A parking space is approximately 160 square feet. So what can you fit in 100 square feet? How about a bedroom? A recent study showed that there are around 1.6 million parking spaces in both Seattle and Des Moines, which equates to 5 spaces per household in Seattle and 19.4 per household in Des Moines.  The amount of space required for parking adds up causing sprawl, traffic, and not helping the housing affordability crisis in cities. It is environmentally and financially sustainable to try to maximize parking capacity. There are a variety of strategies that a community or institution can implement to get the most out of their parking resources by spreading demand evenly across the system, promoting alternative modes of transportation, eliminating the perception of a lack of parking, and maximizing private parking capacity, including:

1. Shared parking agreements,
2. Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies,
3. Paid parking,
4. Parking policies, and
5. Parking technology.

1. Shared Parking Agreement

Shared parking agreements can be the most effective strategy to unlock underutilized private parking assets. A shared parking agreement can be between two private entities or between a municipality and a private entity. Many times, people look at the factors that make a shared parking agreement difficult to negotiate, such as who is responsible for insurance, indemnification, maintenance/operation, enforcement/security, etc. However, all these issues can typically be negotiated if there is enough incentive for both parties.

To support the sharing of parking between two private entities a community should allow shared parking agreements in order to receive a parking variance and help facilitate these agreements by providing sample shared parking agreements and information regarding potential complementary businesses with surplus parking.

2. TDM Strategies

TDM strategies help promote alternative modes of transportation and reduce parking demand. They include both infrastructure improvements and policy changes. Pedestrian improvements (e.g. lighting, sidewalks, landscaping, etc.), downtown transit/trolley circulators, on-demand transportation, and the implementation of bikeshare or escooter services promote a “park once” mentality. There are a variety of TDM strategies that can be applied by large employers, including: parking cash-out, transit subsidies, carshare programs, and improved pedestrian/bicycling infrastructure. A community could offer parking variances to employers or developments that implement TDM strategies as an incentive.

3. Paid Parking

Paid parking is the best strategy to help spread demand more evenly across the system and push people to park in the appropriate and less utilized areas. As most people in the parking industry know, demand-based pricing can be implemented to incentivize people to park off-street or in less convenient locations. Demand-based pricing spreads vehicles more evenly across the system to try and achieve that infamous 85^th percent occupied “sweet spot”.  Charing a greater on-street parking rate than off-street parking helps reduce traffic from people “cruising” around looking for that last on-street space.

4. Parking Policy

There are a variety of parking policies and services a community can implement to maximize the capacity of their public parking system, including:

• Limiting reserved parking areas,
• Oversell parking permits,
• Offer public parking in municipal parking facilities, and
• Offer centralized valet service.

5. Parking Technology

To determine the maximum oversell factor for parking permits it potentially requires the implementation of a parking counting system to effectively track utilization. A real-time parking counting and guidance system, parking availability mobile app, and good way-finding signage can also help eliminate the perception of a lack of parking, which is half the time the problem. Data analytics parking software is also a great tool to help maximize the parking rates and management of the parking system. If we want communities to be more environmentally-friendly and financially sustainable it is essential that we identify and implement strategies to maximize the capacity of our parking systems.