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Recently, Joe put up a good entry about parking decks that caused a lot of discussion.

What has not been part of this discussion is what parking garages ought to do and how they ought to work. Let me be clear. I am not specifically talking about the Piedmont Park garage here, but about parking garages generally.

A good parking garage accomplishes 5 goals:

1. It lets cars enter the garage quickly and points them toward to most convenient open space
2. It lets cars out quickly and efficiently causing little traffic for either the street or those waiting to exit
3. It lets people exiting their cars get to their primary destinations easily and conveniently (it might even keep them dry)
4. It’s street friendly: Retail on the first level can make the garage a benefit for all members of the community rather than those just driving in.
5. The top level is useful. Wide flat spaces in the city are rare. Athletic Facilities or green space can make a real difference!

Let’s break these down…

1) is easy. Technology exists to keep track of which spaces are in use and which are open. A simple computer program runs in the best
garages to alert you to an open space.

2) is also easy. It just means having a number of exits and windows at the exits that are staffed so that when many people are leaving at a given time they can get out quickly.

3) Sounds easy but it’s tricky. Negotiating connections to buildings not owned by the lot owner often prove difficult and when a business owns a parking garage, they are often not supportive of the surrounding community. Sometimes, the fact that they build the parking garage demonstrates their insularity.

4) This is vital and can be mandated through zoning! When parking garages go up and there is not retail, pedestrians feel intimidated. However, when retail goes in, traffic goes up, people feel better, and you can charge more for the spaces. The garage just south of the main branch of the library has a Dunkin Donuts on the bottom floor! How perfect is that? You drive in.. you’re beat… you need a pick me up… bam!

5) This is perhaps the hardest thing to do in an inner city. However, when it works it’s great stuff. Most often you see this at universities. The top floor of a parking deck will be a basketball court or tennis courts. In town, this is a great use of space. Most people don’t want to park in the sun and there are few opportunities to put such amenities into a community. Most often, a track is added. There could always be more, but any consideration is appreciated.

The easiest way to make sure these elements are included in parking lot design is through the permitting process. If we are going to invite people to drive their cars into the city and if we are going to encourage people to build parking garages to house the drivers, we can give them incentive to make the garages effective and beneficial to everyone.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 21st, 2005 at 2:49 am and is filed under Stupid Development Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.