First Name | Mike |
---|---|
Last Name | Bullock |
Email Address | mike_bullock@earthlink.net |
Affiliation | SClub, MTS, SVBC,MoveSD, other |
Subject | Improved Car-Parking Strategies and Road Funding |
Comment | What you have now, on car parking is weak. Within your "Role of Local Governments" (Page 26), you state you will help develop tools and best practices for local government. On Page 48-49, you mention car parking; also on pages C-50, C-52 ("•Promote employee transit incentive programs, including, telework, carpooling, and parking cash-out policies."), and finally on Page C-78. Nowhere is the concept of "unbundling the cost of parking" presented. Cashout is mentioned but not defined. The state cashout law does more harm than good to this important concept. It needs a more general definition. I would like to help you strengthen your work with respect to car parking. The potential is huge. Cashout: See Charts 7 - 27 of my Power Point Charts. (http://moderntransit.org/sdc/Vista_8_7_08). They provide a more generalized form of Cashout. Please study the details. Our Industrial Parks need cashout to transform them to a form that is denser, more mixed use, and less dependant on driving. Intelligent Parking: This is where so-called "pay parking" is feasible, which should be almost everywhere if we are going to escape the human catastrophe of global warming. "Intelligent Parking" is where parking is fully shared, has its cost fully unbundled in all cases, is priced to guarantee vacancy, and uses good technology. It is detailed in my report, "Intelligent Parking", http://moderntransit.org/sdc/IntelligentParking6. As shown in the tables in both of these documents, giving people back their right to choose whether or not they want to pay for parking will greatly reduce driving. This has been fully documented. We can expect at least a 23% drop in driving whenever we unbundle the cost of car parking. This is the most cost-effective way to reduce driving. It is cheaper than free because it will result in less parking being needed and parking is expensive. I need your help. SANDAG is currently developing a "Smart Growth Design Guideline". I have submitted numerous written comments, talked to them on the phone, given a 90 minute presentation on parking, and gone to their public meetings where I spoke passionately about the need to have their "Guidelines" include good parking policies. I am failing to have any effect on their very outdated work. Their "Guidelines" are going to be 10 years old in their thinking about parking. Because they say "innovative TDM", they think they are doing a great job. Our state needs to develop a model off-street parking ordinance that implements "Intelligent Parking". The hardware and software needs to be perfected and implemented. San Francisco is getting close. Any team of programmers that help to put on races (Bay to Breakers, for example) could implement most of Intelligent Parking. Highway funding: Gas taxes are imprecise because they do not account for who is driving where and at what time. Gas taxes have no future anyway, since cars will get better and better mileage. We need PAYD road financing. All license-plate tags in 2010 should contain a RFID. Sensor/transmitters need to start collecting data for automatic billing. Roads should be priced so that they produce an agree-to rate of return on the VALUE of the lane. Note that I said value. Value is the price of land plus construction, at the time of collection. If this is done properly, the state should be able to sell off any or all of our lanes at a fair market, replacement cost. If needed, congestion pricing can be added in to ensure free flow at all times. This approach will have the additional advantage of allowing our state to reduce all taxes and balance its budget. Thank you for getting at least a little bit sane in the "Pricing" section of your document, http://www.catc.ca.gov/programs/rtp/Adopted_Addendum_2007_RTP_Guidelines.pdf. (Our Transportation Commission is light years ahead of SANDAG.) |
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Original File Name | |
Date and Time Comment Was Submitted | 2008-11-18 18:56:07 |
If you have any questions or comments please contact Clerk of the Board at (916) 322-5594.