Park It

[8/25/2010 Update from MR: More parking links]

It is like 2008 all over again. Tyler Cowen writes in the NYT: Free Parking Comes at a Price and while the response should be "obviously"; Mr. Cowen is quite influential and so there has been quite a kerfuffle in the blogosphere about "free parking".

Examples:
MWaT: We’re all subsidizing parking and it ain’t cheap
MY:Parking Feedback Loops

But the best comes from a true nerd - just look at this guy:

Michael E. Lewyn. 2010. "What Would Coase Do (About Parking Regulation)?"

By artificially increasing the supply of parking and thus making driving cheaper and more convenient, these regulations have redistributed wealth from society as a whole to drivers, making driving more attractive and thus increasing automobile travel and its negative externalities (such as pollution, traffic congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions). By creating the parking-dominated “strip mall” landscape of suburbia, such regulations impose discomfort and even danger upon pedestrians. And by making urban redevelopment more expensive, minimum parking regulations shift development from city to automobile-dependent suburb. So minimum parking requirements may be one of the situations foreseen by Coase, in which government regulation creates more congestion and environmental damage than it prevents.

Bicycle Lockers At The Old Town Parking Deck

The new Old Town Parking Deck will include Bike Lockers. They will cost $15/month or $1/day. Apparently these have been available at the downtown Hardy Parking Deck. Yeah, I didn't know that either.

See DowntownTC: Bike Lockers In The Old Town Parking Deck

Parking

Parking updates.

The Diane Rehm show recently dedicated an hour to parking garages, and it was fascinating. See (and listen): The Parking Garage

Grist.org poses this obvious question: Tell me again why we mandate parking at bars?

And the NYT covers what current parking lots are good for: The Parking Lot as ‘Solar Grove’

I made a related post in 2008 about parking standards in an urban environment.

All this news makes me think the new Old Town parking deck is going to do a lot of things right in that it will be LEED certified, have a green roof, include solar chargers for future EV's, and it is designed with an Old Town aesthetic.

Parking For Bicycles

I would love to see more businesses in Traverse City add parking spots for people who travel by bike. And start with the Cherry Capital Airport. Maybe even offer bike rentals there. This would go a long way in making Traverse City a car-free city.

More on bike parking at Slate: What Would Get Americans Biking to Work? Decent parking.

Cities Are For People

Yet another argument for why Traverse City does not need more roads.

Wired: It's Time for Cities to Favor People, Not Cars

"There's this cycle of automobile dependency," he said. "You have to have a place to park at home, a place to park at work, and a place to park at retail establishments." In an absurd "market distortion," cities have become places where "cars have a right to housing and people don't."

How To Get More Out Of Alleys

Traverse City's core neighborhoods all have alleys with houses near the sidewalks and garages in the back lane. This rear space could be used for much more. If not an ADU then how about an office.Something like this at TH: Back Lane Intensification by Pyatt Studio

A Parking Basement

This is an amazing project: Downtown Houston Rediscovers Green with New Eco-Centric Park

What was a large downtown parking lot in Houston just a year ago, is now Discovery Green, downtown Houston’s new urban park. Underneath the park, an underground parking garage now accommodates the same number of cars as before…no more, no less. An above ground portal, designed by Austin artist, Margo Sawyer, takes drivers from their cars below the Earth up to almost a dozen acres of new centrally located parkspace.

Urban Parking

Via MSNBC - Cities rethinking '50s-era parking standards

D.C. is now considering scrapping those [parking space] requirements — part of a growing national trend. Officials hope that offering the freedom to forgo parking will lead to denser, more walkable, transit-friendly development...

Parking requirements — known to planners as "parking minimums" — have been around since the 1950s. The theory is that if buildings don't provide their own parking, too many drivers will try to park on neighborhood streets.

In practice, critics say, the requirements create an excess supply of parking, making it artificially cheap. That, the argument goes, encourages unnecessary driving and makes congestion worse. The standards also encourage people to build unsightly surface lots and garages instead of inviting storefronts and residential facades, they say. Walkers must dodge cars pulling in and out of driveways, and curb cuts eat up space that could otherwise be used for trees.

Reading this article reminded me of a study by my old grad school committee member Bryan Pijanowski that found communities had more parking spaces than vehicles.

See:
Parking Spaces Outnumber Drivers 3 To 1, Drive Pollution And Warming

The hidden costs of free parking – one space at a time