Originally Posted by Wiswell
Originally Posted by nathank
(unfortunately at present most companies in the US are REQUIRED to build a certain number of parking spots when then build a building - horrible subsudy for cars that raises the cost of business for non-auto users!)
This is not true. I work downtown, and most entities downtown do not have parking specific to their office, or if they do, it is only for the priviledged. Instead workers must make do with whatever is available, either privately-run lots, or public lots, both with fees.
hi Wiswell,
i am not an expert in land-use laws as they vary GREATLY across the US, and for DOWNTOWN areas you are probably correct. But MANY (and i think MOST) non-downtown (i.e. suburban) areas have building-codes that require estimated parking requirements to be met if a new building is built or a structure is improved/expanded (new permit). This is because if there is not sufficient parking for the employees and clients, then people will park on the street in the local community (i.e. take resident/local FREE city parking). In other words, the community requires the company to pay for the estimated parking costs that the consutruction will incur. in some ways this is good because the community should not paying for the parking costs of the business. BUT as the company is usually REQUIRED to built x number of spots based on formulas estimating their parking requirements (number of employees, square footage or whatever) the parking costs ARE REQUIRED and HIDDEN. Thus, a company has less financial incentive to encourage bicycle commuting because if they do, they still have to build and maintain the parking spots, just now they stand empty! There must be some kind of potential to REDUCE this number if the company commits to fewer drivers (i.e. the company states that only 60% of their employees/customers will arrive by car so they can built 40% less parking BUT are then required to implement a policy to make sure less than 60% drive - through car-pooling, transit or cycling incentives)
as i said, the business parking requirements vary and is generally not true in downtown areas where employees often have to pay for parking. i personally have NEVER seen employee pay parking in non-downtown locations - the parking is always FREE and more than sufficient (i.e. 7 parking lots and 2 full, 3 half full and 2 virtually empty)
i'm not sure of the current status or the exact details, but around year 2000 the city of Portland had an effort to RAISE the downtown parking costs to encourage more people to take transit (by "raise" i mean they tried to get rid of many subsidies provided by the city to give cheaper parking as this money was not well-used as it encouraged more drivers)
but my point is that there are many LAWS, POLICIES and RULES in place that ASSUME car commuting and these COST MONEY! we need to examine these for way to save money and encourage more efficient transportation.