Category: Parking

  • Car Use Versus Car Ownership

    On Tuesday, wearing my Planning and Sustainability Commissioner hat, I’m going to hear from neighbors concerned that the development of new apartment buildings without on-site parking is impacting livability in their neighborhoods. In fact, I think parking is the tip of the iceberg here. Portland’s growth strategy anticipates a lot of residential growth to occur…

  • Parklet How-to

    We reported recently on Portland’s venture into parklets (repurposed on-street parking spaces). Now researchers at UCLA have released a comprehensive how-to guide (PDF, 9M), covering everything from policy to permit fees to design types!

  • PBOT Getting Into Parklets?

    Looks like the City is rolling out a “Street Seats” program where you too can turn a parking space into a little bit of urbanism. Let’s hope the pilot program gets some traction. Congratulations to Rebecca Hamilton who pitched this idea as a student project in the Traffic and Transportation class in 2010!

  • Time to Rethink How We Zone Parking?

    Sarah Mirk has an interesting piece in this week’s Mercury in which she talks about the proposed parking plan for the Central Eastside (including some metering, which of course, everyone loves). But the fascinating part is the amount of parking that exists in the district. She documents 400+ parking lots with 14,000+ spaces. Only 8%…

  • Is Parking (or Avoiding it) the Killer App for car2go?

    Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of the car2go car-sharing system that debuted in Portland last week is one-way rentals. One-way trips imply a very different parking model than the incumbent Zipcar. Zipcars have reserved spaces (for which Zipcar pays the City – at least for those in on-street meter zones). You have to end each…