Reinventing Parking

Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join? This week, I ran a short training session about parking policy and challenged the participants with four questions that prompted them to examine their parking assumptions.  In this edition of Reinventing Parking I share the questions with you and discuss some lessons we can learn from them. As you read or listen, think about your own answers. You might get some insight into your own parking mindsets. You can read the written version of this episode here.

Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join? This edition of Reinventing Parking was prompted by a recent bonus episode of the War on Cars podcast which featured listener origin stories. Parking Reform Network President, Tony Jordan, suggested I try something similar here. I sent out an appeal to PRN members and quickly received messages from the diverse set of people you will hear from here. I hope you enjoy them. You can read a lightly edited transcript here. 

Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join? The United Kingdom has been both a bold parking reformer and a parking reform disappointment. But which is the more important story? That's the focus of this month's episode of Reinventing Parking episode.  The nationwide abolition of parking mandates in 2001 and the shift to parking maximums was amazing and of great interest to parking reformers elsewhere. Yet, parking management has often failed to rise to the challenge, leading to problems and then to some backsliding on parking standards. For more insight and lessons from UK parking, I turned to Andrew Potter, who is Director of Parking Perspectives, a parking focused consulting firm based in Chelmsford in the southeast of England. Here is an outline of our discussion:  About my guest: Andrew Potter Basics about on-street parking management - where it is strong [2:20] Where is parking enforcement weak and parking behaviour worst? [3:59] Pavement parking is not even an offence in England (but is in London and Scotland Parking standards and the history of reforms [6:10] Maximums dealt with a parking arms race [7:23] Problems emerged in new residential developments with limited parking under maximums [8:39] Why wasn't strict parking management expanded to such areas? [10:01] Fundamental problem with the approach to on-street parking management outside city cores [11:31] These problems led to pressure on government to change the approach to parking for residential developments [12:21] Is London a counterfactual to refute the idea that these problems mean abolishing minimums and imposing maximums was foolish? [13:34] What has been happening recently with parking standards, minimums and maximums? [16:40] Trend for car free developments in city centre areas and this is generally successful since the streets are well controlled [19:50] Residents of inner city car free developments are usually not eligible for parking permits in the local CPZ [20:21] Are maximums still popular, despite the problems mentioned earlier? [20:54] Suggestion: maximums at levels to make urban supermarkets viable, but not out-of-town ones [22:05] Advice for other places thinking of abolishing parking mandates and or imposing parking maximums? [24:32] Wrapping up [25:31] You can read a lightly edited transcript here. 

Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join? On November 2, 2023, the Austin City Council voted to end parking mandates, making Austin Texas the largest municipality in the USA to do so. So far.  I had a discussion with three of the key people from the Austin Parking Reform Coalition who worked to make it happen. They were Leah Bojo, Jay Crossley and Adam Greenfield.  Think of it as a Master Class for aspiring parking reform advocates! Here is an outline:  Brief summary of the whole story, especially the beginnings [2:52] Were Austin's parking mandates unusual? [7:04] A broad coalition against parking mandates [7:44] Institutional and financial infrastructure for the coalition [9:49] How important was the parking reform network? [10:46] American Disabilities Act (ADA) parking when abolishing parking mandates [12:48] The role of people inside city hall, such as city staff [15:58] The time was right [17:24] Advice for newbie or disheartened parking reformers [18:45] Dealing with pushback [22:54] Link parking reform with wider reforms or do it as a stand-alone reform? [25:49] Which comes first, off-street reform or on-street parking management? [29:35] Support across the political spectrum? [32:47] If car dependent Austin can abolish parking mandates, any city can. [34:34] You can read a lightly edited transcript here. 

Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join? This month I want to share some parking reform ideas that will probably be new to you. There are six ideas, so I only describe each one briefly.  What if we require private off-street parking to report regularly on usage levels? [4:02] Should we turn every decent-sized building and its parking into a mini Parking Benefit District? [8:35] Project to create many city maps of areas with paid parking [12:00] Alternative to maximums: make parking count as floor area [14:05] Parking moratorium (or maybe even parking draw-down) [18:39] Please abolish parking mandates, but it you must have them, make them Japan-style [22:41] Some of these may seem a bit wacky. But I think they are worth investigating. I hope they are at least thought provoking. If some of the ideas seem radical, be aware that they are inspired by a post-parking-reform vision of a near future that looks something like this (and is not so very radical, in my opinion): The users of parking cover its costs. Governments don't boost parking supply but instead want to prevent oversupply. Less space than now is devoted to parking and more to more important things. Parking regulations will not be a barrier to affordable housing or to corner stores. All parking is well managed. Motorists will have no parking hassles. But they will almost always have to pay a parking fee appropriate to the location. Parking gluts will no longer undermine our mobility options. There will be less traffic but everyone will enjoy better urban mobility. But please look away if you expect parking to mostly be free of charge and plentiful at the end of most trips. These ideas will not give you that!

My guest this month is an active Parking Reform Network member with unique insights at the interface between the parking owned by buildings and the world of parking reform.  Most buildings fail abysmally to manage their parking efficiently. It hurts building owners. It hurts tenants. It hurts residents. It hurts the whole community. Yet most building managers have little clue that there are now tools to help them easily do much better. Evan Goldin is co-founder and CEO of Parkade, a company which provides an amazing app and system that makes it simple for buildings to better utilize their parking. Parkade says it is "on a mission to create a more livable, more affordable more mobile world - with far fewer parking spots".  Evan himself is a really helpful presence in the Parking Reform Network Slack so I was thrilled when he agreed to share his insights with Reinventing Parking listeners and readers. 

I spoke with Dana Yanocha about an encouraging, readable and helpful new report from ITDP that focuses on off-street parking reform.  "Breaking the Code, Off Street Parking Reform Lessons Learned" is aimed at parking reformers and potential parking reformers all over the world. Dana, who is research manager for ITDP Global, led the team that prepared the report and was co-author of the report along with Mackenzie Allen. Visit Reinventing Parking for more information and a lightly edited transcript.  Here is a summary of our conversation: The report in a nutshell Was it difficult to motivate ITDP or funders to work on parking? Was there anything that surprised you? Change comes slowly but small wins often lead to big wins Make data powerful! Link parking reform with other popular goals! Push at any level of government that works! Which should come first, on street parking management improvements, or off street parking reforms? Maximums dilemmas and complications Dana is not yet sick of parking reform

Several years ago, I gamified on-street parking management using a board game. It brings home to players the amazing power of parking fees in a surprising and fun way.  And the Urban Works Institute in India has adapted and improved the game. Shreya Gadepalli and her team have been using the game to great effect in parking reform workshops and parking policy trainings.   For this episode of Reinventing Parking, I spoke with Shreya, who leads the Urban Works Institute and is one of India's foremost urban mobility experts. She regularly leads parking game sessions for participants in parking policy trainings or workshops across India. We discussed the parking game, a major Parking Reform Roadmap study that Urban Works will release soon, and recent developments in Indian parking policy and reform.  More details are here. Later there will be links to more downloadable resources on the game, as well as links to the Roadmap study by Urban Works Institute. Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

People keep claiming that parking reform and the Parking Reform Network are "anti car".  So I thought I should make an episode to try to answer the question, is parking reform anti-car?  But, since that’s a loaded question not usually asked in good faith, I decided to instead look at a similar but more constructive question:  Can parking reform help cities avoid or escape having cars dominate their transport systems? And the short answer is that parking reform can help do this as much or as little as you want it to.  You can read a transcript here.  Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

This month's Reinventing Parking episode looks at parking lot maps.  Parking lot maps might seem an unlikely viral hit but Parking Reform Network's maps of downtown parking across the USA really did make a splash this northern Spring. They convey a compelling message, with many downtowns having more than 20 percent of their land devoted to parking. That's without even counting podium, underground or street parking. The maps were created by Thomas Carpenito and a team of PRN volunteers. To discuss the PRN Parking Lot Map project, I spoke with Thomas along with PRN President, Tony Jordan, and PRN Communications Coordinator, Etienne Lefebvre.  Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

Reinventing Parking this time is 25 minutes of edited highlights from my appearance on the OoruLabs Talking Heads podcast. OoruLabs is an Indian podcast and Youtube channel hosted by Sathya Sankaran and Knerav Kodolikar, who kindly gave permission to adapt the interview, which was their episode 16.  Our topic was parking reform for the Indian context.  But that means it's also relevant for almost any middle income and lower income city or anywhere where private motor vehicle ownership is surging but for now remains relatively low.  For cities in that situation, parking policy choices are potentially pivotal and will likely play a big part in choosing each city's urban mobility destiny. Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

Can parking reform co-exist with justice for frail aging people and for people with disabilities? That was a central theme of a Parking Reform Network round table event on "Parking Reform, Aging and Disability" which took place a few months ago. The event had four guests with a wealth of experience and insight on these issues. The original was long, but this podcast version has just the highlights. I hope you find it as interesting and informative as I did.  For the full video and for more detail on the event and its four panelists, Cassie Wilson, Corallete Hannon, Megan Lynch, and Anna Zivarts, head over to the excellent article by Taylor Griggs on the PRN website. Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

Ten years ago Beijing's parking problems were among the most extreme I had ever seen.  How the situation improved is an encouraging story. I learned about it from the article "How Beijing Is Rethinking Parking and Reclaiming Public Space" by Liu Shaokun and Bram van Ooijen in the Nov. 2022 edition of Sustainable Transportation Magazine from the Institute of Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).  I reached out to Shaokun and Bram, as well as Shaokun's colleague Huang Yangwen, for this month's Reinventing Parking podcast. [My apologies for the sound issue - an echo - at the 44 second mark, just after the intro music. Fortunately this lasts for only about 20 seconds or so.] Find out more HERE. Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

This episode of Reinventing Parking is full of encouragement for parking reformers.  It's a lively chat with the Parking Reform Network's enthusiastic president, Tony Jordan. I checked in with him to talk about the encouraging progress and momentum that we are seeing on parking reform and for the parking reform movement.  Our conversation left me feeling energized and upbeat about the difference we are making and I hope it does the same for you.  Find out more HERE. Follow Paul Barter on Twitter. Reinventing Parking is now the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

If you found this podcast, you are probably interested in parking reform.  But what do you know about the idea of "park-once-and-walk districts"? Have you heard of the Walkable Parking mindset on urban parking?  These ideas are an important part of escaping the belief that every building should have on-site parking. But they are not yet getting very much attention in parking reform circles.  So, I decided to prepare a series of short Reinventing Parking episodes on park-once-and-walk districts and Walkable Parking. This is the first in that series.  This episode will look at park-once-and-walk in city centres (aka Downtowns). These are the heartland of the park-once-and-walk or Walkable Parking approach. Find out more HERE. Follow Paul Barter on Twitter. Reinventing Parking is now the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

I am a great fan of Dr Liz Taylor's research on parking so it was wonderful to interview her recently. We had a long discussion but, for this edition I chose a selection of segments that are mostly about the collision between parking reform and anti-development sentiment in residential areas. I think you will find Liz's insights on this both important and entertaining. Find out more HERE. Follow Paul Barter on Twitter. Reinventing Parking is now the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

Singapore is quite a weird country. I know. I have lived here for more than 20 years now. But is its parking weird too? And is Singapore a parking reform model to copy? These are important questions, since Singapore is often held up as a policy-making model, especially in middle-income countries.  So this edition of Reinventing Parking takes a look.  Find out more HERE. Follow Paul Barter on Twitter. Reinventing Parking is now the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

Oregon recently enacted the most aggressive statewide parking reforms in the United States.  The Parking Reform Network webinar about those reforms was such a great "masterclass" on reforming costly parking mandates that we just had to turn it into an episode of Reinventing Parking. This episode also has a video version. You can view it here! Find out more HERE. Follow Paul Barter on Twitter. Reinventing Parking is now the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

In mid-2020, Edmonton's city council amazed many of us in the parking reform scene by voting to comprehensively remove minimum parking requirements. Edmonton had a unique name for its reform: Open Option Parking. This month's Reinventing Parking is an interview with Ashley Salvador, who was a key participant in the campaign for Edmonton's 2020 parking reform.  Together we explored the Edmonton Open Option Parking story. Read more HERE. Follow Paul Barter on Twitter. Reinventing Parking is now the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

This month's Reinventing Parking features an encouraging case of a non-profit organization taking the initiative on parking policy in its home city of Delhi.  I spoke with Sonal Shah of the Centre for Sustainable and Equitable Cities (C-SEC), which carried out a small but sophisticated investigation of parking in the vicinity of the Green Park Metro Rail Station in southern Delhi. Read more here.  Follow Paul Barter on Twitter. Reinventing Parking is now the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?