1. Improving Access to Transit through Innovative Parking Practices
Daniel Rowe
King County Metro Transit, Transportation Planner
Seattle, WA
King County is growing rapidly
Investing in service throughout the region and ridership is up. Park and rides are getting full and customers are frustrated.
Access to transit is a major concern for constituents but positions vary on the right solutions.
Strong political pressure to provide more parking, but the return on investment from building parking often doesn’t pencil
This presentation is about how Metro is working to improve access to parking by managing demand and increasing supply in a cost efficient way.

2. Presentation Overview
King County Growth Context and Long Range Plan
Park-and-ride Existing Conditions
Review of Strategies
Exciting new draft long range plan that sets the service and policy vision for Metro
Lots of data collection in 2015, show some highlights
Review of strategies and finish with some examples on projects underway

3. King County Metro Transit Context
One million more people and 850,000 more jobs will come to our region by 2040.
65% growth in Metro service, from 3.5 million service hours to 6 million hours by 2040.
6 – current, 20 new RapidRide lines around the county, that would arrive every 5 to 15 minutes or better all day—a total of 26 lines.
Focus on connections to Link. As Sound Transit extends Link, Metro service would get people to light rail stations.
Expanded travel options such as community shuttles, “right-now” ride-sharing apps, partnerships with companies like Lyft, Uber and Microtransit, and more innovations as new technologies and services emerge.
Double transit ridership
20 to 70% of people who live within walking distance of frequent transit
14 to 24% transit mode split growth
the future network would reduce vehicle miles traveled for King County by more than 8 million miles per day, which equates to an annual reduction of about 1.7 million metric tons of GHG emissions.

4. Parking in the Long Range Plan
3,800 stalls by 2040
$710M (YOE $)
What does the long range plan say about parking?
3,800 new stalls. No new stalls in dense areas of transit service, only in suburban and rural areas.
Almost 10k coming from ST (planned and proposed)
Equal parking investment compared to walk/bike.
$x in parking

5. Variety of ownership and funding 34% customer satisfaction
Existing Conditions
25k stalls in King County
Variety of ownership and funding
34% customer satisfaction
60% of lots are overcrowded
Lots of parking in KC, most in surrounding suburban communities
Variety of ownership and funding sources – which can make coordination challenging (more on that later)
Customers are unsatisfied, mostly those who are having trouble finding a spot a crowded facilities
60% of lots overcrowded, with
Some underutilized due to changes in service

6. Data Collection Needed
Before 2015, Metro did not really collect much information other than utilization data
Knowing that interest transit access was building, I set out to collect as much data as possible
License plate surveys for all lots in KC –
Median distance – 2.86 miles
52% drive 3 miles or less
3% drive less than a half mile
Average fill rates show that lots are filling early in the morning, with lots reaching 85% full by 8am.

7. Parking Management Study (2015)
Agency Interviews
Local Jurisdiction Actions
Near-term Actions
Evaluation of permits/pricing
Recommendations
A culmination of our data collection work last summer resulted in a parking management study where we:
Conducted peer agency interviews
Developed a list of local jurisdiction actions
Developed near term actions
Conducted an evaluation of a proposed permit program
And made recommendations for next steps
Great resource for staff to use in making the case to management for budget adds, policy change, and program development
Long Range plan
Focus on the near-term strategies, both supply and management

8. Expand Supply Supply Strategies
Study demand for future public expansion
Expand shared/leased lot program
Restripe existing lots
Expand/improve bike parking

9. Examples - Restriping
In our peer agency interviews, we found a lot of success in restriping.
The parking management study did some analysis and found that we might be able to gain 5-10% increase in parking by restriping
Engineers would simply follow the code
Worked with the City of Kent at this particular lot and requested a variance to reduce the stall widths which yielded a 10% increase in stalls

10. Multifamily Park-and-ride
Who will benefit?
Customers
MF building managers
Local cities
Transit agencies
Another example of expanding supply in a cost effective manner is using shared parking.
Many might be familiar with shared parking as a strategy to use during TOD development
We’re trying to tap into all the underutilized MF parking during the day, parking that is overbuilt and vacated from commuters leaving the lot.
Grant from FHWA to support this program
Developed a business model last year and found 70K stalls available within 1/10 mile from frequent transit that serves paid parking destinations
After applying a 50 space threshold, we still found 50k stalls
hiring a parking management firm, recruit properties
10 buildings, 500 stalls goal for our pilot which we plan to launch early next year

11. Management Strategies
Manage Supply
Market underutilized lots
Permit parking
Security and enforcement
First/last mile solutions
Simple economics would show we have a major imbalance between supply and demand which would warrant a pricing response
Pricing parking has been floated many times over the years, mostly in recession eras, for revenue generating purposes
Major management strategy proposed by our sister agency, ST

12. Permit Parking Program
Goal: Help users find parking quickly and reliably
Benefits:
Increased transit ridership
Improved customer satisfaction
Reduced crush-loads
Reduced local congestion
Increased non-auto access
Social equity
Goal would be to increase HOV use of parking, reduce non-compliant parking, and reduce crush loads

13. Program Details
Program Design Details:
HOV permits, free to customers
SOV permits, priced
Low income discounts
Permit parking reserved until 9:30 AM
Permits first-come, first-served
Renewed monthly or quarterly

14. Permit Program Evaluation
Developed evaluation framework that calculated diversion rates of customers in response to a permit program
Estimated those that would apply for permits and made assumptions for their mode changes
Estimated diversion rates for those without permits, some displaced to different lots, some changed modes
Fun exercise to map this out.

15. Results
Scenario 3 – low price
Permits - $30/month SOV; $5/month HOV)
2,149 net new riders | $2.1M annual revenue
High utilization of parking maintained
Scenario 4 – high price
HOV Permits and Daily - $6/day or $5/month HOV)
603 net new riders | $5.7M annual revenue
Vacant spaces available for mid day use (0-30%)

16. Collect data to help make your case
Summary
Collect data to help make your case
Maximize efficiency of what you have before you build more
Look to private partners to expand supply
Work with local jurisdictions

17. APTA Standards Document: Parking 101
Thank You!
Daniel Rowe
Reference:
APTA Standards Document: Parking 101