Parking
Streetsblog LA
Visualizing America’s Absurd Parking Requirements
Architect Seth Goodman is on a mission to illustrate the absurdity of parking requirements. The above image, showing mandatory parking requirements for office buildings in different American cities, is one of three infographics he created to show the extent to which American cities mandate the construction of parking.
May 23, 2013
They Paved Paradise, Parking In Santa Monica
Parking has been dominating the public policy debate in Santa Monica the past few weeks, ever since the local lobbying group Santa Monica Coalition for a Livable City (SMCLC) made transportation consultant Jeffery Tumlin into a target. Unfortunately they subsequently succeeded in having him removed from Santa Monica projects after years of great work with city planning efforts including our Bike Action Plan.
March 29, 2013
With All Eyes on L.A., Villaraigosa Signs New Bike Parking Ordinance
Moments ago, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed a new bicycle parking ordinance into law which requires more bicycle parking at new developments and even allows a small swap of car parking for bike parking in certain approved development plans. The ordinance was on the verge of being signed last year before a series of small technical changes were added and the legislation had to go back through the City Council Committee structure.
February 1, 2013
LA Planners Leapfrog NYC DCP, Approve Plan With No Mandatory Parking
Angie reported this morning that Washington, DC, is moving to reduce mandatory parking requirements in much of the city, which should lower the cost of housing and curb traffic. Meanwhile, despite talk last year of wide-ranging parking reforms for New York's "inner ring" encircling the Manhattan core, the Department of City Planning has so far only managed to put forward a reduction of parking minimums in transit-saturated Downtown Brooklyn, the most screamingly obvious location.
December 17, 2012
The Los Angeles Times Really Doesn’t Think Drivers Should Be Fined for Parking at Broken Meters
Last week, the Los Angeles City Council voted to continue the city policy of ticketing motorized vehicles parked in metered spaces where the meter is vandalized. Since the city began this program in 2009, the number of broken meters has dropped signifiganty, because of a combination of factors including the installation of newer parking meters and a dramatic decrease in the number of meters that are vandalized.
December 12, 2012
L.A. Finally Embraces Sanity on Parking Policy
Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council embraced looser parking standards that will allow communities some flexibility in creating parking standards for new development. The full motion can be read here.
August 15, 2012
Wait ‘Til Next Year: Parking Reform Bill Pulled from Assembly Committee
With the clock ticking, a state bill that would have banned parking minimums near transit nodes in certain circumstances was pulled from the July 3 California Senate Governance and Finance Committee agenda, shooting down major statewide parking reform efforts for at least another year. A.B. 904, a bill which waspraised by parking policy guru and UCLA professor Donald Shoup, appears to be dead in the water, but opponents vow to re-introduce a similar proposal next year.
July 5, 2012
401 Broadway Proposal In Santa Monica Goes From Car-Free To Robo-Garage
Last week I started a multiple part series on traffic, and the myths that surround it in Santa Monica, promising a part 2. That is still coming, but I am holding it for next week's column to focus on recent developments concerning what had been proposed as a car-free mixed use apartment building at 401 Broadway.
June 29, 2012
Donald Shoup Responds to California APA Regarding California’s Parking Reform Bill
(A letter from Donald Shoup on AB 904 to the American Planning Association can be found after the jump. - DN)
June 19, 2012
As We Redraft Santa Monica Zoning, Let’s Drop The Parking Minimums
Ever since I attended a lecture by Donald Shoup at the LA Street summit in 2010, it has been stuck in my brain that most municipal zoning codes effectively make it illegal for developers to pursue truly sustainable models of development. Parking minimum requirements set a bar for levels of parking that must be built, often with arbitrary formulas based on building use and size written during decades when trends of car use and ownership were on very different trajectories than they are today.
May 4, 2012