Keep the money; I'll take better parking
By: James Edward Dillard, There Is A Light And It Never Goes Out
Issue date: 11/27/07 Section: Opinion
It doesn't take a degree from Carolina to know that Chapel Hill has a parking problem. While the problem is pretty simple - there's not nearly enough of it - what to do about it is another matter entirely.
To shed a light on the situation, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership recently fronted the money to hire a parking consultant. During the next three months a Michigan consulting firm will be paid $27,000 to study the area and suggest improvements.
Nobody is paying me anything, but with that kind of money getting thrown around, I got giddy. Here's what I would've done, had the CHDP hired me to solve its conundrum.
Read the downtown parking citizens committee report. Interestingly enough, the Chapel Hill Town Council has known about the parking problem for some time. Last year, it commissioned a committee with representatives from local businesses, the University and the community to analyze the parking problem and plan solutions.
The report they compiled took adding new lots as a last resort, but posited plenty of ways to use the current parking supply more efficiently, such as improving the signs and partnering with University and private lots to supplement parking during peak hours.
Given that the CHDP, which represents downtown businesses, had surely seen this report before hiring a consultant, it's likely that the consultant was hired for the purpose of coming to a different conclusion. If the consultant comes back in February saying that building a new parking structure is critical to downtown success, don't be surprised.
Think about why parking is important to the town.
Once upon a time, the town of Chapel Hill considered public parking an opportunity to create revenue for the town. Now thinking has shifted, and it's viewed as a tool for economic development.
This means the town should be willing to incur a loss to attract people to the downtown area. Since every council candidate ran on a platform of economic development, finding the available funds for this should be easier than hating Duke.
Think about why people use the downtown area.
People tend to park close to places they're trying to go. Given that assumption, I can think of four general reasons to park downtown: bars, boutiques, restaurants and the University. Three of these fall into the set of things that the town wants to promote: bars, boutiques and restaurants.
As the citizens committee report suggests, the town could discriminate between people parking for reasons that they want (spending money at downtown businesses) and reasons that they don't (because they're late for class and any lot is closer than their apartment) by providing limited-time, prime-location parking free to people who have receipts from downtown businesses.
Think about why parking is a problem.
While it never hurts to find creative ways to use things more efficiently, the core of the parking problem isn't under-utilization, it's over-demand. As a University town, Chapel Hill naturally has more drivers in its population than a comparably sized town.
Since the downtown area is close to everything worth doing, it makes sense that demand would overwhelm supply during peak hours. As long as there is a downtown, people (especially students) are going to want more parking. The question is whether parking and the congestion that comes with it will sufficiently revitalize the downtown area.
Start planning for new parking structures very, very soon.
Some things are just inevitable …
To shed a light on the situation, the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership recently fronted the money to hire a parking consultant. During the next three months a Michigan consulting firm will be paid $27,000 to study the area and suggest improvements.
Nobody is paying me anything, but with that kind of money getting thrown around, I got giddy. Here's what I would've done, had the CHDP hired me to solve its conundrum.
The report they compiled took adding new lots as a last resort, but posited plenty of ways to use the current parking supply more efficiently, such as improving the signs and partnering with University and private lots to supplement parking during peak hours.
Given that the CHDP, which represents downtown businesses, had surely seen this report before hiring a consultant, it's likely that the consultant was hired for the purpose of coming to a different conclusion. If the consultant comes back in February saying that building a new parking structure is critical to downtown success, don't be surprised.
Once upon a time, the town of Chapel Hill considered public parking an opportunity to create revenue for the town. Now thinking has shifted, and it's viewed as a tool for economic development.
This means the town should be willing to incur a loss to attract people to the downtown area. Since every council candidate ran on a platform of economic development, finding the available funds for this should be easier than hating Duke.
People tend to park close to places they're trying to go. Given that assumption, I can think of four general reasons to park downtown: bars, boutiques, restaurants and the University. Three of these fall into the set of things that the town wants to promote: bars, boutiques and restaurants.
As the citizens committee report suggests, the town could discriminate between people parking for reasons that they want (spending money at downtown businesses) and reasons that they don't (because they're late for class and any lot is closer than their apartment) by providing limited-time, prime-location parking free to people who have receipts from downtown businesses.
While it never hurts to find creative ways to use things more efficiently, the core of the parking problem isn't under-utilization, it's over-demand. As a University town, Chapel Hill naturally has more drivers in its population than a comparably sized town.
Since the downtown area is close to everything worth doing, it makes sense that demand would overwhelm supply during peak hours. As long as there is a downtown, people (especially students) are going to want more parking. The question is whether parking and the congestion that comes with it will sufficiently revitalize the downtown area.
Some things are just inevitable …
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