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I expect free parking when I drive to NYC neighborhoods, even Manhattan ones. I don't expect to find it right away, but with patience it will be free!
I don't have the patience. I expect there to be parking that's somewhat convenient. I'm fine walking four blocks. I'm not fine walking four blocks after circling around for 45 minutes, especially when you figure how much congestion all the circling vultures cause.
I generally assume, if a business is closed even if the sign says no parking, no one's checking if you use the space. Parking can get double usage in other ways, too. For example, if the hospital is busiest during the day [hospital probably has less of regular working hour peak than typical business], the residential streets nearby probably empty out a bit during business hours. So parking spaces that would be sitting empty get used.
The street I live gets some people who park on it during daytime hours to visit the town center, many of the residents street parking drive away, so the visitors are using spaces that would otherwise sit empty. More efficient than building more parking, and more attractive than having an extra parking lot.
Not always. My friend used to live in a condo across from an office park. Her condo had no visitor parking (This development of about 1000 homes had 3 visitor spots in the 400 unit condo section, and then some street parking mixed into the townhouse section. But not a whole lot.)
The office park has security patrols to make sure that no one from the condos parked there. (These were fancy condos in a fancy area.)
I don't expect free parking in downtown Denver. I mean, why should I? There isn't any! It's not realistic. But I do think apartment buildings should have to provide at least one space per unit here in Denver anyway, where virtually every adult has a car.
My DD and her fiance just rented a place in St. Paul, MN with no on-street parking. At Christmas, they had to go back there from his parents' home, 150 miles away, to move a car b/c there was a snow emergency and one side of the street had to be cleared for snow plowing. Their car would have been impounded had they not moved it. Also, cars have to be moved every 24 hrs or so, so how can you go on a trip? These restrictions, e.g. having to move your car for a snow emergency and having to move it every 24 hours are not unusual in cities. Caveat emptor!
I haven't heard of 24 hour restrictions, just once or twice a week. Still, I'm not sure how people deal with going on a trip with those restrictions, I think asked once in the NYC forum. I guess ask someone with extra off-street parking, say a long driveway? Probably would difficult in the city, but if you know someone (esp family) in the burbs that'd work.
I went away for a trip and left my car down with my parents for a while, took the bus up to here rather than having it sit unattended for several weeks.
A lot of older places in New England have long driveways to the side where many cars blocked in. Usually, some put their car on the street, but for snow move into the driveway.
I haven't heard of 24 hour restrictions, just once or twice a week. Still, I'm not sure how people deal with going on a trip with those restrictions, I think asked once in the NYC forum. I guess ask someone with extra off-street parking, say a long driveway? Probably would difficult in the city, but if you know someone (esp family) in the burbs that'd work.
I went away for a trip and left my car down with my parents for a while, took the bus up to here rather than having it sit unattended for several weeks.
A lot of older places in New England have long driveways to the side where many cars blocked in. Usually, some put their car on the street, but for snow move into the driveway.
Yeah, a friend told me that her son left his car at someone else's place on vacation once, due to parking restrictions.
Back in Champaign-Urbana, every apt./house DH and I rented singly or together provided some off-street parking. It must have been a requirement there. DH and a bunch of guys once rented an old house near campus that had a driveway from the street to the alley. Two cars could easily park there, and he said sometimes they parked in the yard! He and I rented a house that had a driveway that would hold two cars, though it only had one access to the street. Whoever got home first parked in the drive, the other one parked in front of the house. Since it was a residential neighborhood of small houses, that was never a problem.
Old Town Pasadena in the middle of the 20th century is one I can think of. Interestingly enough, it was parking reform that played a huge part in its revitalization.
parking reform, yes, but it was a very specific strategy: if I'm remembering right they drastically reduced many of the parking minimums for businesses, allowed businesses to buy into shared garages to count for their spots (rather than require each business or building to provide its own), created a hybrid of free-pay parking, and managed their meters to ensure appropriate turnover -- in busy areas, free street parking is often actually a bad thing for businesses, so meters priced right can be very beneficial. What's more, the parking revenue is pumped directly back into the business district (rather than going into the general city pot), which allowed them to provide streetscape improvements, etc. In the last decade they've also further benefited from also having two light rail stations in the downtown area. In any case, Old Pasadena today is easy to access by car, by bus, by train, or by foot (not sure about bikes), and yes, good management of parking was instrumental in that change.
Back in Champaign-Urbana, every apt./house DH and I rented singly or together provided some off-street parking. It must have been a requirement there.
Ithaca has signs for parking space rentals, so there must be more demand for parking than whatever's included with the apartment (or the apartment owner rents parking out separately*) Market-based solution, I guess.
*I know someone living in a Chicago high-rise that's like that: high rise has parking but it's rented out to anyone, including commuters since it's close to downtown
I generally assume, if a business is closed even if the sign says no parking, no one's checking if you use the space.
This point seems irrelevant to the post to which you were replying. If a city requires minimum parking for businesses, then there is no thought by the city for context, for the reality that a bar and a bookstore could share a parking lot instead of each having its own.
I like having parking requirements, because I like having parking when I go places.
But, it must be asked (not just of you, KRPL, but of everyone supporting minimums), why do people freak out when a muni wants to adjust the requirement? Does it really make sense to set as the minimum for the whole year enough parking for the 7th most attended day of the year? If the parking is consistently under-utilized, what does it matter if the city makes an incremental adjustment? It's not as if parking is suddenly going to disappear at home, at work, or where-ever.
But, it must be asked (not just of you, KRPL, but of everyone supporting minimums), why do people freak out when a muni wants to adjust the requirement? Does it really make sense to set as the minimum for the whole year enough parking for the 7th most attended day of the year? If the parking is consistently under-utilized, what does it matter if the city makes an incremental adjustment? It's not as if parking is suddenly going to disappear at home, at work, or where-ever.
I see a lot less freaking out about small changes in minimum parking rates than I do about the existence of minimum parking. YMMV. I didn't freak out when they built the movie theater complex downtown with zero parking or when they did a bunch of infill development in the mall parking lots. Now, those were probably well above whatever the minimum was at, probably still well above whatever the old requirements were (if they changed at all) even after the infill.
San Francisco has steadily been reducing minimum parking requirements for 40 years. Maybe I've just been asleep and missed all the SF Chronicle articles about everyone freaking out. Hell, Rincon Hill has maximum parking requirements (and no minimums), require parking to be decoupled, requires all parking be underground, prohibits parking garage entrances on certain streets. That happened nearly a decade ago. It hasn't stayed isolated to Rincon Hill.
Last edited by Malloric; 01-13-2014 at 10:59 PM..
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