A looming parking crisis for the ATL? (Atlanta, Alpharetta: 2014, neighborhoods)

[arjay57]

This article raises some good points.

Two trends are pushing heavily on the Atlanta office market, which send very different signals, and which push developer's in very different directions.

First of all, there are some points to establish.

Whether we are a "walkable city" or not, we are still a land-rich metropolitan area. Because of that, there are and will be nice suburbs north to Alpharetta; south to Peachtree City; and to the east and west.

This means people will drive to where they work, and this is where trends collide.

Trend one is densification. Office tenants are creating more dense space. One employee per 200 square feet may have been a norm 10 years ago. Today it is creeping to 1 employee per 150 square feet. Once the challenge of fitting more people into less space is met, you then must figure out where to park all of them.

Trend two is that parking decks have become very expensive and a tad unpopular. Trying to camouflage a parking deck that will park 6 cars per 1,000 rentable square feet is difficult to impossible to achieve, and even more difficult to develop.

More...As companies pack more employees in smaller offices, we need more answers for parking - Atlanta Business Chronicle

[jsvh]

We just need to encourage the full cost of parking is paid by users so people properly ration its use and we stop over building it and under or over charging for it. These policies often result in less parking needed and lower average cost of parking (happened in San Francisco).

To get way more info than you were probably looking for on the subject pick up this book: The High Cost of Free Parking, Updated Edition: Donald Shoup: 9781932364965: Amazon.com: Books

Edit: A good podcast on this here: Parking Is Hell: Freakonomics Radio Podcast

[arjay57]

I have got it and I like it, jsvh.

Another book on similar themes is Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us): Tom Vanderbilt

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I have got it and I like it, jsvh.

Another book on similar themes is Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us): Tom Vanderbilt

Nice. I may have to look for that one.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by jsvh

We just need to encourage the full cost of parking is paid by users so people properly ration its use and we stop over building it and under or over charging for it. These policies often result in less parking needed and lower average cost of parking (happened in San Francisco).

To get way more info than you were probably looking for on the subject pick up this book: The High Cost of Free Parking, Updated Edition: Donald Shoup: 9781932364965: Amazon.com: Books

Edit: A good podcast on this here: Parking Is Hell: Freakonomics Radio Podcast

I half agree with you. Nothing would encourage transit use more than having people pay the full cost of parking.

However, having insufficient parking at businesses harms surrounding residential areas. Its neighborhood complaints that resulted in the zoning rules requiring a certain number of parking spaces.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by bu2

However, having insufficient parking at businesses harms surrounding residential areas. Its neighborhood complaints that resulted in the zoning rules requiring a certain number of parking spaces.

Per the book, parking supply is only insufficient if its price is set too low (or free). If you let the market dictate price, supply, and demand you will get the right amount of parking.

But agree the problem can be with zoning rules put in place by neighborhoods.

[bu2]

At one point in time they were about to pass a law taxing employer provided parking benefits. I think that would be a good policy as long as they designed it so it wasn't too complicated (that may be easier said than done). It would reduce the number of companies offering subsidized parking and would encourage employees to decline it and take transit. Driving is much more convenient for the vast majority of people. They need to make the economics and time more competitive or better for transit.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by jsvh

We just need to encourage the full cost of parking is paid by users so people properly ration its use and we stop over building it and under or over charging for it. These policies often result in less parking needed and lower average cost of parking (happened in San Francisco).

To get way more info than you were probably looking for on the subject pick up this book: The High Cost of Free Parking, Updated Edition: Donald Shoup: 9781932364965: Amazon.com: Books

Edit: A good podcast on this here: Parking Is Hell: Freakonomics Radio Podcast

For pete's sake! NO ONE SUBSIDIZES PARKING! The city doesn't pay a company to build a parking deck for its workers, the city doesn't provide tax breaks for providing a parking deck. The users DO pay the full cost of the parking. I doubt most office complexes would willingly add a parking deck or lot if they could avoid it.

[westau]

Originally Posted by bu2

At one point in time they were about to pass a law taxing employer provided parking benefits. I think that would be a good policy as long as they designed it so it wasn't too complicated (that may be easier said than done). It would reduce the number of companies offering subsidized parking and would encourage employees to decline it and take transit. Driving is much more convenient for the vast majority of people. They need to make the economics and time more competitive or better for transit.

The only thing that would accomplish is companies going outside the city where they don't have to pay the tax.

Transit is great in areas where it goes where people live and work, unfortunately it doesn't do that here.

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by MattCW

For pete's sake! NO ONE SUBSIDIZES PARKING!

Or you could, you know, read the boldface quote in one of the links earlier in the thread:

Everybody likes free parking, including me, probably you. But just because the driver doesn’t pay for it doesn’t mean that the cost goes away. If you don’t pay for parking your car, somebody else has to pay for it. And that somebody is everybody. We pay for free parking in the prices of the goods we buy at places where the parking is free. And we pay for parking as residents when we get free parking with our housing. We pay for it as taxpayers. Increasingly, I think we’re paying for it in terms of the environmental harm that it causes.