On average, the amount of parking provided at mixed-use centers is 65 percent higher than necessary, according to a study just published in the Transportation Research Record. That finding challenges the perceived need for additional parking in many of those places. Meanwhile, the unused parking spaces take up valuable space, add to construction and maintenance costs, and undermine efforts to manage travel demand.
parking
Expanded transit tax incentive can’t compete with the lure of subsidized parking
Many municipalities and the federal government have goals of improving air quality, reducing traffic congestion, and increasing transit use. However, until recently federal policies providing greater tax breaks to car commuters than transit commuters have thwarted these goals. However, recent equivalency in financial incentives does not fully counterbalance the attraction of driving alone to work.
Effects of Parking Provision on Automobile Use in Cities: Inferring Causality (McCahill, Garrick, Atkinson-Palombo and Polinski, 2015)
Automobile use has been on the rise in cities for nearly a century and so has the supply of parking. Because driving often seems unavoidable, policymakers, developers and the public push endlessly for more parking to meet demand. That push, however, might only be making matters worse. SSTI Senior Associate Chris McCahill’s research suggests that abundant parking in cities causes people to drive more, shedding important light on the question of cause and effect.
Parking increases citywide car use, SSTI researcher finds
Automobile use has been on the rise in cities for nearly a century and so has the supply of parking. Because driving often seems unavoidable, policymakers, developers and the public push endlessly for more parking to meet demand. That push, however, might only be making matters worse. SSTI Senior Associate Chris McCahill’s research suggests that abundant parking in cities causes people to drive more, shedding important light on the question of cause and effect.
How a Chicago suburb became car-lite and lessons for other communities
In a provocatively titled article—The Suburb That Tried to Kill the Car—Politico digs into how the Chicago suburb of Evanston reinvented itself through transit-oriented development. It is a tale with lessons for many other communities about the interplay and delicate balance of land use, transportation options, parking, zoning, tax revenues, affordable housing, and attracting new development.
Majority of commercial truck drivers would use paid parking reservations
A recent survey by the American Transportation Research Institute found that over half of commercial truck drivers are willing to pay to reserve a parking space at a rest stop. Over the past twenty years, numerous studies on commercial truck parking have concluded that parking spaces for drivers to rest are inadequately located and supplied; fatigue-related crashes, difficulty finding safe and legal parking, and overcrowding at existing parking facilities are cited as consequences.
Commuter tax benefits: Who wins and loses?
A new report from TransitCenter shines a light on the federal Commuter Tax Benefits program and the impact the program has on mode choice. While the concept of excluding from taxation income spent on transportation to work may sound reasonable, in practice the program is heavily skewed in favor of drivers, provides a disproportionate benefit to the wealthy, costs taxpayers billions of dollars per year in uncollected revenue, and adds over 800,000 car commuters, driving over 4.6 billion additional miles per year to the nation’s road system.
Leveraging parking supply to achieve TOD goals
Getting parking availability and pricing right can be a crucial element in a community’s plan to meet its transit ridership goals; and it can be the critical difference between successful transit-oriented development and failed TOD, sometimes known as transit-adjacent development. States and cities operating park and rides at transit nodes should consider TOD for sites where TOD could help achieve goals for economic development and greater mode shift to transit.
Portland considering new parking lot tax to spur development
Portland is considering a new tax on surface parking lots to spur development in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. These taxes, in effect in 49 cities in the U.S., are most commonly assessed as a percentage of daily or monthly parking fees but may also be levied as a flat tax per parking space.
SSTI researcher: 'Parking requirements transform cities, cost millions in tax revenues'
Researchers from the University of Connecticut and SSTI recently completed a pair of studies examining the long-term, citywide impacts of parking facilities and minimum parking requirements. The research shows how parking minimums can physically transform urban centers, stifle development, and cost cities millions of dollars in annual tax revenues.