A vision of parking and transportation

By ALAN ROOT

Published on December 07, 2007

Imagine a Parking Paradiso! Downtown Amherst with gobs of free parking spaces. No meters to feed. Parking for as long as you like! But still, perennial complainers would bristle about parking problems.

Actually, most local drivers are somewhat resigned to downtown Amherst parking.

The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission is now doing a study of downtown Amherst's parking spaces. Advanced snapshots of the research demonstrate the study's shortcomings. More than 300 of the 741 spaces surveyed require special permits and are not available to shoppers looking for a place to park. Several major parking facilities have been omitted, including the upper and lower levels of the Boltwood Walk Garage with its 188 spaces. Also seemingly missing is the parking lot used by the farmers market on Saturday mornings. The time span for study so far has covered just a few weekdays in a single season, hardly enough for public planning purposes.

Nevertheless, the initial PVPC study figures do point to wide differences in the use of public parking areas. Maximum use of all downtown parking spaces was 74 percent, while average utilization was 60 percent. And it has counted a lot of those under-used permit parking spaces that could be earning fees. Busiest half-hour was from 12:30 to 1 p.m. Predictably, the slowest half-hour was from 7 to 7:30 a.m.

The town's records of parking ticket violations are a somewhat reliable indicator of changes in overall downtown parking volume. For example, for fiscal year 2005, there were 27,769 bonafide parking tickets, for FY 2006 27,318 tickets, and for FY 2007 26,795 tickets. Overall, a slight year-to-year decline. The lack of any increase in violations suggests the possibility of a level use of our existing parking facilities. Interestingly, for FY 2007, the most tickets were listed in January (2,877) and May (2,772), the least in November (1,453) and April (1,475).

Before Amherst even contemplates spending several millions on new parking facilities, it really needs to carefully consider the following first:

1. Come up with some reliable parking statistics on an ongoing basis. For example, the collection of parking fees by parking location according to a consistent schedule will allow the calculation of usage statistics that will allow comparisons between the various parts of the downtown over the four seasons. All it takes is collection bags, labeled by area and maintaining a record of receipts by date.

2. Better distribution of short-term (30-minute) meters in busy storefront locations like North and South Pleasant streets. Mid-term (60-minute) meters at slightly less convenient locations. And finally, long-term (2 to 4 hour) meters on the outskirts of downtown.

3. To increase the supply of public parking spaces, convert some of the permit spaces to meters with special provisions for such spaces that may be located on residential streets where they need to be used by residents.

4. To allow public access to under-used private parking lots adjacent to downtown retail and business locations, public/private contracts may be appropriate. The town already leases parking spaces. An extension of this practice might provide reserved spaces and some income for property owners while the town would derive parking fees and fines, while maintaining these parking lots without any capital investment in new properties.

5. Amherst's Comprehensive Master Plan draft anticipates more intense development of the downtown through new development and redevelopment, with mixed use involving businesses at street level with residences above. Currently, there is no zoning obligation to provide on-site parking in the downtown. In other communities, downtown development and redevelopment requires payments into central business area parking funds that contribute to future parking facilities.

6. "Smart" meters are now being introduced elsewhere that automatically return to zero when a parked car pulls out of a space. In a new Amherst era that is now banning "meter feeders," these strategies are an easy way to generate more turnover of spaces and more revenue.

The future of parking downtown could take some unforeseen U-turns. We are on the cusp of the new era of Peak Oil, when consumption quickly outstrips any demonstrated capacity to pump and refine new petroleum sources. Yes, there is the possibility of refining plentiful oil shale, but not very easily nor inexpensively.

Gasoline at $8 to $10 a gallon with roadway asphalt in short supply just might change our attitude away from "Public transportation is wonderful for everyone else but me ..."

So now we hawk the possibilities of plentiful hydrogen. Might work so long as it doesn't generate much heat in the Arctic or Antarctic.

There's a new world out there  and the parking of cars could gradually diminish. What then?

How about more buses? How about more bicycles? How about more walking?

Then too, there are slogans for those of us who are Post-Petrol. Just try Googling "RELOCALIZATION." It's a cheer worthy of Amherst!

Alan Root is a member of the Comprehensive Planning Committee.