Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson will present his final recommendations on downtown parking to members of the City Council at their Study Session on October 30th. The Transit & Parking Advisory Committee, a stakeholder group organized by the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, will be presenting its final recommendations at roughly that same time.
Meanwhile, several cities across America are using new technology and new approaches to effect what amounts to a virtual revolution in parking. The BIA Blog's sister site On RAMP has the details.
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Meanwhile, several cities across America are using new technology and new approaches to effect what amounts to a virtual revolution in parking. The BIA Blog's sister site On RAMP has the details.
ReplyDeleteGood for collecting money and for usability. Yet, the primary challenge will be for the city to set the right price for on-street parking in the few areas where it is approprite to charge.
Remaining questions:
1) Who will collect the parking occupancy data? (recommendation : the city with their high tech devices)
2) What different parking zones will be created based on parking demand which will have different parking rates (recommendation: Olympia has 4 zones. Redwood city has 3. The higher damand ones have a fee for parking, others are free with a time limit. Downtown Tacoma will need different areas broken down as well after the data is collected).
3) Where will the funds for parking be spent? (Recommendation: street improvements and beautification recognized as the key to support of the system)
4) What ordinance does the Tacoma City Council Need to pass to implement the parking system?
(Recommendation: Professor Shoup recommends the model
Redwood City Parking Ordinance
which allows the parking rate to be set so as to acquire a 15 percent vacancy. No time limit is needed in the metered areas if the rate is set right. There is no public benefit of forcing someone out of downtown if there is a 15 on-street vacancy.
Redwood City is probably the best touted model right now.
Here's the article on their approach which is recognized as the model right now.
Here's a couple of key quotes:
At first the merchants went crazy about the cost increase. When we told them about how there will be no time limits, that we’ll be power-washing the sidewalks, they were in. When we had a City Council meeting, merchants came to support it.
New parking meter technology is making Redwood City’s parking extremely flexible and convenient. From his desk, Zack can monitor vacancy rates and change the hourly price for downtown spaces. The system is easy to use: Customers simply enter their parking space number and pay. The city’s 40 parking meters have WiFi connectivity so that customers will get real-time credit card authorization, pay-by-cell-phone integration and the ability to add time at any pay station, from any location. Zack says,