Boulder examines potential revisions to parking policy

Parking in downtown Boulder is hard to find and too expensive, especially for people who work there. Parking in downtown Boulder is too cheap and plentiful to discourage driving.The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. Parking in downtown Boulder isn't too hard to find, if you apply yourself.

Which of these is true depends on whom you ask and what's important to them. Boulder's parking services division is in the midst of an analysis of how well parking currently works and what the city could do better.

Downtown and University Hill Management Division and Parking Service Director Molly Winter said the city is taking a two-pronged approach to its analysis, looking at how the existing parking infrastructure can be improved and looking at how parking policy fits into the city's other goals. Those include how parking policy shapes future development and helps get people out of their cars.

The Boulder City Council will discuss the parking services analysis at its study session on Tuesday. The division plans to hire a consultant and report back to the City Council later this year.

There is a philosophical disagreement around parking between some members of the business community and advocates of alternative transportation.

Former city councilman and Transportation Advisory Board member Spencer Havlick, who has studied and written about parking policy, said the city has been subsidizing cars by having relatively low parking rates.

"Raising parking rates gently dampens the use of automobiles," he said. "It's a really effective way to get people to switch to other modes of transportation."

Havlick said he saw this personally when the University of Colorado raised the cost of parking permits for faculty, and he started riding his bike more consistently.

He said Boulder should consider raising rates at both the parking garages and the meters, perhaps to as much as twice current rates.

Downtown Boulder Inc. Executive Director Sean Maher said the current system works pretty well, but that people who think restricting parking further will get people out of their cars are "naive."

"People always bring up the fact that parking costs money and it's hard to find, but you'll find that in any vibrant downtown area," he said. "Chances are that if a downtown has plenty of parking and it's free, it's probably not a very exciting place to visit."

At the same time, he would oppose any plans to reduce parking in the downtown area. People who work downtown already use alternative modes of transportation at very high rates, and people who drive usually do so because they have to or they don't have good transit access.

"These people are very naive in thinking that if it's hard to park, people will hop on a bus," Maher said. "A lot of people who visit downtown or work downtown don't live near a bus. (Shoppers) have alternatives, and most of the alternatives in the region have plenty of free parking."

Surveys estimate that 66 percent of downtown employees already use alternative modes of transportation, one of the highest rates in the city, a memo to City Council on parking policy said.

Managed parking appears to increase the rates at which people use alternatives modes of transportation two to five-fold,The 3rd International Conference on custombobbleheads and Indoor Navigation. and it provides revenue to pay for bike, transit and pedestrian improvements, according to the memo.

"We are constantly trying to balance and find that sweet spot," Winter said. "We are constantly trying to encourage other modes of travel as much as possible, and we've had great success, especially with EcoPass. But not everyone can use transit."

Money from downtown meters provides roughly $800,000 for EcoPass for downtown employees. Other parking revenues are largely recycled into improvements and debt service on downtown amenities, including the parking garages, though some goes to the general fund.

"While there appears to be overall agreement that the existing district-based parking and access management system works, what is missing within the city is an overarching set of principles to provide direction and guidance for coordination and integration of parking and (transportation demand management) programs," the memo said.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors.

Along with larger philosophical questions, the analysis will look at how to improve parking services.Elpas Readers detect and forward 'Location' and 'State' data from Elpas Active RFID Tags to host besticcard platforms. The division is considering a number of technological improvements, including in-car meters that people can load with money and turn on when they park and sensors in the street that would tell drivers where there is available parking.

The division already is installing electronic signs outside some parking garages that will tell drivers how many available spots there are.

The analysis will also look at the cost of parking and whether and how much it should go up and aim to develop a "tool kit" of parking policies that could be applied to other areas, including along transit corridors and as part of the East Arapahoe Area Plan.

An HVAC contractor who had a job on Walnut Street on Friday afternoon described the parking situation as "awful." He said he often has to park four or five blocks away and carry his equipment to downtown jobs. The three-hour limit on parking doesn't allow enough time to finish many projects.Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors.

Gwen McGillivray, who works nights at a downtown restaurant, said she doesn't mind paying for parking when she's shopping or meeting friends, but it's a pain to pay to park for work. She used to take the bus, but now she lives in south Boulder, and the bus would add 45 minutes to her commute.