Presenters at ULTRA’s first Neighborhood Solutions Series—“Strategies to Reduce Parking and Traffic Problems”—provided excellent information and many concrete strategies.

Rebecca Kaplan of AC Transit began by framing the issues in terms of land use and resource allocation. A graphic illustrated what vastly greater space we would have if our cities were oriented toward pedestrian, bike and public-transit use, as opposed to automobiles. She reminded us that no parking is free; it is paid for by tax dollars, merchants, and landlords—and, more broadly, by the cost of wars for oil and adverse environmental and health effects of automobile pollution.

Ann Cheng of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition and Terri O’Connor, a transportation consultant to the Metropolitan Transit Commission, introduced us to “Transportation Demand Management”—a whole-systems approach to traffic reduction and parking that considers everything from parking supply and demand (where it is, whether it is shared, and pricing), to all of the ways people travel, why they go places, how long they stay, and how that changes throughout the day.  A dedicated city staff person is needed to oversee such a program.

Some TDM strategies include tweaking the price of parking to provide a 15% availability rate at all times, creating residential parking programs to protect parking on side streets, requiring shared parking in new developments (e.g., allowing residential parking spaces to be used by retail employees and customers during the day), and creating a “parking benefits district,” in which funds from metered parking and residential permits are earmarked for district improvements.

With so much information and so many strategies to consider, ULTRA plans to continue this discussion with our neighbors with the goal of drafting concrete recommendations for the city.