Handicapped LawCan Affect Value ofOn-Street Leases


BY JOHN VAN HORN


fornia require that handicapped parkers be giv- en “free” parking both on- and off-street.This, of course, causes a lot of issues.


T The gist is that if handicapped parking is free, there


are a number of problems. First of all, the potential buy- er since the number of handicapped permits is unknown. Second, the incidence of cheating is legend. The potential partner with LosAngeles is going to


bid the number down, because of the unknown factors. Professor Donald Shoup has some input: “I suspect that LA will have a hard time finding


bidders for a parking meter concession because so many drivers with disabled placards now park free at meters.The CaliforniaVehicle Code states: ‘A disabled person or disabled veteran is allowed to park in any metered parking space without being required to pay parkingmeter fees.’ “If disabled placard (DP) holders can park free for an


unlimited time at meters, I suspect that few investors will want to bid for themeter revenues. In a casual walking-around survey in downtown LA, it looked like about half of all the metered spaces were occupied by cars with disabled placards. “If a concessionaire


tries to increase the meter rates, the results will prob- ably be disappointing. Increasing the meter rates will increase the incentive to abuse placards and will also reduce thewillingness of those without placards to pay for parking at the curb. The result may be that DP parkers (many of them fraudulent) will use all the curb spaces, and almost no one will pay for parking. “The increased incentive to abuse placardsmay even reduce


HECITYOF LOSANGELES is considering “going out” for a public-private partnership on its parking. However, there is a minor problem. Laws in Cali-


“To make a parking meter concession marketable, perhaps


“I suspect that LA will have a hard time finding bidders for a parking meter concession because somany drivers with disabled placards now park free atmeters.”


curb parking availability for genuinely disabled drivers. Bad placards will drive out genuine placards. “Itwill be interesting to see howmuch investorswill bid for


a Los Angeles parking meter concession. The first thing investors ought to ask is what is the current parking meter rev- enue as a percentage of potential revenue if all the metered spaces were occupied and the drivers paid the meters. I suspect that the ratio of current revenue/potential revenue is probably quite low.


26 JUNE 2009 • PARKING TODAY • www.parkingtoday.com


the city could ask the state Legislature to amend the vehicle code to allow cities to request exceptions from the free-parking requirement, under certain conditions. “To make charging for DP parking politically acceptable to the disabled community, the city can offer to dedi- cate all the estimated meter revenue paid by DP users to finance new serv- ices for persons with dis- abilities. For example, the city can bring sidewalks up toADA standards. “The new money


available for the disabled community will be sub- stantial, because DP meter parkers (both genuine and


fraudulent) already drain a lot of money from the city. The city will also need a lot of money to repair sidewalks because of recentADA lawsuits filed against LosAngeles about inaccessi- ble sidewalks.”


Links to the RFP from Los Angeles and the references Professor Shoup sources in this article can be found at PT’s website, www.parkingtoday.com. Click on “Shoup on LA…” that will appear in the upper left-hand rotating box on the home page.


PT


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