National event sparks new thoughts on parking
People typically weave through traffic in downtown Houston. On Friday, Laura Rocha was weaving next to traffic in downtown Houston, part of a midday rethink of how the city can open up more space for people if it reduces space for parked cars.
“This is the first time I’ve gotten to weave for work. I feel like I should have a loom on my desk,” Rocha, a project manager for Houston Public Works, said as she worked out a skipped step on a loom set up in a parking spot along Prairie near Main. “I could just weave a little when I’m stressed.”
Park(ing) Day, a global event among urban planners aimed at considering the space cities devote to automobiles and how that space could be reclaimed, typically involves taking streetside parking spots and converting them to other uses. At about a dozen popup spots on Friday, city staff and nonprofits offered yard games — cornhole, anyone? — free BCycle tests of electric bikes and parking rules trivia, but also conversation about alternative uses.
Adding a little charm took many forms. BARC, the city’s animal shelter, brought three puppies, eager for pets when they were not sleeping. Houston Public Works laid down some fake turf and built a work zone warning giant out of orange barrels and a painted face.
“Hopefully, it gets people thinking about some underutilized space,” Houston AtLarge Council Member Sallie Alcorn said.
Though scaled back from previous incarnations, the event drew city workers and urban design teams, who competed for the most elaborate pop-up fun.
Making the argument that the city can do without some parking spaces, Alcorn conceded, will be an uphill battle.
“Houstonians love driving,” she said. “It is going to be baby steps.”
The city manages about 10,000 paid parking spaces around Houston, with millions more controlled by private property owners. Estimates vary, but as of 2016, Houston was thought to have 30 parking spaces for each resident, or approximately 66 million spots to park an automobile.
Shaving a few hundred off in dense, bustling parts of the city could open more room for retail and recreation and potentially have little effect on visitors, said Margaret Wallace Brown, director of Houston’s planning department.
Right now, however, encouraging that is difficult because the city requires developers in most parts of town to put in a set number of spots for every 1,000 square feet of residential or retail space they build. Not putting the parking in requires a city variance.
“If we took the next step, where no parking is required in some places, I don’t think we would see much difference,” she said, noting there is so much parking already.
COVID also provides a chance to see how changes affect patterns. In a bid to help bars and restaurants struggling through the pandemic, the city is allowing establishments along a fourblock stretch of Main to occupy portions of the street next to the light rail line. While few watering holes have taken the city up on the offer, it also has not dramatically affected downtown traffic, officials and businesses said.
Meanwhile, biking has increased dramatically during the pandemic, with trail use along Buffalo Bayou up eight-fold by some counts on typical days compared to before the pandemic.
“It’s exploding,” said Kristina Ronneberg, policy and advocacy director for the nonprofit BikeHouston.
That increase, along with rapid expansion of the city’s bike sharing system operated by Houston BCycle and the addition of 125 e-bikes has supporters optimistic that conversations about culling parking spaces are possible in Houston.
Last year, City Council approved new planning ordinances that opened some areas up to development rules that favor pedestrianfriendly designs.
“We took the first step,” Wallace Brown said. “Now, we’re looking at where do we go now.”
Not everyone on Friday was immediately sold on the concept of pocket parks or radically reducing room for cars and trucks.
“So, where do we park?” asked Brittany Polk, 28, after stumbling upon the Park (ing) Day event during a lunchtime walk along Prairie.
With so much demand for driving, she said she was not convinced that reducing parking in many parts of Houston would be a success.
“I can see if it is a central area,” Polk said. “Here along Main, where you have a lot of bars. When someone is coming downtown, yeah, that’s what there is to do, go to bars.”