Tuesdays at APA: Parking Management Strategies to Support Livable Communities

April 22, 2014 As one of the largest single land uses in our municipal "footprints," parking deserves more attention than is typically bestowed upon it. Besides encouraging auto use, having an excessive supply of parking influences the character, form, function and flow of our communities. It makes walking and bicycling unpleasant and unsafe, it adds to flooding and pollution problems, and it makes housing more expensive. At the same time, parking is necessary to support a community's local businesses; finding the right balance between supply and demand — as an economist would — is the next step. In the Chicago area, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) has been working with several communities through its Local Technical Assistance program to understand the unique parking challenges and identify potential solutions. In this program Lindsay Bayley, from CMAP, discussed parking management strategies and presented the findings from two very different projects: downtown suburban Hinsdale, Illinois, and the Chicago neighborhood of Wicker Park/Bucktown.