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Looking for information about our signage, or brought here from the WORT interview "Strong Towns Madison Wants to Eliminate Parking Mandates"? Click this button to learn more:
The Foundation
Parking is surprisingly expensive, costing between $10k and 60k per spot
Parking is mostly used by private individuals who aren’t paying the real cost
Money spent on parking that doesn’t recoup investment is a subsidy solely to drivers–the city actively misses out on potential tax revenue
Businesses are more profitable and housing is more desirable when areas are built for people rather than cars
30-40% of Wisconsinites are non-drivers
What is a parking minimum?
Cities across the U.S implemented “parking minimums” starting in the 1960s. Those minimums were arbitrarily selected (not based on sound research) and mandated a minimum number of parking spots for a variety of uses. In practice, this meant cities were requiring many homes and businesses to have excess parking for no real benefit.
Why does this matter? Parking spots are costly. Consider this example: if a city requires your restaurant to have 10 more spots than what’s needed for the human capacity of your space, that’s equivalent to at least $100,000 of additional capital you must raise.
Madison shouldn’t dictate wasteful parking spots, owners know how many they need.
In Madison
Parking- 17% of core
Parking score- 14/100
Measures how a city’s parking lot land use compares to other cities of a similar urbanized area population and city type. Calculated by taking the difference between Madison's parking percentage and the median parking percentage of the ten urbanized areas closest in population to the urbanized area of Madison. The difference was then converted into a number between 1-100.
A low parking score means the city devotes much less land in its central area to parking than the median. Conversely, a high score translates to more land dedicated to parking compared to the median for a city in an urbanized area of that size. This scoring system was created to evaluate cities on an equal basis and should not be used outside of this context.
Reform- Some
Population- 269,769
Urban area population- 450,305
Parking Reforms
Madison has no parking minimums in the “Central District”, this should be expanded to the entirety of the city
Simplify and streamline converting underutilized parking into more productive land use
Charge the market cost of parking
What should parking look like in Madison?
Parking can have two of the three following elements: low cost, high availability, and desirable locations. Cities would best serve prospective parkers by ensuring high availability and desirable locations by increasing costs. This functionally means drivers spend less time looking for parking or parking in far away places because they pay for the luxury to park their private vehicle in desirable locations.
The Parking Benefit District
Communities with ample parking taken by non-community members (e.g., Willy Street, Monroe Street) would benefit from Parking Benefit Districts (PBDs).
Residents living nearby can walk or bike, reducing their need for parking.
Converting "free parking" spots to market-rate parking generates revenue to improve the community.
Neighborhoods in Austin, TX, and Pittsburgh, PA, have PBDs generating over $200,000 annually, funding sidewalk expansions and additional night shift police patrols.
Cities too often subsidize drivers, leading to fewer homes, restaurants, shops, and businesses.
Prioritizing vehicle storage over human accessibility benefits only the driver.
Charging for desirable parking spots allows communities to invest in themselves and thrive.
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