Driving and parking

On the way to the Bike to Work event at Freedom Plaza, I was thinking of a bunch of stuff around the idea of "epidemics."

I don't know if I am a fan of the idea that behavior to be addressed is best thought of in terms of public health, but it's still a useful way to go about things.

-- "Blocking the Transmission of Violence," from the New York Times magazine about reducing retaliatory violence-murders in Chicago;
-- Juneau, Alaska has cut electricity use in a matter of weeks by 30% due to massive price increases, see "A City Cooler and Dimmer, and, Oh, Proving a Point," from the New York Times
-- transit use is up and driving down, due to gasoline price increase
-- there is the discussion of obesity as an epidemic, because people tend to weigh comparable to their friends--if your friends weigh more, you do too... (NEJM -- The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years)
-- research on induced driving finds that from 15% to 25% of trips can be eliminated when the "cost of driving" due to reduction in capacity for whatever reason rises significantly.

So while riding I was thinking that a lot of this has to do with familiarity and comfortability and what is called reference group thinking. We tend to associate with people like us. We live in places where people are similar, etc.

More bicyclists, more walkers, more transit users, more people familiar with and comfortable riding buses will yield better transportation and mobility behaviors.

I was thinking about this too because of the Klingle Road controversy.

Rock Creek Park is supposed to be a park, but it's really a parkway, a highway amidst green stuff. Clearly, the community has managed to survive the closing of Klingle Road--it's been 16+ years that it has been closed, and it parallels Porter Street, which provides the road capacity needed by drivers.

But people want more road. And not for mobility purposes for non-cars, but for cars.

Given the extant capacity and demand is being met by the present road network, that Rock Creek Park is supposed to be a park, it's time to nibble back the epidemic of road use by automobile drivers...

Also, there is a new book by Tim Falconer, called Drive. A short piece from it was excerpted in the Toronto Star, featuring UCLA professor Donald Shoup, and his experience with promoting market-based parking solutions for Old Town Pasadena. Shoup attributes the revitalization success there to addressing parking issues not from the standpoint of building more parking, but for addressing the issue in meaningful ways. See "How the politics of parking can defile a city." From the article:

ONE OF HIS IDEAS was instrumental in that transformation. The city faced a common problem: Parking was free, but the few merchants who were still in business complained that it was inadequate. The people who worked in the stores took most of the spots, leaving customers to drive around searching for one – or just staying away. Meanwhile, the city had a vision of a revitalized downtown but no money to repair sidewalks, plant trees, increase security or take any of the other steps necessary to attract people.

Shoup recommended charging enough for parking to maintain an 85 per cent occupancy rate and using the money shoppers dropped in the meters to improve the neighbourhood. The revenue couldn't go into the city's general coffers; it had to be spent on the streets.

Once that happened, the business community started to invest, too – even sandblasting and renovating derelict buildings – and soon the shop owners, who had initially opposed meters, wanted to charge for parking until midnight. They wanted the money for the improvements, but they also discovered that their fears about scaring away customers were unfounded – anyone who really wanted to shop or eat in the area was willing to invest a few quarters.

As the area became more popular, the meters raised more money for more improvements, which increased the popularity. And so on. The city now collects one million dollars a year to pay for upkeep that includes sweeping the sidewalks nightly and steam-cleaning them twice a month.