When engineers and urban planners hear about the plight of parking in the North Village, their response is nearly unanimous: nervous laughter.
“There’s no good solution. Nobody’s going to tear down a building and build a parking structure. The people who live there are not going to give up their cars,” said Genevieve Giuliano, a professor in the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development.
In the wake of a decision to enforce an apron parking ban, the parking situation may become even more dire. Apron parking, when a car is parked in a driveway just before the onset of the sidewalk, is an improvised method of claiming more spaces in which to park.
Donald Shoup, a UCLA urban planning professor and proponent of the ban, has proposed solutions for Westwood based on his theory of market-based meter prices.
His thinking goes as follows: If the city charges for parking at a price high enough to maintain a 15 percent vacancy rate, then congestion will ease and parking availability will be constant.
More students would be encouraged to leave their cars at home and use public transportation.
Two California cities ““ Pasadena and Redwood City ““ have already implemented this plan.
“The real message of Old Pasadena is that if you change market prices for curb parking and spend the revenue for public services, Westwood would flourish right away. … People would begin to see Westwood for what it used to be,” Shoup said.
In 1993, the city of Pasadena installed parking meters as part of its “Old Pasadena Streetscape and Alleyways Project.”
Contrary to the objections of business owners, who thought meters would deter pedestrians and reduce revenue, the project attracted more customers due to higher turnover, Shoup said.
Net parking revenue was allocated entirely to public improvement: sweeping and steam cleaning the sidewalks, adding more light fixtures, and hiring a couple extra police officers.
In Redwood City, the cost of the meters fluctuates with the market and can be updated instantaneously, and with all of the meters interconnected, a payment can be made to any meter regardless of the location of the parked car.
The tiered parking prices have been effective in keeping parking spaces available throughout the city, according to Dan Zack, coordinator for the Redwood City redevelopment division.
Though Redwood City has yet to see net revenue due to an early investment in an additional parking garage, results have been promising.
Zack said that for 700 spaces, downtown Redwood City has been processing up to 2200 transactions each day.
“Ultimately, once we start getting a surplus, within about a year, then that will be used to keep the streets at a really high level of cleanliness, and increase services,” Zack said.
North Village, however, is not an urban downtown area, and implementing Shoup’s tactics at reducing parking shortages runs a gamut of complications, according to Martin Bland, a Los Angeles city engineer.
Tiered market pricing strategies necessitate both on-street and off-street parking, Bland said.
There is no point to giving students an incentive not to park on congested streets if there is no alternative off-street parking available, he said.
The question, Bland said, is whether the city or the university can afford to acquire land for a parking garage, especially considering the exorbitant price of property in Westwood.
“Once you did the great management stuff, which is to raise the price of parking one way or another, are there options? What are the options, other than people either moving from that apartment building or giving up their cars?” Giuliano asked.
Political will might be elusive, considering students will be asked to pay for what has long been free.
Still, Shoup is hopeful that, as youth, student idealism will trump self-interest.
“I would normally be suspicious of somebody who wants to save the world but parks on the sidewalk,” he said.
With reports from Robert Faturechi, Bruin senior staff.