This Parking Blog will be all about municipality parking studies. Public parking has always been an issue for many cities. Because of the new technologies in parking, municipalities all over the world are upgrading their public parking regulations. Think about smart parking meters and parking apps. Also the desire of being green and sustainable has a huge impact on public parking: Solar roofs are added to parking meters, public charging station for electric vehicles must be installed and energy should be regulated so that if no one is near the parking facilities, the lights will go out automatically. Because of these new developments in the parking industry, and because of the rise of smart phones, tablets and other devices, the needs of the people change and their expectations grow. Parking experts want to approach these needs to improve the public parking situations.
Glenwood Springs Parking Study
Last month I published a news item about the Glenwood Springs Parking Study. The city of Glenwood Springs wanted to address the City’s current parking opportunities and future parking needs. Walker Parking Consultants were under contract for the parking study and the development of the parking plan. The City of Glenwood Springs decided to study the parking use and needs because of the construction of a new parking garage downtown. They wondered if and how the new, extra parking garage will benefit in improving the current downtown parking and how it will impact parking in Glenwood Springs in general.
“Public parking has been a long-term topic of discussion within the community. There are varied perceptions of parking problems downtown including concerns about parking for tourists and employees in the downtown area. It is important to truly understand the entire problem so that an effective plan can be developed,” said Dave Betley, Assistant Director of Public Works for the City of Glenwood Springs. “This study will examine all facets of parking and parking problems and also consider construction of the parking structures on Cooper.” (quote from the City of Glenwood press release).
The City of Glenwood and Walker Parking Consultants agreed to conduct a survey in order to receive feedback from their residents and stakeholders to find out how they feel about how public parking should be managed, provided and developed in the future. Today I read that Glenwood Springs will partially open their new parking structure today at 5:00 PM. The structure has been under construction since June and is a two level parking garage adding 149 extra parking spaces to the downtown public parking situation.
City of Portland Parking Study
Earlier this month the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability released their parking study. This parking study was to learn more about the new apartment buildings in Portland that have little to no parking spaces. The reason to conduct a study, is because of the many headlines in local news, blogs etc. the new apartments made. People were talking about a real parking problem in the inner neighborhoods of Portland, saying that developers of new apartments and buildings were taking advantage of the City Code that states that in some areas, adding parking spaces to a building isn’t obligate. And that’s exactly what happened with these particular apartment buildings: There is no on-site space for the residents to park their car. Because of the many protests and complaints, the city conducted a parking study called: PARKING IMPACTS FOR NEW TOD ALONG PORTLAND INNER CORRIDORS to see if the concerns of the residents were grounded: That because of this little to no on-site parking in the inner neighborhoods causes on-street parking congestions and an overall negative impact on the residential areas and commercial districts.
The Portland Parking Study evaluated the use and ownership of vehicles at several locations, and if there is enough on-street parking for every vehicle owner. Now that the survey is completed, it turns out that there is no parking problem at all and that even though there is no on-site parking available, there is plenty of space to park.
City of Troy Parking Study
I also read an article that states that the City of Troy will conduct a parking study to take a closer look at the growing parking demands and needs. Troy Local Development Corporation recently formed a parking committee and say that failing to manage the downtown parking situation will have an effect on the economic development. Not only residents will have problems finding a parking space downtown, but also visitors, retailers and people who work downtown. The parking study will include questions like how to improve parking downtown, whether on-street or in parking garages and how to manage the different parking demands and future needs.
