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The Parking Minute

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Don’t waive parking requirements near transit, just waive them everywhere.

June 3, 2019 By Tony Jordan 5 Comments

When cities reform their parking requirements, they often implement new rules reducing or waiving on-site parking based on a new project’s proximity to transit. But, just like ratios that came before them, these rules seem arbitrary and based on gut feeling rather than any real evidence.

In some cities, the ratio is based on proximity to bus stops, in others it’s how close it is to the street where the bus runs.  In some cities 351 feet is too far away to waive parking requirements, in others 501, and in others 1321 feet. Some cities treat light rail different than buses, others allow a waiver for planned transit. In most cities the bus or transit needs to run frequently enough for the site to qualify for a waiver, but “frequent service” means something different everywhere you go.

In this map of Portland, the areas in blue are “close enough” to qualifying transit and parking is not required. Many areas excluded are transit-rich walkable communities. Source: City of Portland

Proximity based rules like this are a lazy way to make reforms. A map of areas that qualify for a waiver in Portland, Oregon shows voids in the waiver area that are walkable, bike able, transit rich neighborhoods full of amenities, but just a couple steps outside an arbitrary boundary. Meanwhile, areas with wide streets, few sidewalks, and strip-mall development patterns are in the waiver zone because a light rail stop happens to be 1/4 mile away.

In this example, a new development may be saddled with a 1:1 parking ratio because it is 70 feet “too far” from a bus line. The site is in the middle of a bike network, which would be degraded by the addition of 244 more cars to the neighborhood.

Such mobility based rules rarely account for bike networks, walk-scores, or bike-share amenities. Frequency rates are often based on commute times to city centers, only, discounting the idea that people might want to work near where they live so they don’t have to drive or take the bus. 

While these reforms are better than nothing, the one-off problems they cause aren’t worth the trouble. Developers will build parking if their projected tenants will demand it. If cities are managing their on-street parking, there’s no free lunch for anyone and there’s no need for an arbitrary rule telling people how far they can walk to a bus before they’re forced to pay for parking whether they use it or not.

Filed Under: Parking Requirements, Transit

Reader Interactions

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  1. Weekly Roundup: PDX Concourse E, Block 216, Wells Fargo Center, and more - Next Portland says:
    June 3, 2019 at 6:26 pm

    […] Parking Minute argued against reducing parking minimums only where directly adjacent to transit, citing the example of the Dairy Apartments planned at 801 NE 21st […]

    Reply
  2. Dairy Apartments Receive Design Advice (images) - Next Portland says:
    August 10, 2019 at 6:28 pm

    […] steel in an area where most of the residential buildings are stucco; and a potential adjustment to the amount of parking required, given that the site does not qualify as being close to transit, per the definition in the zoning […]

    Reply
  3. Better chances for affordable housing? Not if parking is required. says:
    October 1, 2019 at 5:06 pm

    […] requirements. Most of the potential development would take place in areas near transit, but the transit grid leaves hundreds of properties out of the waiver zone, often by just a couple dozen feet. Requiring parking on one side of the street and not on the other doesn’t make sense, […]

    Reply
  4. Proposal would effectively eliminate minimum parking requirements in Portland says:
    November 4, 2019 at 12:10 pm

    […] (<10,000 sq/ft) lots and cut requirements for projects deemed too far from transit in half, but a few recent projects in Portland have shown the problem that transit proximity based parking waivers can […]

    Reply
  5. Portland takes one more step toward zero parking requirements says:
    March 2, 2020 at 10:11 am

    […] more trouble than it was worth. Only a small percentage of multi-family or commercial zones were “too far” from transit and it was hard to defend the damage from the occasional project caught up in red […]

    Reply

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