4 Ways to Manage Downtown Parking Without Spending a Fortune

Parking can be one of the most limiting obstacles to creating a vibrant downtown.  Lack of parking is the number one complaint that I have heard from downtown merchants over the years. Despite efforts to encourage mass transit as a means to get people to downtowns, the vast majority of customers and residents still prefer the automobile.  

Shopping malls and big box stores manage their parking needs by including it in the design of their projects; which is generally greenfield development which means their fewer physical constraints than developing in urban areas. Downtown’s do not have that luxury.  Open space that could be used for parking is likely to be limited in size.  Additionally; except for small towns, expensive parking structures; which can run anywhere from $6,000-$20,000 per space, may be necessary to provide enough parking to make a meaningful impact on a parking deficit.

Tight Parking In Staunton, VA

However, there are ways to effectively manage parking to avoid having to build expensive structured parking.

1.  Encourage business owners, employees and government workers to park elsewhere.  Convenient parking should be left to customers.  This can be done by limiting parking time in prime parking spots and make remote (but not too remote!) long term parking available.  This means that parking enforcement will be a necessary, but generally unpopular requirement.
2. Make parking easy to find.  I have done a number of parking census studies over the years.  In many cases the results showed that there was enough parking.  The problem was; besides the obvious on-street parking, as much as 20% of the available parking spots were not easily found by customers not familiar with the downtown.  One of the easiest solutions is to develop a good parking way finding system.  By good, I mean one that essentially is a bread crumb trail to parking.  That means that the system has to be easy to see and recognize, easy to understand, is consistent and gives turn by turn direction.  Until recently, these way finding systems where just color coded signs.  However, with the wide availability of GPS systems and smart phone applications, serious consideration should be given to using those tools as well
3. Change the angle of parking.  90 degree parking spaces are generally the most efficient form of parking.  However, in space constrained downtowns where motorists have to back out into traffic lanes, they are the least used.  60 degree angles are almost as efficient as 90% parking and does not intrude into the travel way as far.  Generally, for every parallel parking space converted to a 60 degree angled one you gain 2 spaces (i.e. 2:1 ratio).  45 degree parking can increase overall parking by up to 60% (1.6:1 Ratio).
4. Shared Parking.  Some uses in downtowns lend themselves to shared parking.  Houses of worship for instance are generally underutilized during most of the week.  Likewise, parking for government workers is largely vacant during evening hours.  Working out shared parking arrangements can be a relatively inexpensive way to increase parking for businesses.