An occasional update on items from Motordom – the world of auto dominance.
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DO TRAFFIC CONSULTANTS FUDGE THE NUMBERS?
Not so much, says this story from Washington, D.C. Which concludes:
“We rely too much on numbers, and we think the numbers are going to give us the secrets to the universe or something,” says Ricks. “What you want to do is change behavior. It’s not about the traffic study.”
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MORE EVIDENCE OF VANCOUVER’S ‘WAR ON THE CAR’
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Captured by Dianne Waggoner on a bicycle with an iPhone.
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And here’s more evidence, as reported in The Globe by Frances Bula:
Vancouver’s 1997 transportation plan capped downtown parking and banned new roads. Since then, the number of car trips and parking spots has gradually declined, even while the number of jobs and overall trips in the central city have increased. …
The trend is also showing up in the underground lots of commercial buildings, both in the downtown peninsula and the city’s second downtown along Broadway. The city’s transportation engineer, Jerry Dobrovolny, commissions a usage survey every two years.
“There’s a high vacancy rate in the majority of those buildings. And the studies show the vacancies are rising. At the peak – noon to 2 p.m. – some are only half full,” Mr. Dobrovolny says.
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NEW WORLD, NEW STANDARDS
Further to the story above, here’s what the new parking reality means in the post-motordom world:
Old builds
Building: 777 Hornby – a 20-storey tower built in 1969
Size: 138,585 square feet
Parking: 457 stalls
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New builds
Building: Credit Suisse tower, a proposed 30-storey building at 800 West Pender
Size: 320,000 square feet
Parking: 164 stalls planned
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I suspect that 777 Hornby contains parking for the adjacent Hotel Vancouver, in which case it would be a poor example for a case study.
For example, compare Park Place (built in the early 1980s) at 35 storeys and much much larger square footage than 777 Hornby (Net Rentable Area:of 587,956 sf)
– it has 540 underground parking spaces.
http://www.parkplace.ca/default.cfm?tID=21&propID=1058
Also, with respect to the Credit Suisse Building, factor in that the heritage Stock Exchange Building will be retained in its entirety, so the excavation of the site and the footprint for building underground parking on a cost-effective basis would be limited (those 164 spaces are spread over 7 levels of underground parking). The project summary quotes a “required” number of 202 (1 per 1500 sq ft), but only 164 are being provided (1 per 2000 sq ft)
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/rezoning/applications/475howe/documents/projectstats.pdf
Compare to another similarly sized office project (a bit farther from SkyTrain, so maybe less viable from a transit perspective) at Howe & Nelson which is proposing the maximum allowable 217 parking spaces (1 per 1200 sq ft).
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/rezoning/applications/960howe/documents/projectstats.pdf
For Telus Garden (office part only), the ratio is even worse – 1 per 1000 sq ft where the required number is 438 spaces, and 459 are being provided. http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/rezoning/applications/555robson/documents/statistics.pdf
The newest office project to be announced at 320 Granville (replacing an above ground parkade) has 4 levels of underground parking, but the site is small, and it doesn’t look to have many spaces (the number isn’t stated), but it’s directly across the street from Waterfront Station, so it shouldn’t need as many.
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/rezoning/applications/320granville/documents/projstats.pdf
Parking plans:
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/planning/rezoning/applications/320granville/documents/parking.pdf
I just realized:
Park Place: 1 per 1100 sq ft
Telus Garden: 1 per 1000 sq ft
This has been happening for a long time. I recall when I lived in a high rise on Nelson Street in the mid-90’s that easily half the stalls in the underground parkade were vacant. Most people either didn’t have a car, or chose to buy the then bargain priced $15 annual West End resident parking pass for on street parking, rather than pay the additional $25 per month in rent for a parking space. I never had to park my car more than a block from home the whole time. There must be hundreds of thousands of square feet of empty underground parking in the West End alone. What to do with it?
The West End street parking permit is still a bargin at $60/year. That’s $5/month. That’s practically free. (And yes, the garage in my last building in the west end was easily half empty at all times. And it only cost $30/month)
I have a friend who refused to park in his underground West End parking garage because there were far more break-ins down there than on the street.
Given all the greenest city ambitions, it is striking that the City of Vancouver still requires parking for downtown developments, which are well-served by transit. It’s great to hear that the requirements are coming down, but really, what justifies such interference with the market? The greenest city insisting on any more parking downtown is somewhat ironic…
What’s so striking? There will always be a minimum parking requirement, no matter how green the city wants to be. I mean really… 164 stalls for hundreds or even a thousand workers? That’s already very low. Even in Hong Kong with is insane densities and excellent transit requires large commercial buildings to have parking. Let’s be practical here, not everyone wants to or is able to take transit. You need to respect that, and that’s coming from a transit enthusiast here.
I don’t see anything wrong with building extra parking. Those buildings are going to be around for 100s of years and extra parking could be used for other purposes. If nothing else it could provide a basic shelter, storage, etc. If we want to discourage people from using the parking and driving it’s simple enough to increase the parking prices (which is already happening).