Downtown parking braces for electric cars
$62M updates OK’D, but future needs unknown
Tens of millions of dollars have been committed to revitalizing and transforming the parking landscape in Downtown Memphis in the next few years. New spaces will be added, existing garages will get facelifts and expanded parking options will — officials hope — lure more people Downtown and to the riverfront.
But the world of transit is changing. Driverless cars are expected to proliferate in the coming years, and some experts predict people will be less likely to own their own vehicles and car-sharing or subscription car services will become more common.
Many of the world’s major car manufacturers have pledged to increase the number of electric vehicles they produce. Jaguar and General Motors have committed to going all-electric by 2025 and 2035, respectively. Sales of hybrid
“I think it’ll be interesting what happens in the next 10, 12, 15 years in terms of ownership of vehicles. I think things will change pretty drastically over time, but I think it’ll take a little bit of time. It’s not going to be tomorrow.”
Lev Parker
CEO of Carparts.com
and all-electric vehicles have increased steadily in the U.S. since 2000 when 9,400 hybrids — plug-in electric cars weren’t available until 2010 — were sold in the U.S. In 2019, 726,000 hybrid and electric vehicles were sold, according to the Bureau of Transportation.
Lev Parker, CEO of online auto parts retailer Carparts.com, said the shift to widespread adoption of electric vehicles will not happen overnight. But consumer sentiment about driving and what cars people want to drive will continue to evolve, he said. Car companies, and possibly cities, need to adapt.
“The average age of vehicles in the U.S. is 10-12 years. And there are about 289 million vehicles on the road today. So if you think about how many new cars are coming out every year... it’s going to take some time before the fleet gets electrified,” he said. “But we can’t wait until the fleet gets electrified and then start making the investments.”
Discussions about how alternative forms of transportation and electric vehicles have been cropping up in conversations about the future of Memphis for years. But what role, exactly, they’ll play and how they’ll be accommodated are still being determined.
‘More than just a garage’
The Downtown Memphis Commission has embarked on a $62 million Downtown parking overhaul that ties together five projects adding at least 825 parking spaces and up to 1,025, depending on the number of spaces at the future Brooks Museum location, which is still in planning. And the Downtown Mobility Authority could purchase the dilapidated 100 North Main skyscraper, which could be redeveloped into even more parking.
Four projects totaling $22 million will add more spaces and make aesthetic improvements at existing garages, improve pedestrian access to the riverfront and even add a small dog park at one garage.
But the crown jewel of the plans is a $40 million mobility center on the surface lot across Beale Street from the Orpheum Theatre slated to include 1,400 spaces, retail space, bike storage, lockers, showers and other amenities. Interim Downtown Memphis Commission CEO Ray Brown said in a meeting the mobility center is a transit hub and will “be more than just a garage” with spaces to park the omnipresent electric scooters, ride-sharing pickup and dropoff spots, and the existing trolley stop on Main Street.
DMC Vice President of Development Brett Roler said there weren’t plans to add charging stations to some of the smaller garage projects, though it could be something discussed in the future.
“We do plan on incorporating electric vehicle charging stations into the mobility center,” he said. “The exact number of locations is still being determined. We’re working with the architect to determine what the best practice is for the number of charging stations in a garage this size.”
Currently, said each Downtown Mobility Authority garage, aside from Frist Parking Place, has two electric vehicle stations, Roler said, but it is not clear how many total charging stations there are Downtown now.
The Downtown Mobility Authority, formerly the Downtown Parking Authority, has shifted its focus in the past year and a half to look beyond the needs of drivers and look more at alternative transportation, public transit and walkability.
Roler said the organization needed to look toward the future of transportation as parts of Downtown are developed and redeveloped, even if that future was distant. At the same time, the current needs of Downtown visitors, many of them drivers, have to be met and development can’t be frozen until Memphis’ transit patterns change, he said.
Future needs still unknown
According to Roler, a 2019 study commissioned by the DMC to assess the state of parking Downtown produced three main recommendations: better utilize existing parking, build new parking “sparingly and strategically” and add tools to promote more nonvehicular transit options.
The parking projects in progress address the first two, he said, and the mobility center gets at the third recommendation. But the DMC is still figuring out exactly what mobility options Downtown needs and will need, as redevelopment carries on.
However, sometimes parking is about more than just parking spaces, Roler said, using the example of the garage on Gayoso Avenue behind the Aldo’s on Main Street. Not long ago the lot was a hole in the ground.
While the garage was not the sole cause of future development, adding parking on the site fomented not only the opening of Aldo’s but contributed to the renovation of the Van Vleet Flats building with its 60 apartments and retail space.
“One garage helped four different buildings get built or renovated,” Roler said.
In a city as large and sprawling as Memphis, reliance on bikes, walking and public transit would be impractical for many and cars are likely to always be part of the landscape.
Developers seeking incentives from various DMC boards often address parking and connections to public transit in their applications. However, the applications sometimes indicate the inclusion of only a few electric charging stations, if any.
If the number of Memphians driving electric cars steadily increases in the next decade, it’s unclear if the existing parking and the parking options in the works will be able to meet their needs. And if self-driving cars and car-sharing or subscription services proliferate, it’s unclear how much parking cities will actually need.
‘Things will change pretty drastically’
One of the biggest barriers to that widespread adoption is a lack of charging infrastructure, according to a 2019 report from Drive Electric Tennessee. Those need to be in homes and apartment complexes, but also in public parking garages and in commercial areas.
“While the majority of EV charging can occur at home, it is important for Tennessee drivers to feel comfortable when they are going about their everyday personal and business lives in an EV, whether they are driving across Memphis or making the trip from Nashville to Knoxville,” according to the report.
That’s something the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation are trying to address. The agencies last month announced a $20 million plan to build rapid charging stations no more than 50 miles apart across all the state’s major interstates and highways, “making range anxiety in Tennessee a thing of the past,” even though the charging infrastructure is not desperately needed yet.
Drive Electric Tennessee — a collaboration between 30 public and private agencies and companies, including Memphis Light Gas & Water and TVA — found less than 0.1% of the cars in Tennessee were electric vehicles.
The group plans to push initiatives that will lead to more than 200,000 electric cars on Tennessee roadways by 2028.
“Despite today’s low (electric vehicle) penetration, Tennessee has the automotive foundation to become an EV leader,” the report stated.
The Nissan plant in Smyrna produces the electric Leaf and the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga is going to produce two types of electric cars.
“I think electric vehicles definitely will play a bigger role in the future. But I think it will take a little bit of time because I think the big manufacturers, the ones that can actually scale production, the ones that can produce millions of vehicles a year, they’re the ones that are kind of behind the times,” said Parker, the Carparts.com CEO.
Even as those companies expand their electric vehicle options, they’ll have to adapt to consumer changes. Parker used the example of his oldest child who is 12 and has no desire to learn how to drive once he turns 16 and has no interest in ever owning a car.
Rethinking how electric vehicles, and all vehicles, fit into communities could fall to both car manufacturers and city planners.
“I think it’ll be interesting what happens in the next 10, 12, 15 years in terms of ownership of vehicles,” he said. “I think things will change pretty drastically over time, but I think it’ll take a little bit of time. It’s not going to be tomorrow.”