Parking Reform for Affordability

Part of the Whatcom Housing Week 2023 collection

Discuss how reformed parking policies could support affordability, efficient transportation, and compact development.

This workshop will explore why and how Bellingham can reform parking policies to support community goals including affordability, efficient transportation, and compact development.

Every time somebody purchases an automobile they expect governments and businesses to provide off-street parking for their use. These facilities are expansive and environmentally harmful. Although in North America most parking is unpriced, it is never really free; the choice is between paying for parking directly, through user fees, or indirectly through higher taxes (for government parking), higher rents (for residential parking), lower wages (for employee parking) and higher prices for other goods (for parking at commercial destinations). Paying indirectly is inefficient and unfair because it increases traffic problems, and forces people who drive less than average to subsidize parking facilities of people who drive more than average. Since vehicle travel increases with incomes, this tends to be regressive.

As a result, many communities are reforming their parking policies to more efficiently manage parking so fewer spaces are needed to serve motorists' demands. The potential savings are huge. For example, in areas with high land values, each parking space costs $20,000 to $60,000, adding 10-20% to the costs of building lower-priced housing. Experience in many cities demonstrates that these costs can be reduced significantly through better policies.

This presentation will identify a menu of possible parking policy reforms, and discussion of why and how they can be implemented in a particular community.

This event features Todd Litman, the founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transport problems. His work helps expand the range of impacts and options considered in transportation decision-making, improve evaluation methods, and make specialized technical concepts accessible to a larger audience. His research is used worldwide in transport planning and policy analysis.

His presentation will be based on the following publication:

• Todd Litman (2017), "Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing Affordability," Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org); at www.vtpi.org/park-hou.pdf.
• Todd Litman (2020), "Parking Management: Comprehensive Implementation Guide," Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org); at www.vtpi.org/park_man_comp.pdf.
• Todd Litman (2023), "Comprehensive Parking Supply, Cost and Pricing Analysis," Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org); at www.vtpi.org/pscp.pdf.

This Bellingham Parking Policy Discussion is hosted by the Whatcom Housing Alliance as a part of Whatcom Housing Week.