Improving Parking

The Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) has come out with an excellent report on parking policies across the US. Parking minimums have created nightmarish car-centric landscapes out of many of our suburban areas. Newton has been spared the worst of excesses, but could improve. A lot. Let's try to redesign Newton with the idea that parking should be part of a transportation strategy that helps more people arrive at and use our downtown areas. Here are the report's recommendations (if you want the whole report as a .pdf, click on "report," above):

1. Eliminate minimum parking requirements and encourage developers to ‘unbundle’ parking.
2. Coordinate on- and off-street parking management and charging.
3. Charge a price for on-street parking to ensure performance standards, including occupancy rates, are met.
4. Create parking benefit districts where the revenue is returned to the community.
5. Use parking technologies that offer customers and policy makers the maximum flexibility.
6. Reclaim street space from car parking for other needed public uses such as bike sharing, cycling lanes, widened sidewalks or shared spaces.
7. Design parking facilities that are well integrated with surrounding buildings and walking environments.
8. Incorporate parking policies into metropolitan transportation plans.
9. Include innovative parking management in statewide livability initiatives, congestion management, air pollution control strategies, climate action plans and innovative financing programs.
10. Promote parking and commuter programs that expand travel choices for employees and customers.