Parking Requirements at TOD Projects Remain Stubbornly Out of Sync

Transit Oriented Development projects around the country are still facing suburban-style parking requirements.

1 minute read

October 30, 2015, 11:00 AM PDT

By jwilliams @jwillia22


Skytrain Over Parking Lot, Surrey Central

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Reporting from the Rail-Volution Conference in Dallas, Brandon Formby of The Dallas Morning News looks at how parking requirements for projects around mass transit stations have failed to keep pace with actual needs. Formby cites a study led by University of Utah city planning professor Reid Ewing, which looked at actual parking needs and trip counts for a site in Seattle.

Ewing said the development spurred about 37 percent of the vehicle trips per day that the Institute of Transportation Engineers estimated would occur. He said the guidelines estimated that residential parking demand would require 441 spaces during peak periods. [Ewing] said only 278 spaces would satisfy actual demand.

As has been noted in other studies and articles, the end result of providing more parking than needed is an increase in costs for new housing units in TOD projects. "Those costs are, of course, passed on to renters and buyers — even those without vehicles," said Minneapolis land-use manager Jason Wittenberg.

Monday, October 26, 2015 in The Dallas Morning News

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

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