Cities revisit parking policies to increase TOD success

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Walkers and cyclists in Santa Monica. (Photo credit: Los Angeles Times)

Santa Monica, CA, once known for pioneering the downtown public parking structure in the 1970s, recently eliminated parking minimums for future development. The move aims to support existing transit investments while reducing cost barriers to building new housing or opening businesses. Research conducted by the city found that much of their existing parking supply was underutilized; in one case, a mostly full hotel only used 17% of its parking.

Metropolitan areas such as Austin, TX and Atlanta, GA are also considering similar changes. New development in Buckhead, a high-demand neighborhood of Atlanta, is now in moratorium as the city conducts a public review of its parking requirements:

With the construction of popular new apartment buildings, Buckhead’s traffic congestion “has morphed from a nuisance to a threat to our health, safety and welfare,” said [Atlanta City Councilman Howard Shook]. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Studies have shown that free and abundant parking drives down transit ridership and creates greater amounts of congestion. And too often, transit-oriented developments provide an oversupply of parking, as demonstrated in Empty Spaces: Real parking needs at five TODs, a report by Smart Growth America and the University of Utah.

Parking decisions near transit stations have impacts on local economies, transit ridership, access to opportunity, and overall quality of life. Recommended Practice: Transit Parking 101, by the American Public Transportation Association, provides a comprehensive list of considerations that should be included in transit parking policies. Visit the TODresources.org library to access the guide, along with additional resources on making informed parking decisions at TODs.

Recent TOD news

Here are a few things that have been happening this week with TOD projects across the country.