Cohousing-L Mailing List: Reducing parking spaces

[Thomas Lofft (tlofft]

[Doug Hanvey hanvey [at] gmail.com  wrote:
Subject: [C-L]_ Reducing parking spaces
 
Our forming community would like to minimize the number of parking spaces per 
unit.  We've been thinking of ways to discourage on-site parking (we live in a 
bike-friendly town near a bus stop). One idea was to charge residents for the 
use of parking spaces. Does anyone have any experience with this, or 
suggestions for other unique ways of reducing/discouraging car use, and thus 
minimizing the need for parking spaces?
 
 Doug Hanvey, Bloomington Cohousing, Bloomington, Indiana]
 
I suggest that in every case of seeking cultural change, sweets will aways 
obtain better responses than sticks.
 
If your true objective is to reduce direct fuel consuming automotive travel, 
the community could make a mass purchase of all electric vehicles, thus 
diverting the fossil fuel consumption to an off site generating station.
 
If your true objective is to reduce all personal vehicle use, the community 
could acquire an all electric powered or pedal powered shuttle vehicle and 
provide scheduled or on-demand jitney service to reachable destinations.
 
If your true objective is to reduce/eliminate private vehicle ownership, 
contacting for 100% Flex Car services could be negotiated along with covenant 
amendments to prohibit personal ovned vehicles or impose cost restrictive 
penalties through premium pricing for parking sites. 
 
If your true objective is solely to reduce the number of parking spaces per 
unit, whether legal or not, just cover the asphalt areas with large, immovable 
potted plants in concrete boxes. 
 
After first considering what are your real objectives, and having discussed the 
social and economic merits of those objectives with all stakeholders, both 
inside and outside the community, alternatives to penalties are to provide 
attractive alternatives such as bringing into the community everything that 
residents used to travel outside to acquire; providing culturally acceptable 
personal travel alternatives, whether Flex-Car rentals or communally owned; 
providing group shuttles, whether rented or communally owned, powered vehicles 
or multi-seat pedicabs; or psychologically reducing/eliminating the demands of 
residents for anything outside the community.