[sustran] More about on-street parking

[Eric Bruun]

After reading Todd's and Lee's comments, I have some additional ones.

1) I am sure that Lee is right. Especially for on-street parking in residential areas.

2) On the other hand, there are offsetting benefits from on-street parking. In addition to what Todd said, 
on-street parking can act as a buffer between pedestrians and a busy arterial. Check out Picadilly Circus
in London sometime to see what heavy bus traffic right next to the sidewalk (pavement) is like.
Also, merchants think they can better compete with malls if there is parking out front -- people
can carry heavy or bulky items a short distance from store to car, unlike at malls. Also, it is still 
possible to favor transit with on-street parking -- make the ends of parking lanes into queue bypasses.

Eric Bruum


-----Original Message-----
>From: Lee Schipper <SCHIPPER at wri.org>
>Sent: Apr 24, 2006 10:01 AM
>To: eric.britton at ecoplan.org, whook at itdp.org, sustran-discuss at jca.apc.org, sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org, NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com
>Cc: CarFreeCafe at yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [sustran] Re: New Mobility Citizen Poll for Your City-	A	ProposalforDiscussion
>
>Years ago a good Swedish Transport economist posed the same question. by measuring how much time people spent walking to where
>there was green space, he figured out that providing on-street parking rather than more green space and broader sidewalks led to a real 
>economic loss. His advice was to provide parking only in private, commercial areas (he also looked at how much off-street parking cost).
>
>One benefit of such an approach * say every other street in NYCity had no parking...just bays for deliveries here and there * front yards would reappaear
>and children and families could play in the streets more safely!
>
>>>> whook at itdp.org 4/24/2006 9:44:09 AM >>>
>Eric,
>
> 
>
>Paul white and i had a related idea over lunch the other day, and we were
>wondering if this has ever been tried.  
>
> 
>
>What if all the property owners and permanent tenants living along a block
>of urban street were given the choice by the municipality of whether they
>wanted the space in front of their house dedicated to car parking or
>sidewalk?  How many residents would vote for car parking?   It might be done
>something like this.  The department of transport could determine the needed
>road capacity, but the parking units would be a function of ultra local
>democracy.  What if as a result, each permanent resident or registered
>voter, or even just each property tax payer, on a city block got to
>determine the democratic use of the public space in front of their property.
>Since it is currently most of the time dedicated to parking, at least in the
>US, even if only 10% voted to get rid of the parking, that would be 10% of
>the parking units we could reclaim.  On my block i would guess that maybe
>50% would opt for a wider sidewalk. Then a block association could be free
>to contract an architect to redesign the street with that same number of
>units of parking.  
>
> 
>
>I am wondering if there are any successful examples of this sort of ultra
>local democracy? 
>
> 
>
>Walter 
>
> 
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org 
>[mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+whook=itdp.org at list.jca.apc.org] On Behalf
>Of Eric Britton
>Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 12:34 PM
>To: NewMobilityCafe at yahoogroups.com; Sustran Resource Centre
>Cc: CarFreeCafe at yahoogroups.com 
>Subject: [sustran] New Mobility Citizen Poll for Your City- A Proposal
>forDiscussion
>
> 
>
>New Mobility Citizen Poll for Your City- A Proposal for Discussion
>
> 
>
>When it comes to creating more viable and fairer transport systems, and
>behind that our real objective: more agreeable and more sustainable cities,
>we have one recurrent problem that we can perhaps deal with if we put our
>heads together. 
>
> 
>
>As is well known, whenever any given 'soft transport', "public space" or
>some type of "not quite so many cars" initiative is proposed in any given
>place, the first and most striking thing that happens is the howls of
>protest that immediately emerge from  all those who claim that their
>democratic entitlements are being threatened by, as they often like to put
>it, some small group of arrogant bike-happy  technocrats and their fellow
>eco-travelers. And since the media always likes a good cat fight, these
>righteous citizens often dominate the news. For the rest, for you and me and
>others like us, hey! we're the Silent Minority.  The absolutely
>disenfranchised. 
>
> 
>
>Well, it does not always have to be like that and here is one proposal
>concerning which I would like to invite discussions and refinement - all as
>a prelude to giving this idea a couple of trial runs in one or more
>pioneering cities.
>
> 
>
>The idea is to carry out an annual open citizen survey of attitudes and
>preferences concerning transport policy and practice (and the investments
>that go with it) in your city.  The results should be made widely available
>through old and new media, and brought to the fore of the attention of the
>politicians, administrators and policy makers in your city. Here without any
>pretense of it being anything other than a grain of sand to get us going is
>my draft proposal for content for quick mini-survey that can be administered
>by phone, email or on any street corner by volunteers:
>
> 
>
>Note to the reader: In a first instance, before digging into the details, I
>would like to ask the members of this fine group: (a) is this an idea that
>is worth pursuing; (b) are there some (better)examples that we should be
>looking at and learning from. Then once we have a feel for this as a useful
>activity, we can then start to see how we might together fine tune a good
>questionnaire and routine. 
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
>
>
>
> 
>
>1, Draft Mini-survey (for comment and . . . )  
>
>All questions where appropriate to be answered simply by a 1 (yes), 0 (don't
>know), -or -1 (no), which will facilitate aggregation and overview. 
>
> 
>
>1.      Name
>
>2.      City of residence
>
>3.      M/F
>
>4.      Age: <15; 15-30; 30-65; >65
>
>5.      Do you own/drive a car?
>
>6.      My city government has a coherent, announced transportation policy: 
>
>7.      I believe that this is a wise and well executed policy.
>
>8.      We need to spend more money to build more roads and more parking as
>a main transport priority. 
>
>9.      We need to give much more attention and spend more money on "soft
>transport" and related life quality initiatives (examples: better support of
>pedestrians and cyclists, traffic calming,  more public transport, new forms
>of shared transport, ITC substitutes for displacement.)
>
>10.  It is possible for people to live here well and easily without having
>their own car.
>
>11.  If they want my vote -- all candidates for local public office should
>take a firm stand on their transportation policies, and issue as part of
>their platform a signed personal statement indicating their support of more
>sustainable  transport  projects and programs. 
>
> 
>
>Your eventual brief comments or suggestions: ____________________________
>
>____________________________________________________________________________
>____________________________________________________________________________
>____________________________________________________________________________
>____________________________________________________
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
>
>
>
>2. How to execute - Thoughts on
>
> 
>
>*         This maybe is pushing it for length. If it can't be administered
>in three minutes, it probably will not do the job. Try it out on a couple of
>friends and let us know.
>
>*         There is plenty of evidence that people tend to create and
>administrate questionnaires that one way or another tend to elicit their
>favored response. We should meticulously  avoid doing this, and in our
>selection of questions - and people to be queried. If it ain't neutral, it
>is not worth a lot. So careful, eh? 
>
>*         The simple mental model I have for this is an excel table with
>names in columns, etc. All leading to easy sorting and sub-total
>
>*         To have a real impact, it will best be administered at some fixed
>time.
>As examples: on Earth Day, in cooperation with any local Car Free Days,
>European Moblity Week, etc.)
>
>*         The procedures and information should be fully public so that
>there can be no charges of rigging the returns.  (Expect in Belarusia and
>Florida in which it is OK.)
>
>*         Also involve schools, various clubs and groups, senior citizens,
>handicapped, pedestrian and cyclist naturally but also take it into
>hospitals, prisons, old people's homes, jails, and the homeless.
>
>*         Local media partnerships, and even strong involvement by them,
>will be most useful.
>
>*         I would propose that the on-street interviews be carried out on
>one day - but that an entire week be given over to the entire procedures.
>
>*         The results should be publicly announced.
>
>*         And then all those in local government should be asked to comment
>and give their appreciations of what this means. (Note: Our friends in South
>Africa with their first Car Free Days last year did a good job of this which
>we might usefully consult)
>
>*         We propose that this be an annual exercise.
>
>*         And that to the extent possible and sensible, we might want to
>think about questions and formats that are sufficiently parallel to allow us
>to aggregate.
>
>*         BTW, is there or has there ever been anything like this in your
>city? Neighborhood? That we can learn from?
>
> 
>
>
>
>
> 
>
>3. Parallel in-death Survey
>
> 
>
>It may be a good idea to have a more in depth survey for those people
>disposed to spend more time with us on this. 
>
> 
>
>The trick will be to determine who, how, when,  - and how used?
>
> 
>
>Here are a few first thoughts on this to get us going:
>
> 
>
>*         Employment, social status
>
>*         Where live/where work
>
>*         If it were faster and cheaper to get to work or school by some way
>other than driving a car (in traffic) would you be willing to consider it?
>
>*         When was the last time you took a bus or rail transit?
>
>*         Used a bike to get to work or school?
>
>*        D you think that it might be a good idea for your city to publish
>and maintain a "sustainable transportation webpage" that reports on key
>indicators including traffic deaths and incidents (by gravity and type), CO2
>or other clean air indicators, parametric indicators of infrastructure and
>performance of NMT options, etc.
>
>*        Would you be willing to work, say, 20 hours over a period of one or
>two months.  as a volunteer to support better researched specific projects
>in your neighborhood.
>
>*        Etc.
>
>*        Etc
>
>*         
>
> 
>
>
>
>================================================================
>SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people-centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on developing countries (the 'Global South'). Because of the history of the list, the main focus is on urban transport policy in Asia.