MAPC sPARKing New Ideas Parking Symposium: Presentation by Mark Chase

1. Parking Policies
Supporting Healthy & Creative
Communities
mark.chase@tufts.edu

4. Market Signals
Famine mentality
1989

5. Can we raise your parking prices?

6. Can we better manage parking?

7. Can we better manage parking?

8. Build our way out of it?
Surface: +/- $10,000 or $50/ month
Garage:
+/- $20,000 or
$100/ month
Underground:
+/- $40,000 or $200/ month
Assumptions
4% interest rate
30 years

9. Pricing Alternatives
Time limits?
Permits?
Ticketing?

10. Parking in Davis Square
Parking Studies
Time-limits/ ticketing
Pricing and technology
Framing Parking Management…

11. Lowest possible price!
To maintain a few available spaces
1. Managing Parking is about
demand
Not revenue!
OPEN
DATA

13. We decide where to spend the money
2. Parking can pay for what the
community wants!

14. Parking Benefit Districts
Tangible community improvements
Community control of revenues

15. Parking Benefit Districts
San Diego
Austin
Houston
Washington DC
Ventura, CA
Redwood City, CA
Nashua, NH

16. We decide where to spend the money
Meter Revenues &
MGL Chapter 40 Section 22A
necessary expenses related to
parking meters…&
“…regulation of parking and other
traffic activities…”

street cleaning

snow removal

17. We decide where to spend the money
2012 Revision
MGL Chapter 40 Section 22C

Purchase or lease of additional parking
lots

Commuter shuttles or commuter shuttle
services

Transit station accessibility
improvements or traffic controls

18. Common Practice

-> General Fund

Cities and Towns spend far more in
aggregate than they take in

19. We decide where to spend the money
Reality

No case-law to date in Massachusetts

Barrier is political

Community Support?

20. We decide where to spend the money
A Model: Nashua, NH

Parking Revenues  General Fund

If GT $728,000 in meter revenue…

Decided upon by the Downtown
Improvement Committee.
2012: $140,000
2013: $120,000

21. Nashua

22. A great community based plan!

23. 
City resources

Community Development Block Grants

BID

Parking Benefit District

Tax Increment Financing
How to pay for it?

27. Year 1: $140,000 -- > Meter Technology
Year 2: $120,000 -- > TBA (lighting, marketing
& branding, festivals)

28. Bigger picture
Zoning & Economic Development
Affordable housing
Congestion & Sustainable Transportation
Public space
Equity

29. Neighborhood Imagination Fund
•
Community based
•
Design competition
•
Spent in the community
•
Celebrated!

30. Somerville Resident Permit Parking
Currently issues about 50,000 permits $2.50 month!

31. Cambridge Resident Permit Parking
Currently issues about 38,000 permits for $2.08/ month!

32. Boston Resident Permit Parking
Currently issues about 350,000 permits for free!

33. Mark Chase
Mark.chase@tufts.edu