Originally posted on Reddit.com
The Tradeoff
It’s an adage of parking advocates that parking can be “available, convenient, and free, but it can’t be all three.” Most of the time it may feel like it can’t even be two.
The search for available, convenient, and free parking in Long Beach has created more than a few unsafe conditions and has even led to death. In many parts of Long Beach, it is not uncommon to see cars double or even triple parking, and it is a well-known problem among those who live near schools that their streets are simply a no-go zone during certain hours of the morning and afternoon.
For many, the knee-jerk reaction is to throw their hands up, proclaim that Long Beach is full, and attempt to stop the construction of new housing on the basis that it will affect their ability to find free, convenient, and available on-street parking. And if not outright against the construction of new housing, they want to see the developers build huge garages that can store two cars for every resident plus extra for guests. This makes housing even expensive more when every parking space adds an additional $50,000 to the cost of construction.
So what can we do?
Manage the curb.
Long Beach already has a program that issues Preferential Parking Permits, which are intended to limit the number of vehicles parking on a given street. A household can receive up to 3 parking permits plus 1 guest permit, and each costs $35 per year. But for the majority of Long Beach addresses, we charge nothing except what we issue through parking citations.
Location, location, location
It’s a bit of puzzle that almost all of the areas eligible for Preferential Parking Permits are located outside of the “parking impacted areas” and are concentrated in high wealth neighborhoods near LBCC and CSULB. This means that even if you wanted to pay for a preferential parking permit, you’re likely not eligible as your neighborhood or street has not been deemed a preferential parking district. According to the Parking Citation department, the only way to get your neighborhood or street listed on the Preferential Parking District list is to petition the city’s Traffic Engineering division and hope that they agree that a parking permit system is needed.
Furthermore, almost of all of the preferential parking districts have been created in Districts 3, 4, and 5. No preferential parking districts that still have permit holders exist in Districts 1, 6, 7, 8, or 9. This means that in the districts where parking is the most inconvenient and least available, there is no mechanism to ensure that residents have parking priority, or that households with multiple vehicles are paying more for the space they use. The end result? Car congested chaos.
Big Money
Finally, parking permits are an opportunity to put money back into repairing the infrastructure that cars require and quickly destroy. Second Street may not be an ideal place to park, but the annual revenues of the Belmont Shore Parking Meter Fund nearly topped $1 million last year, and that money goes directly into improving the surrounding streetscape to make Second Street a nicer place to walk, shop, and dine. Imagine if we did the same for Cambodia Town.
Another idea for what we could do with the money gained from Preferential Parking Permit revenues is something similar to what has been done in Portland, OR: fund a transportation wallet. This allows residents to choose between obtaining a parking permit or getting discounted transit fare. Households that use fewer cars still get a benefit by receiving significant discounts on bus, bike share, or light rail.
In the end, free parking isn’t free. It costs people hours of time and energy and gasoline and stress that is simply not being priced, except when the price comes as a $70 ticket. If we manage the curb, we can reduce the amount of cars on the street, which means safer travel for everyone including drivers, less stress and worry that you’ll never be able to find a space, and freedom from the feeling that you cannot leave your house if you have a good spot.
Let your councilmember know that you think it’s time to have a preferential parking district on your street, and in the meantime, be car-lite.
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