlessly and allows parking operators to adjust prices and offer deals based on real-time demand data.

·         ParkBee – This UK/Netherlands based company created a partnership with ParkMobile that allows owners of private lots to advertise their spaces to the public (think Airbnb for parking).

The value proposition for many of these apps is not just based on convenience, but also an ability to offer competitive pricing. And they’re being embraced through ever more channels with some car manufacturers incorporating them into the on-board computers (e.g. BMW 2018 models use ParkMobile) and navigation services like WAZE thinking about how they can complement their existing platform.

And apps are only half of the picture. A growing number of parking data collection companies like Streetline and parking management platforms like NuPark are working in coordination with these apps to make getting from point A to point B as seamless and efficient as possible through tech that allows remote gate activation and license plate recognition.

One of several parking management services offered by NuPark
Source: NuPark.com

What do these trends mean for district managers?

Does your district still need a large supply of parking decks? Should it substitute curbside parking for a protected bike lane? If there is a strain on parking, is it based on management or supply? Different districts have different needs and there is no one size fits all strategy here.

As Kimley Horn stated in a report for their White Paper Series, parking guidelines developed by the Institute for Transportation Engineers and Urban Land Institute are “routinely applied in areas they should not be”, meaning that standards for standalone shopping centers are being used for downtown Main Streets. For that reason, any parking intervention should really be predicated on an accurate picture of existing conditions and we have a growing number of tools at our disposal to do that and to bring that picture into sharper relief. 

As mentioned, I’m wildly curious to know if others agree with these trends or have observed others that are as impactful.

Source Cited:

Parking Generation – Replacing Flawed Standards with the Custom Realities of Park+; Kimley Horn; May 2016

Seaming a district back together, one mid-block crossing at a time

When our team visits commercial districts, one of the first things we look for is the convenience of access. Sometimes, the challenge in not related to the obvious - like parking - but instead comes in the form of a busy street that is hard to cross. So while the district may have a 40-60k sf of retail offerings, it is instead bifurcated and functions like two 20-30k sf shopping centers. The issue is that 30k of retail can only go so far in its ability to draw from a larger trade area. Shopping center developers can tell you, the more retail you offer, the more viable and attractive your retail center will be to customers. So a busy street that is very difficult to cross undermines sales for the entire district by preventing shoppers from patronizing multiple stores - and spending more money - per visit.

In a small New Jersey town where we are currently working, the two sides a single block commercial strip face this exact problem. Instead of functioning as a cohesive unit, the two sides function as two independent nodes of retail. What happens is that patrons park on one side, and then avoid crossing to the other because the busy street divides the district. If they do want to cross the street safely, they much walk to the end of the block, cross the street, and then walk back to the store they want to patronize. In this community, where the average age is creeping upwards, it simply isn't an option.

Jaywalking across a busy street is the way most people get from one side of this district to another. This puts the elderly and young people at a distinct disadvantage and creates an impediment to cross-shopping, which undermines the overall strength of the district. 

A simple technical solution is to install a mid-block crossing that provide a pedestrian refuge in the middle of the street, while also clearly signaling to motorists that they are to stop and allow pedestrians to cross.

Here are some examples that we like...enjoy!

A center refuge.

Clear pedestrian crossing signs and a painted treatment on the crossing are nice touches. 

The bump outs further reduce the distance from one side to the other and provide and added traffic calming mechanism that signals to drivers to SLOW DOWN. 

The landscaping could be improved, but I do like the stamped brick as a way to further signal that this section of street is part of a pedestrian environment. 

Complete Streets help the economy, street vendors vs BIDs smack down, and over designed intersections? Commercial District News Round Up, Week of July 7th, 2015

How Thoughtful Street Design Is Helping Communities and the Economy
The National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, released a new report analyzing street improvements in 37 neighborhoods across the country.  In the report, communities that were redesigned to accommodate pedestrians, transit users and bicyclists (as well as drivers of motor vehicles) found that the design resulted in positive impacts on key economic indicators, including employment, new businesses, property values and private investment.

Source: Huffington Post

BIDS Worry Over Movement to Increase Vendor Permits
In New York, the number of street vendor licenses are limited by law - only 3,000 permits are issued annually. But a movement led by The Street Vendor Project seeks to change all that. On the other side of this issue are BIDs that are concerned about the impact of vendors on established businesses - many of whom are paying assessments into the BID and who are affected by vendors right outside their doors. Fordham Road Business Improvement District, the largest BID in the Bronx, along with 72 BIDs across NYC, presented a four-page statement prepared by the New York City BID Association warning of “unilateral, piecemeal change” to the current laws “will lead to unintended consequences.” The BIDs suggest a study before lifting the ban. Both sides see financial struggle as vendors have mounting permitting costs while property owners and merchants of BIDs pay assessments to keep the streets clean and orderly.

Image Source: www.norwoodnews.org   Credit: Adi Talwar

Neighbors Are Mad Lincoln Hub Slows Traffic, But That Was Kind of the Point
The design, intended to imitate an oriental rug and also to slow down traffic, not appreciated by local residents at this Chicago intersection.  Overdesigned?...you be the judge.

Reshaping Growth Centers with Open Space = Smart Growth
The addition of open space to urban areas seems counter intuitive to the often assumed need for high-density growth, but this article points out that the addition of open space and the practice of smart growth can lead to high density and better use of land.  The comparison of Atlanta and Barcelona maps, with similar population size, is astonishing.

Most Bikeable Cities of 2015
Minneapolis took number one spot, putting often assumed bike mecca, Portland, in number three. The ranking looked at cities of 300,000+ and the scores are measured on a scale of 0 - 100 based on bike lanes, hills, destinations and road connectivity, and share of local workers' commutes traveled by bicycle.  Check it out...is your city on the list?

The USDA Site Now Has a National Farmers Market Directory
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched a searchable national farmers market directory, allowing you to search for markets online. The site has an interactive map and can search the 8,260 farmers markets by zip code and products sold. The USDA included any market that has two+ farm vendors selling their goods in the same location week to week.

Some Roads Should Just Go on a Diet

Bigger is better right? By and large the answer is no. Bigger is not always better when addressing roadways that run through commercial corridors.  In many places where LOA works, the challenges of a too wide street - one designed for cars but not for people or even bikes - undermines local businesses who see traffic speed by, unlikely to stop.

The problem of too wide streets is rampant throughout the nation. This issue came up recently for us...LOA is currently working on a project in Chicago where the large berth of the street was simply too cumbersome and unnecessary. And when we looked at traffic counts we found that there was actually much less traffic on a road that was clearly designed to handle much more. So, what to do with so much excess "fat"?  We suggested that roadway go on a road diet.

“Road dieting” is a term applied to “skinny-ing up” streets into leaner, more productive members of society. The ideal roadway candidate, as Burden and Lagerwey, of Walkable Communities Inc, note in "Road Diets: Losing width and gaining respect," is often a four-lane road carrying 12,000-18,000 auto trips per day. But as many of you know, road diets can be controversial in places where people think that a narrower road means more congestion - but in most cases the facts simply do not bear out.

Before and after Road Diet pictures. Image source:
safety.fhwa.dot.gov/newsletter/safetycompass/2012/winter/

Before we get to that, first back to Chicago. Our work resulted in a few key recommendations, the first included removal of a dedicated rush-hour lane (a parking lane that was converted to a travel lane only during rush hour - making it impossible for drop-in customers to stop by and therefore hurting local businesses). What we found that that although the street was perceived as a busy thoroughfare, data suggested otherwise: 13,300 Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) counts (between North Pulaski Road and North Kedzie Avenue) put the traffic flow as moderate to relatively low.

With low-traffic counts, we knew that the replacement of a single rush hour lane with on-street parking would not only allow customers to stop more easily - picking up food or convenience items on their way to or from work - but that it would also result would be slower speeds for motorists in general. Narrowing the flow of traffic and adding bike lanes – aka a “road diet” - would help address some of the concerns that residents and businesses have with the sometime excessive speed of motorists who pass through the area. And taking this a step further by adding a lane for bicyclists would add another transportation option  for a low-income community with very low car ownership rates.

Much safer corridor for all. Image source:
domz60.wordpress.com/2014/08/26/road-diet-bibliography/

Public safety has always been a proponent of change for urban development and planning, this case is no different. A reduction in a lane or lanes, a road diet, can reduce unsafe driving, excess speeds, and serve as a street calming mechanism. Burden and Lagerwey note "crash rates and severity of conflicts with autos result in almost certain death (83% of pedestrians hit at 40 mph die)".  Four lanes of traffic are difficult to cross for pedestrians and uncomfortable/dangerous for cyclists. Furthermore, businesses that might benefit from co-location across the street from another business never accrue the benefits because for most pedestrians, they might as well be miles away.

In addition to safety, a road that has dieted sees change in commercial activity around the road. The change can increase value of existing properties and some cases costs of reconstructing roadways are repaid in as little as one year through increased sales tax or property tax revenue.

Image source: sf.streetsblog.org/category/
san-francisco-neighborhoods/district-6/

Even high-density urban downtowns can go on diets. San Francisco, as seen in the image to the left, envisioned a downtown along Sixth Street with a more pedestrian and cycling friendly environment with continued on street parking.

In an opposite regard, a study by Thomas Welch “The Conversion of Four-Lane Undivided Urban Roadways to Three-Lane Facilities” demonstrates the problems and negative outcomes associated with increasing road sizes from a slimmer two-lane road to a wider four-lane road.  Welch notes it led to increased accidents, increased speeds, increased corridor delays, and increased injuries.  Not the results people want or expect - sometimes slimming down is the best remedy for the health of your commercial district.

If you want to read more...here are some additional readings:

• McCormick, C. York Blvd: The Economics of a Road Diet. http://la.streetsblog.org/wp-content/pdf/york_blvd_final_report_compress.pdf [a recent in-depth study of road dieting on a LA corridor, findings note economies and congestion not worsened]
• Improving Road Efficiency. Complete Streets: Prince Avenue. http://completestreetsprince.org/safety-by-design/improving-road-efficiency/ [analysis of travel time and capacity impacts]
• Tan, C. H. Going on a Road Diet https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/11septoct/05.cfm [a 2011 study with many before and after pictures of road diet examples, sites improved safety and economics plus livability]
• Oregon Department of Transportation. Talent Area Road Diet Analysis http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGION3/docs/OR99TMRoadDietDRAFT09-04-12.pdf [recent 2012 study highlights improved safety and analysis going from 4 lanes to 3]