Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

The United Kingdom has been both a bold parking reformer and a parking reform disappointment.

But which is the more important story? That's the focus of this month's episode of Reinventing Parking episode.

The nationwide abolition of parking mandates in 2001 and the shift to parking maximums was amazing and of great interest to parking reformers elsewhere.

Yet, parking management has often failed to rise to the challenge, leading to problems and then to some backsliding on parking standards.

For more insight and lessons from UK parking, I turned to Andrew Potter, who is Director of Parking Perspectives, a parking focused consulting firm based in Chelmsford in the southeast of England.

Here is an outline of our discussion:

• About my guest: Andrew Potter
• Basics about on-street parking management - where it is strong [2:20]
• Where is parking enforcement weak and parking behaviour worst? [3:59]
• Pavement parking is not even an offence in England (but is in London and Scotland
• Parking standards and the history of reforms [6:10]
• Maximums dealt with a parking arms race [7:23]
• Problems emerged in new residential developments with limited parking under maximums [8:39]
• Why wasn't strict parking management expanded to such areas? [10:01]
• Fundamental problem with the approach to on-street parking management outside city cores [11:31]
• These problems led to pressure on government to change the approach to parking for residential developments [12:21]
• Is London a counterfactual to refute the idea that these problems mean abolishing minimums and imposing maximums was foolish? [13:34]
• What has been happening recently with parking standards, minimums and maximums? [16:40]
• Trend for car free developments in city centre areas and this is generally successful since the streets are well controlled [19:50]
• Residents of inner city car free developments are usually not eligible for parking permits in the local CPZ [20:21]
• Are maximums still popular, despite the problems mentioned earlier? [20:54]
• Suggestion: maximums at levels to make urban supermarkets viable, but not out-of-town ones [22:05]
• Advice for other places thinking of abolishing parking mandates and or imposing parking maximums? [24:32]
• Wrapping up [25:31]

You can read a lightly edited transcript here.

Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

On November 2, 2023, the Austin City Council voted to end parking mandates, making Austin Texas the largest municipality in the USA to do so. So far.

I had a discussion with three of the key people from the Austin Parking Reform Coalition who worked to make it happen. They were Leah Bojo, Jay Crossley and Adam Greenfield.

Think of it as a Master Class for aspiring parking reform advocates!

Here is an outline:

• Brief summary of the whole story, especially the beginnings [2:52]
• Were Austin's parking mandates unusual? [7:04]
• A broad coalition against parking mandates [7:44]
• Institutional and financial infrastructure for the coalition [9:49]
• How important was the parking reform network? [10:46]
• American Disabilities Act (ADA) parking when abolishing parking mandates [12:48]
• The role of people inside city hall, such as city staff [15:58]
• The time was right [17:24]
• Advice for newbie or disheartened parking reformers [18:45]
• Dealing with pushback [22:54]
• Link parking reform with wider reforms or do it as a stand-alone reform? [25:49]
• Which comes first, off-street reform or on-street parking management? [29:35]
• Support across the political spectrum? [32:47]
• If car dependent Austin can abolish parking mandates, any city can. [34:34]

You can read a lightly edited transcript here.

Reinventing Parking is the official podcast of the Parking Reform Network! Why not join?

This month I want to share some parking reform ideas that will probably be new to you. There are six ideas, so I only describe each one briefly. 

1. What if we require private off-street parking to report regularly on usage levels? [4:02]
2. Should we turn every decent-sized building and its parking into a mini Parking Benefit District? [8:35]
3. Project to create many city maps of areas with paid parking [12:00]
4. Alternative to maximums: make parking count as floor area [14:05]
5. Parking moratorium (or maybe even parking draw-down) [18:39]
6. Please abolish parking mandates, but it you must have them, make them Japan-style [22:41]

Some of these may seem a bit wacky. But I think they are worth investigating. I hope they are at least thought provoking.

If some of the ideas seem radical, be aware that they are inspired by a post-parking-reform vision of a near future that looks something like this (and is not so very radical, in my opinion):

The users of parking cover its costs. Governments don't boost parking supply but instead want to prevent oversupply. Less space than now is devoted to parking and more to more important things. Parking regulations will not be a barrier to affordable housing or to corner stores. All parking is well managed. Motorists will have no parking hassles. But they will almost always have to pay a parking fee appropriate to the location. Parking gluts will no longer undermine our mobility options. There will be less traffic but everyone will enjoy better urban mobility.

But please look away if you expect parking to mostly be free of charge and plentiful at the end of most trips. These ideas will not give you that!