Right-Sizing Parking – Planning, designing, and operating in a world with no parking minimums

Thursday, September 17, 1:45 PM, Room: Columbia 4

Many communities in the U.S. are moving away from mandating the minimum number of parking spaces required for development. Excess parking contributes to sprawl, congestion, and increased development costs. Ideally, the market decides the optimal parking supply to meet demand while promoting other sustainable modes of transportation.

When parking minimums are eliminated, however, parking becomes a scarcer resource, and challenges arise when business customers and residents can’t find parking, parking bleeds into the nearby neighborhoods, transit service is limited, or a variety of other issues “Right-sized” parking is the answer. “Right-sizing” begins with data-driven demand analysis that takes advantage of shared-use parking opportunities to determine the “right” number of parking spaces required. The next step is designing a facility of the “right” size and configuration for safety, comfort, and ease of use without wasted space.

Last is consistent application of the “right” parking management and enforcement policies and technologies to maintain access, safety and security, and optimal occupancy. Ultimately, “right-sized” parking makes efficient use of land, optimizes of the parking footprint, and aligns the parking supply with commercial and residential needs balanced with community goals for walkability, transit ridership, and affordability.

Learning Objectives

  • Define “right-sizing” of parking for new development and redevelopment in the context of municipalities’ trend away from parking minimums.

  • Briefly illustrate how to identify the “right” number of parking spaces employing shared demand analysis, captive markets, mode split and TDM.

  • Highlight the “right” aspects of facility design that result in comfortable and desirable parking.

  • Discuss the “right” operating strategies and technologies to promote optimal parking occupancy, access, and turnover.

     

 

Benjamin Sands (WGI)

Benjamin Sands, PTMP, CPP, manages Parking Planning and Operations nationally for WGI, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sands has more than 25 years of experience in parking, transportation, and mobility, with a professional focus on parking planning, occupancy and utilization analysis, parking operations and technology, and parking demand forecasting to assess future system adequacy.

Sands works primarily with developers, municipalities, public agencies, and institutions on parking and curbside management plans, parking demand and rate studies, financial analysis, and parking operations and technology evaluations. His experience includes evaluating on‑ and off‑street utilization, developing data‑driven policy, operations, and technology recommendations, and supporting planning and design decisions for parking structures and mixed‑use developments.

He brings an operationally informed, planning‑driven perspective to complex parking and mobility challenges.