Parking study: Downtown Albany average
ALBANY — Lots of people like to complain that parts of downtown Albany feel like one big parking lot — especially the area around the bus station.
But when it comes to parking lots, Albany is just, well, average.
A new study by the Parking Reform Network found that 29 percent of downtown Albany’s real estate is made up of parking lots — which is about average for the 100 largest metro areas in the United States.
That gave Albany a parking score of 50, which is also about average, according to the Parking Reform Network.
The Parking Reform Network is a nonprofit research and policy organization that supports public transportation and believes that addressing parking issues can help with everything from climate change, economic development and, especially, better housing.
“Over the past century, cities have increasingly relied on cars for transportation, leading to the implementation of minimum parking requirements mandating that all new developments have abundant free parking,” the Parking Reform Network wrote. “As a result, our cities became covered in a sea of parking spaces, parking lots and parking structures. With all this parking, little land was left for anything else, making housing more expensive, less dense and farther apart.”
So which are the best cities when it comes to parking in urban cores — meaning which cities have the least amount of parking lots?
New York City is No. 1, followed by San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Less than 1 percent of New York City’s land is devoted to parking lots.
The worst cities? Well, 49 percent of land in the city of San Bernardino, Calif., is devoted to parking — nearly half. The second worst city is San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The good thing is that Albany has parking reform measures in place, according to the Parking Reform Network. That includes not requiring offstreet parking for any commercial lot that is less than 5,000 square feet or any property lo
cated within the mixed-use downtown zoning district.
Thomas Carpenito, project manager for the Parking Reform Network, said while Albany’s score of 50 may be average, the city is better than others in some ways.
“The score (of 50) however doesn’t include public transit ridership, which is much greater in Albany and comparable to much larger cities like Pittsburgh,” Capenito said, but “Albany’s investments in public transportation are not being utilized in its downtown. Revitalizing the downtown core starts with implementing progressive parking reforms that enhance accessibility and encourage growth.”