Search Results
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Oregon Has a Chance to Sharply Cut Urban Parking Mandates
Update, July 21: Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission unanimously approved these rules on a permanent basis. The first round of parking reforms, removing mandates near transit, for smaller homes, and for regulated-affordable homes, are set to take effect Jan. 1, 2023, in the state’s eight largest metro areas. About 100 years ago, governments started redesigning cities around cars. On Thursday, Oregon could approve a major step to prioritize space...Read more » -
Parking Reform: From Theory to Practice
The conversation shared below was part of the YIMBYtown 2022 conference, cohosted by Sightline Institute and Portland: Neighbors Welcome.* It wouldn’t be YIMBYtown if we didn’t have at least one panel to talk about the high cost of free parking. The principles of Donald Shoup have never been more popular; advocates, elected officials, and policymakers are all looking at reform to car parking policies as an essential task to increase...Read more » -
Q&A: The Costs of Parking Mandates in Booming Austin
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Most Washington Voters Agree: Repeal Parking Mandates Near Transit
Fifty-five percent of Washington voters favor eliminating parking mandates within a half-mile of transit stops. That was one finding from a recent poll by Lake Research Partners measuring support for a larger package of reforms to open middle housing options for people across Washington. Though that bill (HB 1782) has since died, the polling results command optimism for future related efforts. Lake Research’s poll may be the first ever specifically...Read more » -
No Minimum Parking Requirements? No Problem for Fayetteville, Arkansas
In 2015, the city council of Fayetteville, Arkansas, adopted a radical but simple idea: do away with minimum parking mandates and let businesses decide for themselves how much parking they need. The average person walking down the main drag of Dickson Street might be surprised to learn that this growing city of 94,000 was perhaps the first city in the nation to eliminate commercial parking minimums citywide. Striking the section...Read more » -
End Parking Mandates, Get a Free Bus Pass
What if more of our collective brainpower—not just our governments, but the billions of tiny decisions that add up to our entire economy—were working to reduce our dependence on the automobile? How many good little ideas might we come up with? Here’s one: apartments that come with an all-you-can-ride transit pass included. It’s happening right now in Minneapolis, the Star-Tribune reported: Metro Transit plans to expand a pilot that provides all-you-can-ride passes to residents of apartments, condos...Read more » -
To Stop Building Heat Islands, Stop Overbuilding Parking Lots
Update, July 2023: In 2022, Oregon’s Land Conservation and Development Commission adopted rules to reduce minimum parking ratios for jurisdictions within metropolitan areas, with an option for cities to eliminate all parking mandates. It is a major step forward that will make it possible for future development to be constructed without building more heat islands. Urban heat islands got national attention this past summer after a record heat wave in the Pacific Northwest killed...Read more » -
Yes, Even Walmart Wants to Build Smaller Parking Lots
Nestled near the Columbia River in Wood Village, Oregon, is the largest Walmart in the Portland region. The building spans three-and-a-half football fields, but it’s dwarfed by something else: the surrounding parking lot, twice as big as the store itself. When it expanded from a Walmart to a Walmart Supercenter in 2004, its floor space increased by 45 percent. Its parking lot grew less, though, only adding 36 percent more spaces. Turns out, Walmart has been quietly reducing its parking ratios for years. Case study: Walmart follows consumer behavior, reduces parking “Every time we reevaluate, we pull it...Read more » -
Will Portland Finally Accelerate the Pace of Parking Reform?
“Urgent.” A Portland task force studying how to use pricing tools to make the transportation system more equitable used the word five times in their final recommendations, which are expected to be adopted by city council on October 13th. But is the city up to the task? Side by side with new ideas are ones that somehow keep coming back to city hall every couple years, with few results to...Read more » -
Study: Yes, More Parking Does Put More Cars on the Road