• There is illegal parking activity throughout Oakland, both by non-residents using RPP areas for long-term parking and by users parking on the sidewalks.
• There are concerns about the lack of available parking and limited space for loading, deliveries, or pick-up/drop-offs. Community members have shared concerns about trucks and/or private vehicles frequently blocking bike lanes, drive lanes, and illegally occupying loading zones, including on the Fifth/Forbes Ave commercial corridor, O’Hara Street, and North Oakland streets such as Bayard St.

Purpose and Goals

• Parking is a key piece of the transportation puzzle and can be managed to meet specific community needs[i]:
  • Balance competing needs (transit, customers, residents, shared vehicles)
  • Move people and goods efficiently
  • Support business district vitality
  • Create livable neighborhoods
• Freeing up more on-street parking would reduce the incentive for private vehicle users to illegally occupy loading zones, bus zones, or bike lanes for parking or stopping.
• Performance based parking can meet goals by using a mix of widely accepted parking practices, such as smart meters (innovative parking meters that offer a range of payment modes and can manage fees and track parking patterns) and alternative payment options, and cutting-edge techniques like real-time parking availability information and demand-based pricing.

What should be considered:

• Implement and manage ways to pay (e.g., pay stations, pay by phone).[ii]
• Follow the Manage On-Street Parking Strategy recommendation to convert all RPP zones to hybrid zones to help manage parking congestion and payment in residential neighborhoods for visitors.[iii]
• Demand based pricing
  • Build on existing differential parking pricing in Oakland. For example, Central Oakland street parking is more expensive today than other areas.
  • In commercial areas, charge lower parking rates in off-peak periods and low-demand locations and higher rates at peak times and high-demand locations.[iv]
  • Dynamic pricing matches parking prices to demand on a real-time basis[v]In the SFpark program pilot areas, rates are adjusted on a block-by block basis, using occupancy data from parking sensors installed in most on-street parking spaces in the pilot areas.
• Commercial streets
  • Remove some metered parking on commercial streets to provide pick-up/drop-off zones for mobile app ride-hail vehicles and designated delivery zones
  • Meter all on-street parking along commercial corridors, with RPP hybrid zones on the residential side streets
  • Adjust the cost to park on metered streets to match demand by time of day and day of the week
    • The cost should be adjusted every three to six months to match changes in demand
• Automated parking enforcement options[vi]
• Use demand-based parking pricing on all metered commercial blocks to manage occupancy and ensure that most drivers can typically find a parking space quickly.
  • Seattle DOT uses a range of 70-85% occupancy[vii]
  • SFpark on-street meter rates are adjusted on a per-block basis with the goal of maintaining no more than 80% occupancy on any given block. The SFMTA target of 60 to 80% occupancy refers to the average parking occupancy as measured continuously over a period (typically three hours of continuous data rather than one or two snapshots in time as in most manual surveys of parking occupancy). The 60-80% target range for average parking occupancy is used to ensure the 85% threshold is rarely exceeded during the three-hour period so that most drivers can typically find a parking space quickly. For SFpark, rates for parking meters change gradually and periodically based on demand. Changes to the rates are made no more often than once per month.
• Establish a Parking Enhancement District (PED) similar to Carson Street in Oakland. PED revenue would fund enforcement of RPP hybrid zones where there is an overlap but could also provide funds to support circulator shuttles that are available to residents and address nuisance issues such as trash.
• Coordinate with the Manage On-Street Parking Strategy in residential areas

What success looks like:

• On-street parking rates and hours of operation based on data to achieve a goal of 1 to 2 spaces available per block[viii]
• Review parking utilization data and tickets issued over a series of three months in different parking zones throughout Oakland to track performance-based parking successes and challenges
  • Create an evaluation system to quantify data and statistics about enforcement, pricing, permit types and quantities, parking occupancy levels, etc.
• Reduce time to find an available parking space[ix]
  • Increase parking availability
  • Provide parking availability information in real time
  • Improve parking regulatory signage
• Reduce congestion and pollution, improve safety, and encourage the use of other modes
  • Reduce double parking
  • Reduce circling for parking
  • Encourage travel by other modes
  • Improve operations of commercial loading zones
• Develop parking management solutions through effective asset-lite approach
  • Test different parking occupancy detection solutions
  • Explore effectiveness of using parking data from various sources (such as occupancy data from parking sensors installed in on-street parking spaces) to provide accurate real-time availability information and inform pricing algorithms with fewer deployed assets

What pitfalls should be avoided:

• Parking reductions can be flashpoints in transit and multimodal projects but can be mitigated by addressing and discussing parking on an area-wide level.
  • Acknowledge how people having to walk or roll farther to get to parking can affect people who are already doing this as well as those who will be disparately impacted by greater distances such as young children, seniors, or people with disabilities
  • Identify multimodal improvements that can be implemented in conjunction with parking adjustments to make it easier to access parking
  • Explore how parking reductions can contribute to the connectivity of the whole multimodal network rather than a focus on connecting to the parking supply
  • Contextualize parking options by explaining it as the total number of spaces within a short walk of the street in question—a few blocks, 1000 feet, or a 5-minute walk[x]
• Key spaces can be reserved for those who need nearby parking or loading zones, like people with disabilities[xi]
• Coordination and cooperation with multiple City agencies is key to installing, operating, and maintaining a performance parking program, especially when curbside regulations, enforcement, and adjudication are handled by different agencies

Potential for multiple benefits:

• Strategies for benefiting multimodal users can be intertwined with those for balancing curbside parking demand and supply[xii]
  • Connection to and support of multimodal options
  • Parking Enhancement District revenue would fund enforcement of RPP zones where there is an overlap but could also provide funds to support circulator shuttles that are available to residents and address nuisance issues such as trash
  • The revenue from metered parking in commercial areas could fund multimodal benefits and transportation management strategies such as the neighborway program to implement traffic calming measures and sidewalk reconstruction on key connectors
  • Removing parking to restore curbside spaces dedicated to bus service where appropriate
• Managing a destination area’s parking supply, such as areas in Central Oakland near Fifth and Forbes, can support current transit and multimodal growth and investment[xiii]

Potential partnerships:

• Partner with business districts and residential areas through a Community Access and Parking Program[xiv]
  • Work with community members and residents to identify on-street parking challenges and opportunities, develop parking recommendations, and implement parking management changes
• Coordinate with Carnegie Mellon University and their transportation research institute, Traffic21, to supplement performance-based parking research and program execution in Oakland
• Initiating partnerships with major employers and small businesses in the neighborhood can be an effective strategy and can include encouraging employers to offer commute benefits for non-single occupancy vehicle commutes, provide transit subsidies, and organize carpool/vanpool systems. Please see the TDM Strategy for more information

[i] Seattle Department of Transportation (2019). Curbside Management Team Annual Report 2019. Retrieved from http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/ParkingProgram/CurbsideManagementTeam_2019AnnualReport.pdf

[ii] Seattle Department of Transportation (2019). Curbside Management Team Annual Report 2019. Retrieved from http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/ParkingProgram/CurbsideManagementTeam_2019AnnualReport.pdf

[iii] Seattle Department of Transportation (2019). Curbside Management Team Annual Report 2019. Retrieved from http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/ParkingProgram/CurbsideManagementTeam_2019AnnualReport.pdf

[iv] NACTO (2017). NACTO Appeal Curbside Management. Retrieved from https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NACTO-Curb-Appeal-Curbside-Management.pdf

[v] NACTO (2017). NACTO Appeal Curbside Management. Retrieved from https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NACTO-Curb-Appeal-Curbside-Management.pdf

[vi] NACTO (2017). NACTO Appeal Curbside Management. Retrieved from https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NACTO-Curb-Appeal-Curbside-Management.pdf

[vii] Seattle Department of Transportation (2019). Curbside Management Team Annual Report 2019. Retrieved from http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/ParkingProgram/CurbsideManagementTeam_2019AnnualReport.pdf

[viii] Seattle Department of Transportation (2019). Curbside Management Team Annual Report 2019. Retrieved from http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/ParkingProgram/CurbsideManagementTeam_2019AnnualReport.pdf

[ix] ParkDC (2019). Penn Quarter/Chinatown Parking Pricing Pilot. Retrieved from https://ddot.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ddot/page_content/attachments/parkDC%20-%20Executive%20Summary_Final_20190109.pdf

[x] NACTO (2017). NACTO Appeal Curbside Management. Retrieved from https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NACTO-Curb-Appeal-Curbside-Management.pdf

[xi] NACTO (2017). NACTO Appeal Curbside Management. Retrieved from https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NACTO-Curb-Appeal-Curbside-Management.pdf

[xii] ParkDC (2019). Penn Quarter/Chinatown Parking Pricing Pilot. Retrieved from https://ddot.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ddot/page_content/attachments/parkDC%20-%20Executive%20Summary_Final_20190109.pdf

[xiii] NACTO (2017). NACTO Appeal Curbside Management. Retrieved from https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NACTO-Curb-Appeal-Curbside-Management.pdf

[xiv] Seattle Department of Transportation (2019). Curbside Management Team Annual Report 2019. Retrieved from http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/ParkingProgram/CurbsideManagementTeam_2019AnnualReport.pdf

When to start: 0-2 years

Duration: Ongoing

Estimated costs: $$-$$$ (out of $$$$)

Project lead(s): Pittsburgh Parking Authority

Project partner(s): DOMI, OTMA, PAAC, OBID, OPDC, Traffic21, institutions

Potential funding source(s): Grants