Parking Management

Introduction

Managing the availability and price of parking, especially in crowded, high-activity areas, can reduce congestion on the surrounding roadways. Encouraging transit, carpools, or vanpools also reduces the number of vehicles on major roads and city streets. Parking management strategies must be a mix of ideas that are supported by the affected businesses, workers, and communities.

Regions can use several different techniques to control parking:

• Performance-based parking pricing.
• Altered city/state ordinances that decrease minimum parking requirements, set a maximum parking requirement, or issue permits.
• “Cashing out” to provide cash rewards rather than parking spaces.

Downtown or Other Crowded Activity Centers with Transit Service
Crowded downtown and heavily visited areas often have a limited number of parking spaces. This causes congestion for commuters and visitors. One solution is to offer an off-site parking lot with a shuttle to transport people to their destination. Providing remote parking along with increased transit service, alternative forms of transportation may be viable for a larger population.

Locations with Little or No Parking
Limited parking causes congestion because drivers circle looking for an available spot. Managing the amount and price of parking in these locations, in addition to real time information on availability, allows the public to make more informed decisions about their route, timing, and even transportation mode for different types of trips.

A well-planned parking management strategy often results in better use of existing facilities and reduces the need for more parking. It is important to not compete with the transit, carpool, and vanpool systems by offering too much parking. Organizers should determine if current parking is well used and if the transit, pedestrian, and bike facilities can handle the new users caused by parking management strategies.

Limiting the available parking and raising the cost of spaces tend to discourage long-term parking—the primary goal of a parking management strategy. After limiting available parking, city and business managers should provide special rates and parking for carpoolers. City planners, employers, and property owners should create parking agreements and zoning regulations that control parking in new developments to prevent future problems.

Issues

Most parking management strategies require policy or legislative changes, which can be difficult. The city needs support from the private sector to implement and market these changes and to create incentive programs.

Taxes should be high enough to persuade commuters to use alternate modes, but making them too high can cause businesses to move to other areas.

Ample and visible enforcement is needed to ensure compliance. If too many vehicle types are exempt or appear to get away with not following the parking policies, other users will consider the parking management strategy unfair and thus a failure.

Project Time Frame

Parking management plans can be implemented quickly and adjusted over time. Parking tax increases and other legislative techniques depend on the time frame allowed by the state and local governments. Other parking management methods (i.e., limiting available spaces, raising fees, and cashing out) can be implemented almost immediately.

A typical parking management strategy is implemented in two to six months if all the necessary policies and regulation changes are in place. Creating and installing appropriate signage and employing a public awareness campaign are two of the most important factors in a parking management plan.

Who Is Responsible?

Cities and private companies are primarily responsible for controlling parking in the downtown area and other crowded activity centers. City officials should review current parking standards to determine if the minimum parking requirements can be lowered. Business managers should examine the parking at their locations and offer incentives for employees to use transit and carpool services. Although plans are dependent on local government, the Texas government can introduce laws and taxes that promote alternate modes to support parking management strategies.

Cost

Parking management methods do not require large amounts of money to implement. Funding is often used for signs, administration, and enforcement. Developing a typical parking management plan can range from $100,000 to $500,000, depending on the physical size of the area and the number of parking spaces to be included. Some site-specific designs and concerns such as historic locations may increase the cost.