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JVH comments on Parking News every day at PT Blog – log on at www.parkingtoday.com. Each month, there are at least 40 other comments like these, posted daily.


A Step in the Right Direction (PostedMay 4) Columbus, OH, is reducing the number of parking spaces


required for businesses in its downtown area. It’s a beginning, but UCLA Professor Don Shoup recommends that parking requirements be done away with completely. The argument goes like this: Parking requirements are usually based on “silly” numbers


that have little basis in reality (e.g., nunnery, 1 space per every three nuns; swimming pool, 1 space for each 15,000 gallons of water; beauty shop, 1 space for every station; adult book store, 1 space for every 1,000 square feet. The point is that none of these absolute requirements, nor


most others, hold up well to scrutiny. The result is that when a business wants to open in an area and if the business it is replac- ing doesn’t meet the parking requirement, urban renewal simply won’t happen. If I want to put a restaurant where a hardware store used to


be, I should be able to do so.The business risk ismine.They don’t build churches for Easter and Christmas, and we shouldn’t require parking for the day after Thanksgiving. Columbus has made a good start; simply reducing the requirements by 20% helps, but it doesn’t solve the problem.


I know it’s difficult for “planners” to get their minds around


the concept of “unplanned” parking requirements, but in most cases, parking is overbuilt. And if it’s not, people and the free market will fix the problem. Some will decide to ride the bus, car- pool or move to the area, assuming it’s attractive, so they don’t need a car.Urban density is seen as a good thing.One way to get it is to let the parking requirements go the way of the dodo bird.


Let’s Pick on Another Pennsylvania Town (PostedMay 3) A Pittsburgh, PA, TV station got hold of the outstanding


parking ticket database and found that $1.3 million in tickets are outstanding. And that’s only the money from people who have seven or more outstanding.TheTV reporters spoke to the folks in power there and found that basically there are no teeth in their laws, either.To quote from the report: A reporter speaking to a local parking official: …“It seems to me like the gloves are kind of on here. The


gloves haven’t really come off yet in terms of you guys really get- ting toughwith ticket scofflaws.Think about it.They don’t have to worry about a cop coming to their house.They don’t have towor- ry about their credit rating getting ruined by this thing. All they Continued on Page 42


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JUNE 2010 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


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