PARKING MANAGEMENT FOR SMART GROWTH

Skrevet af WILSON

The average parking space requires approximately 300 square feet of
asphalt. That’s the size of a studio apartment in New York or enough
room to hold 10 bicycles. Space devoted to parking in growing urban and
suburban areas is highly contested—not only from other uses from housing
to parklets, but between drivers who feel entitled to easy access.
Without parking management, parking is a free-for-all—a competitive
sport—with arbitrary winners and losers. Historically drivers have been
the overall winners in having free or low-cost parking, while an
oversupply of parking has created a hostile environment for pedestrians.

In the last 50 years, parking management has grown from a minor aspect
of local policy and regulation to a central position in the provision of
transportation access. The higher densities, tight land supplies, mixed
land uses, environmental and social concerns, and alternative
transportation modes of Smart Growth demand a different
approach—actively managed parking.

This book offers a set of
tools and a method for strategic parking management so that communities
can better use parking resources and avoid overbuilding parking. It
explores new opportunities for making the most from every parking space
in a sharing economy and taking advantage of new digital parking tools
to increase user interaction and satisfaction. Examples are provided of
successful approaches for parking management—from Pasadena to London. At
its essence, the book provides a path forward for strategic parking
management in a new era of tighter parking supplies.